My wife and I are seasoned travelers. Covered the US and have been on many Viking cruises. we just booked our first Rick Steves' tour. We are going to Village Italy.
Curious as to what to expect. Just interested in getting a feel for their tours.
All comments are greatly appreciated.
Can’t comment on that exact tour but I’ll comment on what I experienced on 2 other RS Tours.
( Florence and Istanbul )
25 people at most on the tours, extremely knowledgeable tour leaders, good food, good transport, pleasant accommodations. Liked having free time as well.
Wear good shoes. Expect cobblestones. Stay hydrated. Double check if you’ll still need coins for toilets.
Coffee is an art so forget the swill of Starbucks.
Also learn about cicchetti bars.
EDIT 1: typed to fast was supposed read 25 not 15 people. Corrected it
I’ve done this tour and it is awesome. Many retake it!
I do recommend you arrive to Padua at least the day before your tour start. I did not as this was early in my tour “career”, 😉. There is a lot to see here that is not covered with the tour.
Have you been to Venice? If not I’d plan to spend a few days there ahead of time.
Seeing some of the smaller but interesting locations was such fun.
No need to plan dressy clothes. I do recommend you pack as lightly as possible. I can’t remember if we had hotels where the bus had to park a distance away except one and that location is not being used.
There could be as many as 28 of you, but that's still a smaller group than you'd find with many other companies. It's a good idea to get there several days ahead, to get over jet lag and see nearby places that won't be on the tour -- most notably Venice in this case, if it appeals to you. Padua is also worth more time than you'll have on the tour itself. Try to stay in the same hotel the tour is using so you won't have to move. (You'll check out and pay your own bill the day the tour starts, then RS will cover the remaining nights.) You may want to stay in Modena or nearby after the tour as well.
Though I haven't done Village Italy, I've done three other RS tours, in Italy, Spain, and Ireland, and thoroughly enjoyed them -- guides, food, fellow travelers, overall pace, mix of structured and free time, the whole package. The two Road Scholar tours I did, though good, involved more "hand holding," more group dinners, and less free time. I hope you enjoy yours, and more to come.
Here's a recent report on the RS Villages of Italy tour - https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours/travel-tips-village-italy-tour
Here's a search from the last year on the forum, lots more info here. https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&date_range=2y&filter=Travel+Forum&query=Tour+Village+Italy&utf8=%E2%9C%93
Hope you have a fabulous time!
I did this tour last year, late October, early November; it was the last tour of 2025. We stayed our last night at Lake Orta, but the tour has been changed for 2026, and it now ends in Modena. We were very lucky with the weather too, and had beautiful blue skies and perfect temperatures.
We had 24 people on tour, mostly couples, but 4 of us were solo female travelers.
I loved the tour, our guide was fantastic, it was a really nice group of people, and we saw a lot of things that were new to me, and a couple of repeats, but I had no trouble finding new things to see and do.
My favorite stop was Volterra, but I think we only went there due to a convention in Lucca. I had been to Lucca for a week in 2018, so not going there was ok for me, but Lucca is a great town too.
Be prepared to handle your own luggage, so pack light. We had 2 opportunities for laundry, so that worked out for me to pack less. You will need to get up and down some hilly areas, cobblestones, and uneven surfaces, but that's part of the charm of Italian Villages.
Bring comfortable walking shoes, no need to pack for anything fancy, we all wore our day clothes for our dinners out. Maybe a pair of black pants, a collared shirt or blouse, and a scarf would be nice to have.
The rooms and hotels are comfortable; a couple of the places, the rooms were a little on the small side, but the hotels always had great breakfasts. If you enjoy coffee in your room early in the morning before breakfast, bring a thermal coffee cup and get some coffee the night before, somewhere, the hotels didn't have coffee makers or kettles, but most of them had little fridges.
Be prepared to pack up and move every couple of days, and I believe we had at least one stay that was only one night.
If you haven't been to Venice I would suggest you go there first for a couple of nights and then take the train from Venice to Padua for the start of the tour. You will also need to make your own way back to wherever you fly into/out of on your own after Modena. I would stay a couple of extra nights and go to Bologna for some great food.
I flew into Venice and out of Milan on a Delta multi-city flight route.
The food, wine, and scenery on this tour are spectacular! The bus is comfortable, and there is ample room for everyone; they don't jam you into a vehicle just big enough for everyone, which I really appreciated. The group meals are fixed menus with a couple of different choices; a vegetarian dish is also available.
I've been on tours with 7 different tour companies, and I think that the Rick Steves' way of travel is the best of the bunch. You get enough free time to see some places on your own and eat at a restaurant of your choice, so do some research before going and know some things/places you would want to do on your free time. The full day in Cinque Terre was a "vacation day from our vacation", so we all had the entire day to do whatever we wanted. We were given train tickets to travel between the villages, so that worked out great, or you can opt to do some hiking.
Have a great trip!
Hi, the tour alum scrapbooks are a great way to see how others spent their tour and free time. Within each year, scroll down to see the Village Italy scrapbooks. Enjoy!
https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/scrapbooks/tour-alum-scrapbooks
Village Italy was my first and still one of the top 3 of the 9 Rick tours I've taken. Having taken a Viking Cruise I can state the tours are very different. However, Rick taught me to travel through his guide books and I was uncomfortable on the Viking Cruise I took. I like more free time, small groups, not eating with the group at all meals and more hands on tour guiding. Pack light & bring good, comfortable walking shoes as others have stated. Don't expect the luxurious surroundings of a Viking tour, but you won't be expected to leave such high tips at the end of the trip as on a Viking tour. What is important to me is the friendly folks I meet on every Rick tour I take. I was solo on Viking and in the minority not a couple. The couples were not friendly to solos and the 5 or 6 of us were expected to sit together every meal. Luckily you won't encounter this.
I have not been on a RS tour, but when you're constantly changing hotels(unlike a river cruise), packing cubes are your friend.
I've only been on one RS tour as I had spent a few decades as an independent traveler (doing all my research via RS books and media). When we started that tour, I was worried that I had made a wrong choice .
I'd have to practically live with strangers and go at the pace of a group tour? Ride on a bus? Group meals with forced social interaction? What had I done??!!
Well, it was fantastic. So good that I'm taking a second, longer tour this year.
I appreciated the excellent local guides and realized that I learned so much more through them than I would have on my own. The little surprise extras were great (private opera for example). Our fellow travelers were a good group. The amount of "on your own time" was perfect to not feel like I was chained to the group and could still do research (which I like to do) so that I could see things on my own. The way they orient you in each area so that you have a head start on that "on your own time" was perfect. The numbers in the group made it feel manageable and plenty of room on the bus. No questionable "tours" of places to buy things. While I do not have other tour companies to compare it to (I did one month long Contiki tour 35 years ago but I don't count that), I feel that it was an exceptional experience at a great price & good value.
We've done 2 RS tours, back to back Heart of Ireland and Heart of Scotland (~7 days each). A few thoughts, trying not repeat too much of what's been said:
RS apparently used to "require" that you bring carry-on luggage only.
I don't know if they ever really enforced it, but now you're just
strongly urged to stick to carry-on. But as long as you can schlep it
yourself (possibly up several flights of stairs in a hotel without an
elevator), you can bring it. Plenty of room under the bus. My husband
and I shared one medium checked bag in addition to our carry-ons,
nobody cared.
RS supposedly pays their tour leaders a decent salary and you are not
expected to tip them AT ALL. They also handle tipping the drivers and
local guides, so the only tips you'll need to pay are when you're on
your own (e.g., non-included meals, taxis).
Which leads me to -- you handle your own airport (or other)
transfers.
You will receive a RS guidebook (and possibly an addendum, if the
places on your tour aren't covered in the guidebook) as part of your
tour kit you get free. Either bring the whole book with you, or tear
out the parts for where you're going, because the tour leader may or
may not hand out info on restaurants and sights for your free time,
deeming that you already have that info in the book.
Have fun!
One of the Village Italy scrapbooks is mine as that was our last tour last October. Echoing the pack light thing, but know that you have to handle your own luggage and there may be times when the wait for the elevator or the lack makes you wish you suitcase was smaller! No one cares if you are wearing the same clothes, as long as you are not funky smelling! LOL We had a full 28 on the tour, but you will get to know everyone depending on the group. We are still in touch with several members via WhatsApp and I recommend you set that up before you go in case the guide uses it to facilitate communication- like member photos or maps of where you are heading. Not all guides are using it yet, but easier to have it and not use it than wish you had it. Our tour ended in Orta, so can't speak to Modena - but yes to all who said to arrive a day or two before - we spent 3 night in Venice and wished we had done one extra in Padua. It is a great tour.
What was the appeal of the RS tour and signing up?
Travel light. Know how to get to the hotel and back to the airport. RS does not offer transfers. Be ready to roll with whatever comes your way. Unlike a cruise, you will be actually be in a place to see the sights and have free time to enjoy the local culture. Be prepared to walk. Not a fashion show here, but dress accordingly.
Having done both, I much prefer the RS tours to Viking cruises. We've done 2 now and have booked Village Italy for next year because we really love the experiences Rick provides for us. You spend enough time in each place to really get a sense of them. They give an excellent blend of scheduled time and time on your own. He provides buses big enough to allow people to spread out and ensures that you never spend more than a couple of hours on a bus without a break. And the breaks are often activities, not just rest stops. For example, driving from Galway to Wesport on the Best of Ireland tour, our break at the midpoint of the drive was to go to a falconry experience where we got to have a hawk swoop down and land on our arm for treats. The hotels he chooses are never chains, and each one is in an area where you can walk around and experience the place. And the tour leaders and local guides are uniformly great. Here's how good these tours are: For the Ireland one we just took, it being our 2nd RS tour made us the newbies - most people had several under their belts. And for one woman it was her 22nd RS tour!
Village Italy was my first RS tour about 15 years ago so the itinerary is somewhat different now, but there is a reason it is one of the most popular tours. I too spent two or three days in Venice before taking the train to Padua. We received very clear instructions for walking or bussing ( tramming) tour hotel but I decided to just take a taxi. I enjoyed Padua a lovely old university town. When we were there the students were just celebrating completion of their oral exams by declaiming scurrilous verses…probably as well we couldn’t understand them! It gave the city a good vibe and everyone was enjoying themselves. An extra day would have been nice. We got into see the amazing anatomy lecture room built in the 1500’s.
The coach was comfortable and our wonderful driver accompanied throughout the tour and quickly became part of the group. The coaches have toilets but we were asked not to use them except in an emergency; luckily the tours are set up with regular breaks, usually every two hours. I, and a couple of others, had histories of car sickness, and we talked to the tour manager who made sure seats were always available in the front half of the bus for us. The drivers on all the RS tours have always had refrigerated water - we’d just note when we took a bottle and paid up at the end. We always stocked up on water at our breaks. Heavy luggage went under the bus and if we wanted to, we left our day bags on the bus at stops. The driver always stayed with the bus. The bus was air conditioned, almost too cold sometimes.
We just returned from a Viking river cruise, so the differences are fresh in my mind. On the river cruise, in many cases we were bussing past or walking by museums or other attractions on the provided group excursions, unless we'd purchased a separate in- depth tour. Viking gives you a sampler platter of towns/cities where you get a glimpse of the place, and some history for a few hours. A Rick Steves tour generally has you digging into each location via museums, churches, and other local sights with the RS tour guide as well as local guides. RS hotels are right downtown whereas you often have a walk or bus ride from the Viking boat to town. We felt like both the Viking and RS local guides were very good. Food on Viking is top notch, and fancier than RS included meals. You need to be more self sufficient on RS tours. We've taken several RS tours, vs just the one Viking cruise, and likely RS will be the next tour.
