Village italy

My experience has been that the tour guide will accommodate anyone that cannot/does not drink wine/alcohol. If wine is included in this tour (which I believe is the case), the guide will make sure non-drinkers will have something else to drink.

There were several people on our Village Italy tour who did not drink alcohol, and were always accommodated. I don’t remember ever having seen any “mocktails,” though.

I’m not much of a drinker and did just fine on the Village Italy trip. I don’t really remember what I drank instead of wine - I’m more into food LOL! As others have said, the tour guide and restaurants are quite accommodating. I certainly wouldn’t pass up this fabulous trip just because I couldn’t drink alcohol.

I am not particularly physically fit, but managed the activity level on this trip without a problem. There’s no way around climbing some hills in an area full of hill towns! But some days involved no climbing - for instance, Padua. There were a couple climbs that were optional.

I did the Eastern France tour in October and it is very wine intensive, several tastings and vineyard tours etc. I have an AFIB issue that means I’m greatly reduced on wine or other alcohol consumption. But I went to and enjoyed everything and after a few sips, I switched to water that was always available. Soft drinks were always available too. Nobody really noticed one way or another. It’s very doable and didn’t change my enjoyment of the tour.

I’m doing VI in April as well and will approach it the same way.

Is he okay being around quite a bit of wine without drinking it? One of our tour members said he didn't drink, but he did whenever his wife wasn't looking. He snuck into the restaurant at the truffle place (while the rest of us were watching the dog) and downed most of a bottle. A few of us went in early and found him hiding the glass and moving the bottle. He unknowingly became the entertainment at all the gatherings that had free wine.

Civita di Bagnoregio was a big walk up, but I don't think they go they anymore. We chose to hike at Cinque Terre, but that was optional. The toughest walk for me was in Orvieto pulling our luggage from the elevator across town (and that wasn't bad).

We just did this tour last Sep/Oct and my husband no longer drinks and I now limit my alcohol intake because of meds. We had one wine tasting as part of this tour and it was done with our lunch. Yes, wine was offered with our group meals but no one looks down on you if you don’t drink it. Bottles of flat and sparkling water are also offered and I usually ask for a slice of lime for the sparkling water. I have never placed a whole lot of importance on alcohol, a glass of good wine is nice occasionally with dinner, so limiting my intake does not diminish my enjoyment of a tour or hinder my love to travel but I guess that’s a personal preference on what’s important to you. This tour does include hill top towns so yes, there are a few streets to walk up and down but nothing horribly strenuous.

I was on this tour in May and found the activity level to be moderate — pretty much as described. There was a lot of wine included pretty much daily (at all the group dinners and happy hours on other days, as well as at the lunch following the cooking demonstration). Plus at the winery lunch. Much more wine included than in the other two RS tours I’ve been on. There was always water (plain and sparkling) but not any other options. In our group one person didn’t drink alcohol at all and myself and one other person were more occasional drinkers. It was never uncomfortable not to drink along with everyone else, but we drank a lot of water. It would have been nice to have had some other options. Maybe if you alert the guide on the first day they can arrange for other beverages on occasion?