Italy Anyone?

[ShotoJuku]

[COLOR="Navy"]I am looking for info from anyone who has traveled/toured Italy.

Although my Wife and I will not be celebrating our 30th Wedding Anniversary for another 1 1/2 years, I am doing booking research from now and am looking for any good info on what tour company's to use (or avoid).[/COLOR]


[SIZE="3"]Grazie Tanto!![/SIZE]

[ryoder]

I haven't been but I am watching the Jersey Shore and they are in Italy so I'll keep an eye out for you

[ShotoJuku]

No Jersey Whore for me thank you very much! :ack:

[marianne202]

Shoto, I lived in Northern Italy for 3 years and just returned this summer for my son's 18th birthday, he was born there, and his HS graduation present. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have and give you some ideas. Feel free to PM me. We actually visiting Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria on our trip this summer and we all agreed that Italy and Germany were our favs. We have always stayed mainly from Pisa north. I can give you some ideas for some off the beaten path fun things to do. One thing we loved was the living chess game in Marostica. It is a re-enactment of a chess game played with real people to settle who, between the two suitors, would marry the king's daughter. It is only held every even year, but is amazing to watch. Between the pagentry, history and the fact that the middle of castle courtyard is an actual huge stone chess board. The knights all ride real horses! If you thought the Harry Potter wizards chess was fun, this will blow your mind. Anyway, it is a great destination. PM me and I will be glad to answer any questions you have.

[Lyanne]

I see marianne is very knowledgeable, but we went to Italy in 2006. I can tell you that we used Perillo Tours based out of NJ. I used them because we were kinda scared to be in a foreign country and because I had been watching them advertise since I was born.
We did the 8 day Rome tour. We also added 3 days in Siena before the tour. The Perillo tour itself was very good, hotel was Cicerone, away from touristy Rome but a short walk across the bridge by St Peter's to the touristy part. Although I did jot down the name Hotel Genio as a preferred place to stay WHEN (not if) we go back. It is very very close to Piazza Navonna. But I haven't been in a "camera" (room) so I can't say if it's a nice place. Being on a tour has advantages such as skipping the lines at St Peter's and Coloseum, but overall we felt that we would have been just fine on our own.
I bought the Learning Language Series of CD's from a bookstore and kind of learned Italian before we went. As I struggled to speak Italian, the Italians always answered me in English, which threw me off as I was trying to translate English into English. @@
Read lots of Rick Steves guides before you go, it helps with manners etc. (Tipping, always greeting storeowners as if you have walked into their home. Ex: always say hello and goodbye, compliment the merchandise) But he gets a little ridiculous with some of his tips.
We landed in Rome and all by ourselves got a train to Tuscany and Siena where we blew our budget and stayed for 3 glorious wonderful days at Villa Scacciapensieri. Bruce the concierge is from Scotland and he is absolutely wonderful. Read about the hotel on tripadvisor. From there we took a train to Florence and saw the Accademia (but skipped the Ufizzi), and other things the city had to offer. Go online and reserve a time at the Accademia and Ufizzi, you can walk past the lines of people waiting to get in.
Digression to talk about college: A year after our trip my husband and I took an art class for our Fine Arts requirement. In our art textbook was Bruneschelli's gold doors. We had ignorantly walked by these and without pausing said to each other "cool doors" and continued on our way. ::lapping forehead::: So my advice, study for the Art of the Western World CLEP if you haven't already. Half the textbook is there. :-)
Especially in Siena, or maybe all of Tuscany, you can't find food between 2pm and 7pm. Plan accordingly so as not to die of hunger. In Rome this isn't a big deal.
You only asked about tour companies, but I get a little carried away talking about Italy. :-) We just loved it. When we came back, we woke up an hour early for a while just so we could have an Italian breakfast and linger like they do. Meals are SO relaxing.

[marianne202]

Some great points! You don't want to plan your trip for August, as that is when most of Europe goes on vacation, so a lot of businesses are closed and the traffic is crazy, worse than usual. Most businesses and restaurants close for reposso between 2-5PM or 2-7PM. Sunday's most everything is closed, so you will need to be resourceful for food. Even most hotel restaurants are closed on Sunday. When you book your vacation you need to make sure you ask hotels if they have air conditioning and private baths. Most don't have air conditioning and shared baths are very, very common. Unless you are very friendly and don't mind sharing a bathroom with strangers ask before you book! We chose to stay outside of the tourist areas because it is less congested, less crime and less expensive. I highly recommend that you do your money exchange before you go or through a Bancomat ATM. They didn't charge us a fee, where the exchange office in Venice tried charging us 19%. I got them down to 10%, but that is still crazy. Local banks and credit unions no longer provide exchange services, so these will be your only options if you need to get more Euros.

It is very easy to miss some history, art or something great, because they just have so much more of it than we do! You will have a great time and create memories to last a lifetime regardless of where you go or what you see!

[ShotoJuku]

[COLOR="Navy"]Thanks Ladies!

There is A LOT to consider and your information and suggestions from your own experiences certainly helps clear things up.

I too grew up with the Perillo "Mr. Italy" tour commercials but they seem so expensive. The research continues![/COLOR]

[Lyanne]

Perillo is very expensive, and we regretted the extra expenditure once we got there and saw how easy it was to do it ourselves. Some of my friends who go to Italy hire private tour guides to help them get into the big places without waiting with the masses. If you'd like I can contact them and find out prices, names, etc.

[ShotoJuku]

If you'd like I can contact them and find out prices, names, etc.

That would be GREAT!!!

[marianne202]

It really isn't necessary to use a tour group, unless you want to. Most Italians 30 or under speak fine English and things are fairly well marked. We did our summer trip through all the countries totally on our own. We just rented a GPS for our rental car and off we went. Driving in Europe and Italy especially is very, very agressive and fast, so if you don't want to do your own driving just plan to use buses and trains. Their train system is great and very easy to use. Just some more to think about.