I wasn't prepared to commit to this tour as of yet because I wanted to wait until we completed our Best of London tour this October...however, the right days presented themselves. I've been keeping my eye on this particular tour almost daily. Today when I looked it was listed as "filling fast".......oh no! So it's official! We'll be joining others on the May 5-18 Village Italy tour in 2018. Gosh, hopefully we will. I will have to wait until I get the official confirmation!
Posted by
Sapulpa, OK, USA
6526 posts
Woo-hoo! Kathy, this is a wonderful tour. You are in for a treat.
A word of warning, since you have plenty of prep time: the hills are steep. Doable, but a couple folks on our recent VI tour complained that they had been misled about the activity level.
It's a great tour. Happy planning! Oh, and the Best of London is a treat, as well. (No hills!)
Posted by
New England
698 posts
How exciting--congrats! (and good eye on the dates)
Posted by
Imperial, Missouri
1002 posts
Yay, Kathy!! Two trips to plan for at once. That's exciting!
Posted by
OP
St. Louis MO
737 posts
it all happened so fast.....one day I'm eagerly awaiting our London trip......and now I have 2 trips to keep my mind busy.
Great heads up on the fitness, Jane. I will totally get busy. I've been waiting, procrastinating, really on fitness. I need a kick in the butt. I just saw my sister mention on facebook that she was at the gym. Maybe it's time for me and hubby to join her! On our 21 day BOE tour only me, hubby, and another tourmate did the trek between Monterosso and Vernazza. It was a little challenging but not impossible. My goal is to do the tough hiking without breaking a sweat. Hm......mid may-Italy-no sweat?
Posted by
California
770 posts
I find that planning for an upcoming trip is my best motivation to get in shape! I start walking around my neighborhood and slowly start increasing the distance all the way up to my trip date. Happy travels!
Posted by
Florida
610 posts
Sounds like a great tour! Congratulations!
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
14725 posts
Knowing you all had a great time on the 21 BOE, I KNOW you will enjoy VI. Congrats on signing up!
Posted by
TX, USA
529 posts
Fantastic! I am sure you will enjoy this tour!! The best of London is a terrific tour, too. Enjoy your upcoming trip.
Posted by
Morrison, CO, USA
893 posts
Village Italy was our first RS tour and we have since done 6 more. If we hadn't enjoyed the sights, activities and the guides and local guides we would not have returned for more trips. I agree that some days on Village Italy will be more activity than doing London, but believe me it's doable. I did walk a treadmill a lot before that first trip and realized I should have been doing that my whole life.
We have made friends on the RS trips, kept in touch and travelled more RS tours with some of them.
If you have a question about your confirmation, call the tour office. I have always found them very helpful.
Have a Great Trip! Two of them!
And please post reviews.
Mimi
Posted by
OP
St. Louis MO
737 posts
I know it's been previously mentioned in other posts but the longer tours definitely give you more time to bond with other tourmates. And the bus time helps in my opinion too. Our first tour was the 21 day tour and we're still friends with several of those guys too. Our second tour was last fall, Best of Munich, Salzburg, and Vienna.....and we're still friends with a couple of those folks, too. That tour was only 8 days/7 nights but that is still time to bond! It's what you put into it. We always tried to change things up and sit with different folks for meals.
It also helps to keep people together after the tour if your group sets up a private facebook group. I did this for our first tour. It's a good way to keep in touch and share photos, etc. The guides can't do this for you, you have to take the initiative to do it yourselves. I took the list of tour participants that is emailed to you right before your tour and brought it with me to Europe. Then passed it around on the bus towards the end of our tour. It was optional. Some people just wanted to share emails, some shared mailing addresses. I set the facebook group up when we had WiFi then gave people my facebook name where they could request me as a friend if they wanted...no pressure!
Posted by
Sapulpa, OK, USA
6526 posts
On our 21 day BOE tour only me, hubby, and another tourmate did the
trek between Monterosso and Vernazza. It was a little challenging but
not impossible.
Kathy, if you did that stretch of the Cinque Terre trail, you'll be fine. We also found that trek challenging, but doable. Don't particularly want to do it again...
Posted by
Northern Minnesota
773 posts
We just booked this tour, also! We tried to get friends to join us for the tour in September of 2018, but no one was able to commit so far in advance, so we decided to go on our own, (sooner than later):) After seeing your post, we thought we better sign up fast!
Posted by
Berkeley CA
1321 posts
I took this tour in 2003 (can it be that long ago!) and it is still one of my favorites. (Well, they are all my favorites ...)
The itinerary is a bit different, but it still looks terrific.
And I, too, am still in touch with several other tour members.
Congrats on your quick action signing up. You'll have a wonderful time!
Posted by
Northern Minnesota
773 posts
We got a call that there was only 1 seat available for the May 5th tour, so we are now booked for May 14th:)
Posted by
OP
St. Louis MO
737 posts
We got a call that there was only 1 seat available for the May 5th tour, so we are now booked for May 14th:)
Oh no! I guess you tried signing up for the May 5th tour? And there's only one spot left? And hubby won't let you go alone, I guess? I didn't get a call so I'm hoping we did get in on the May 5th tour. The other's wont work with our work schedules. Your tour will end on my birthday.....if it had worked out with our schedules I would have prefered that one! I know the last time we were in the Cinque Terre in early May the water was too cold to go for a dip! We did get our feet wet, though!
Posted by
San Francisco area
1888 posts
It's a great tour and you're going to have great fun.
In case you haven't already seen it, Jane wrote up a wonderful trip report.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours/tour-report-village-italy
Posted by
OP
St. Louis MO
737 posts
Yes, thank you Rocket. We knew Village Italy was going to be our 2018 trip and reading Jane's report just sealed the deal to do it in the spring versus the fall. I love travel during both seasons but something about seeing Italy in bloom in the spring......to think we would have missed the Azaleas on the Spanish Steps if we had traveled later in the year.....
Posted by
Northern Minnesota
773 posts
Yes, Kathy, I signed up this morning for the May 5th tour. I immediately got an email that said they had received our request and that there were less than 5 seats available. Within 30 minutes I had a call that there was not room for both of us. We thought about it for the next hour or so, and decided we could make the May 14th tour work for us:) With that great trip report that was written recently, I think this tour will be even more popular!
Posted by
Tallahassee, FL
177 posts
Kathy I think you will be ready because if I remember correctly you and Steve climbed the Domo and bell tower in Florence (the same day). So happy for you going on this trip, it is on our list but have our spring trip booked (Best of Ireland) and going to do a complete solo trip in the fall to Germany.
Posted by
OP
St. Louis MO
737 posts
We did, Carole......but boy was my face red once we got to the top.....
I'm sure the only reason we climbed both of those in Florence is because we did it one after the other and didn't give our bodies time to realize how sore we were going to be the next day :)