Italy & Spain Family Vacation Review: Venice, Granada, Tuscany, San Gimignano, Florence, Barcelona, Museums, Historical Sites

Review by traveler

Fernando A.

6.26.2019

General Info

Traveler Review

Which Country (Countries) did you visit on this trip?

Italy

Spain

Your overall comments on the trip and the travel company:

We had a wonderful trip. An unforgettable vacation. About nine months ago, we started doing more serious research of potential locations to include in a 2 weeks schedule for an European trip. It is rare that I get 2 weeks in a row for a vacation and we wanted to enjoy a special vacation that included my wedding anniversary, my son's senior high school trip and another son's birthday celebration. I knew it would be better to count on a professional advice on travel planning and logistics coordination to make it a successful endeavor. So, I did an internet research for potential company that assist with customized european traveling.
What attracted me to this travel team was their professional looking internet site and presentation.It gave me a good feeling and I felt that I could trust them. You have to consider that I traveled to europe but it was more than twenty plus years since I traveled abroad therefore I was looking for an up to date advice on how to travel by myself to Italy and Spain.
Our travel planner was the agent from this travel team that worked directly with us. She did a great job. She took on account all our preferences and gave us additional valuable suggestions on how to improve our itinerary. I valued the professionalism and expert advice she provided to us. The travel logistical coordination she did for us was greatly appreciated. She encourages us to get a travel insurance. All her hard work and advice reassured us during our trip.
We are grateful for her dedication to travelers like us who dreamed about having the best vacation of their lifetime.

What were the most enjoyable or memorable parts of your trip?

Our itinerary included the following cities in Italy and Spain:
1.Rome
2. Florence
3.Venice
4. Barcelona
5. Granada
6. Madrid
Additionally, we spent one day trip in Tuscany, Chianti region that included visits to Grieves, San Gimignano and Monteriggione. Also, we visited Segovia on day trip from Madrid.This two trips were the best, specially the Tuscany day trip.
The most enjoyable places per city were as follows:
1.Rome-Pantheon, Castel San Angelo, Vatican visit. The cat sanctuary at Torre Argentina Piazza. In Rome we attended an international mass at the Pantheon, also called St. Maria of the Martyrs and were were elected to be lectors. At the end of the mass they took all the lectors to a special visit to the virgin chapel and we saw the Virgin of the Martyrs image.
2. Florence- Il Duomo, we climbed it and enjoyed the views of the cities form the top of Santa Maria de Fiore. Il Signoria, Ponte Vecchio and Micheal Angelo's lookout.
3.Venice-the most beautiful church in Italy is Saint Mark's Basilica. Exceptional view of the city from the Campanile tower Great
Vaporetto ride threw the Grand canal. Walking along the small streets was special too. Very romantic city.
4. Barcelona- Bicycle ride from Arc de Triomph, walking tour and barceloneta beach. Parc Guell, La Sagrada Familia.( we attended an international mass in the Basilica too)Teleferic ride to Montjuic castle. Montjuic magic fountain light show.
5. Granada- Flamenco show at a Flamenco theater. Unique La Alhambra and Generalife gardens.
6. Madrid- Reina Sofia and Sorolla museums. El Retiro park with a rented boat ride and Crystal Palace visit.
We maximized the use of public transportation- metro , bus and train rides.
We needed to called our travel planner once. I lost the papers that the local agent gave to enter the Coliseum skip the line and guided tour . She called him and the agent came to the rescue and provided us with new tickets and voucher copies.

If you could take your trip again, what would you do differently?

Probably I would spend some extra time reading about the significance of each site we visited. Although , I knew their significance,it would be better to know some additional historical details.
I certainly believed the amount of time that I spent tracking routes between attractions and reviewing maps helped us to maximize the use of the public transportation options. We were able to cover a lot in a short period of time. Alos to travel by yourself allows you to adjust your itinerary as desired. sometimes we wanted to spend additional time just enjoying the scenery and I felt that we were able to do that.
Receiving our travel documents a little late made us a little nervous but the travel team moved quick to solve this.
Definitely, the skip the line tickets are a must.
After all, we believe our itinerary was awesome and it covered all the basic attractions we wanted to visit and more. We loved our trip but if we would have additional time available probably we will spend it in Florence so we could have extra time to visit the Accademia and Uffizi. We believe that spending an additional day in Venice is worth.
Our favorites cities and places were Venice, Granada, Tuscany San Gimignano, Florence and Barcelona.

Photos

Italy & Spain Family Vacation Review: Venice, Granada, Tuscany, San Gimignano, Florence, Barcelona, Museums, Historical Sites

General Info

Which Country (Countries) did you visit on this trip?

Your overall comments on the trip and the travel company:

What were the most enjoyable or memorable parts of your trip?

If you could take your trip again, what would you do differently?

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