Italy Tour Review: Tuscany, Luca, Cortona, Truffle Hunting, Wine Tours

Review by traveler

Angi S.

5.12.2023

General Info

Traveler Review

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

Italy

Your overall comments on the trip and the travel company:

My trip was good. My driver in Luca was fantastic. He was helpful and informative and made the trip fun and interesting. My driver could understand when I wanted to chat and when I wanted to just relax. He had a great sense of humor as well that made the time enjoyable. My driver in Cortona was very nice but hard to communicate with as his English was limited.
I used Zicasso for my trip last year to Spain/Portugal and had the best experience. This time, there didn't seem to as much openness and flexibility to changes/accommodations during the trip as before.

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

Truffle hunting was amazing! And the family I met with was incredible. They were so welcoming and made the afternoon very special. They treated you like family in their home. My driver in Luca was also so knowledgable with recommendations that ensured I had a more local experience rather than just the tourist parts of Tuscany.

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

I should have been more directive with my desire to just "Eat pasta and drink wine" in Tuscany. I spent so much time going on long wine tours that tended to become repetitive that I didn't get to really enjoy as many wine tastings as I would have liked.

Travel Company Comments:

Dear Angi,
Thank you very much for your review.
We appreciate your kind words and positive review. We take our clients’ comments very seriously and look for inspiration in order to improve our operations and make the travel experience with us memorable.
We carefully looked at your comment reporting a lack of flexibility to make changes and we honestly feel it is not totally fair.
On May 4th you contacted us at 6:23 PM to change the winery for the following morning. Despite the last minute notice, we informed you that we would try to make the change but – as we want to be fair with our small local supplier - we also informed you that the visit to the original winery would be non refundable. We contacted immediately the new winery you wanted instead but given the late time of the day it was already closed. The following morning, we contacted the new winery again and unfortunately they were fully booked for that day.
On Sunday May 7th you contacted us at 3:49 PM because you did not want to have the guided visit of the second wine estate included in the tour program of the following day but just the wine tasting. We contacted the second winery and made that change. You also wanted to add a third wine estate to the program of the day which based on our experience we never suggest to do given the distances between wineries in the Tuscan countryside. Nevertheless, we checked with a third wine estate and with our driver to see if we could manage to squeeze in an additional winery but unfortunately it was not feasible and we informed you about that.
In all honesty, we feel we did our best to try to make all the last minute changes you requested.
Having said that, we thank you very much for travelling with us and for your feedback. We will make treasure of this experience to further improve our trips and the assistance we provide to clients when travelling with us.
Best regards,
Veronica