Just signed up our third RS tour - we did Athens and Best of Greece in 2007 and Best of Italy last year, which covered Venice and Lake Como, .
Village Italy starts at Padua (Padova) and ends at Lake Orta.
Any suggestion for the pre or post tour destinations? We figured it is worthwhile to extend to a 3 weeks trip all together.
As you'll have about an extra week, Florence and/or Siena are worth considering. They're within reasonable travel distance of Padua or Milan, so either pre-tour or post-tour would work. Closer to Padua, Verona and Vicenza are worth a couple of days. The Village Italy tour actually started in Verona when I took it, but the itinerary has changed quite a bit since 2002.
