Notes from the Village Italy tour

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Looks like you can only buy pasta to take home but you can order it cooked. Yum.

Montefalco:

Very nice Villa style hotel. Great breakfast.

Enoteca L'Alchimista
https://maps.app.goo.gl/nftnECsSx8qAGbU37
We had a great meal here. They put us in the Wine Cellar as we had 8 people. Definitely try the local Montefalco Sagrantino wine, also the Montefalco Rosso, both great. Suggest a reservation, book it 15 to 20 minutes after sunset as our guide turned us loose in town after we watched the sunset.

Orvieto:

The Grand Italia Hotel has a nice 3rd floor terrace that worked very well for us for an afternoon picnic on the second day. Your tour may align with market day (square nearby) or if not local shops and groceries can provide ample supplies. When you arrive check with the front desk to make sure the terrace isn't booked and to arrange to have glasses brought up. We had about half of the group show up but I wish we had done a bit more pre planning to get more there. Bring the wine you purchased at the wine tasting.

Claudio AlVicolo
https://maps.app.goo.gl/fWYCwTRmC8bVYosG7
We had a very good Pizza at this place near the hotel on the first night there.

Antico Bucchero
https://maps.app.goo.gl/6KoENALUv5rX3gR37
We had another nice dinner for 8 here on the second night. We sat inside but they also have very pretty outside seating. Their Wild Boar Stew was excellent! Their house red wine was also very good.

Trattoria la Palomba
https://maps.app.goo.gl/AoBkQcTGkMbVtPNy5
The place we wish we could have gotten into. Looked great, Michelin starred, RS reco'd, make reservations if you want to go. (second night)

Pozzo di San Patrizio
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Y28DefEbw4EpRPxu8
A very cool old well you can walk down into. A bit of a hike to get there and back from the hotel area and takes effort to walk down and up. I enjoyed the medieval engineering, Not on Tour.

We also did the Orvieto Underground tour which was cool to see. Lots of tunnels for mining and pigeons all over the city.

Tuscany:

Very nice hotel, excellent breakfast, bring your bathing suit for the pool/hot tub. If they offer a wine tasting there, do it. Very informative on Chianti wines. Wines not excellent imo but still very nice.

Siena:

Siena Cathedral
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Hma9NudnL4PJm5Fs5
Not to be missed. Exceptional artwork including Micheangelo and Bernini (find these sculptures, most miss them). RS Audio gives a Cathedral tour as part the Siena City walk, also in the RS book. The Museum, Baptistry and Crypt were nice also. If you opt for the ticket that includes all you also get to go up to the viewpoint in the part of the expanded church that was never finished. Crazy climb, good test of knees and hips, excellent city views.

Lucca:

DO rent bikes and lap the city walls, super fun!

Piazza dell'Anfiteatro
https://maps.app.goo.gl/zie1NsmzLtfEjphm9
Beautiful piazza in what used to be a roman amphitheater, unique. Sit anywhere and have an aperitivo/spritz.

Osteria Baralla
https://maps.app.goo.gl/52RnsEYquLpaQpZv7
We had an excellent meal here the first night upon the reco of our bus driver. Sit inside. Go when it opens or reserve. Old brick vaulted ceiling, very beautiful inside, felt very local. Pasta was exceptional.

Sottosotto
https://maps.app.goo.gl/MLkPYf3qJbQNj8tL7
Our best meal of the trip, just amazing. Everything we had (across 6 people) was excellent. I had the best gnocchi I have ever had. Do not miss dessert! Make reservations

Modena:

Balsamic Vinegar stop on the way in was very cool. There is a very old church (Duomo di Modena) there worth visiting. Easy taxis to the train station for connections.

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Vasinikò
https://maps.app.goo.gl/UgGtoqYESxsTBHmx6
Had an excellent pizza here.

Museum Ferrari Maranello
https://maps.app.goo.gl/d8LJA1B7qigURg7MA
Went here with friends on the day the tour ended. We took a taxi out and back. Hotel can arrange the pickup to go there. The Ferrari desk had phone numbers of local taxis to get back. This museum (there is one in Modena also) is the more F1 focused although from my POV it wasn't all that F1 focused. Still a very nice museum with beautiful cars, race cars, etc. If you go it would be wise to plan to arrive at Maranello when they open to have an uncrowded experience in the museum.

Enjoy your trip, it was one of our most memorable.

I love all your food and drink recommendations! You travel like we do. Bookmarking for future eating excursions! Thank you for your work compiling all this.

Did you go to Levanto/Cinque Terre? I don't see it mentioned here.

Thank you for this! We are going next May, so I will definitely check these out!

We did go to Levanto and the Cinque Terre. Unfortunately we were there on Labor Day, May 1 and as predicted it was a total mob scene. Almost everyone in our group opted to stay out of the C.T. on our free day. We did a nice level hike to Bonassola and had a nice lunch there next to the beach.
Based upon this experience, I'm going to keep a lookout for large national holidays in relation to tour dates for future travels. In Italy, Liberation Day, April 25th is also one to try to avoid.

Sorry to hear that you had that huge crowd in CT. I did the last tour of 2025; it was end of October to early November and the weather was fabulous! We didn't get to do the boat ride in CT, since it had stopped for the season, but there were no crowds and 3 of us did the hike from Levanto to Monterosso al Mare. It was a wonderful experience, but sometimes you just get lucky with the weather, which was our tour's good luck. We had amazing weather for the entire trip.

We also stayed in Volterra instead of Lucca; there was a convention in Lucca. I really enjoyed Volterra.