Family Trip to Italy Travel Review: Bergamo, Assisi, Siena, Milan, Lake Como, Cooking with a Chef, Vatican City Tour, Winery

Getting attraction and/or gastronomical tours of cities we visited including Rome, Assisi, Siena, Florence, Milan, Lake Como, Bergamo, and Venice all from very knowledgeable guides.  We had a great experience outside of Siena visiting a winery, including getting an explanation of the grape growing and wine making requirements in Tuscany by the owner.  We were able to taste four wines and had a nice lunch at the vineyard.  We especially enjoyed the arrangements made in Venice to have a tour guide take us to meet a chef at a market to pick out fresh seafood, vegetables, and fruit.  He asked for our preferences and recommended fruits and veggies that were in season, in case something we may choose may be at the end of its season, etc., so we knew the freshest in season ingredients.  He then took us back to his home and had us participate in the preparation of a wonderful seven course meal ending with homemade ice cream using the fresh strawberries from the market.  It is very helpful to have folks in country such as our planners to provide quality guides, transportation, and activities.  As an example, my son made a trip to the Vatican while studying abroad in Italy.  He enlisted one of the many tour guides that are present around the Vatican.  For his money, he received a less than quality tour which lasted approximately 30 minutes with little information about what he was seeing.  With the tour guide arranged by the travel company, we ended up with skip the line tickets for immediate entry, had a tour guide with a degree in art history who was extremely knowledgeable about the artifacts, buildings, paintings, etc., in the Vatican.  She took at least two hours to show us as much of the Vatican as we could see.  We experienced terrific tour guides throughout the several locations we visited.