Italy Trip Review: 16-Day Travel

Review by traveler

Maureen R.

10.31.2023

General Info

Traveler Review

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

Italy

Your overall comments on the trip and the travel company:

Overall the tour agency did an adequate but not outstanding job. First off, they used an off-site car rental company which was very inconvenient and funky. We were exhausted upon arrival and then had to catch a shuttle to get to the place and the same for returning the car. Very time-consuming and ridiculous since so many companies were right at the MXP airport. Many of the Google direction links didn't take us to the final destination just somewhere near the area. We had asked to stay in Santa Margherita but were booked in Rapallo which was not a lovely town. It was busy, loud, and smelly. We day-tripped to Santa Margherita which was quiet, picturesque, and lovely. Our private boat tour guide couldn't have been less interested in us and was just operating on automatic.

The wine tour in Bolgheri was great, however, it was another link that didn't work correctly and was the same problem with the link to where to park to meet our guide in Lucca.

Our tour guide in Lucca was kind and informative, but we would have preferred a tour of the underground city there if we had found out about that earlier. Our trip agenda showed a boat tour of the Cinque Terre with a private guide. He was excellent however it was not a boat tour it was on the super crowded ferry so that was a huge disappointment. Our agent told us it was too late in the year for a private boat, but the itinerary should definitely have said Ferry and not boat.

Our lodging for 5 nights in Chianti was excellent as was the day of golf for Mike and the cooking class and wine tasting for the 3 of us women. Our driver for that day and the following day of visiting Piensa and Montepulciano was also excellent. The winery we visited that day (Boscarelli) was very lackluster as we struggled to understand the guide and the wines were mediocre. It was one wine tour too much.

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

Our lodging for 3 nights at the hotels in Bellagio and in Chianti for 5 nights were both fantastic.

The e-bike tour in Bellagio, led by a professional rider, was a huge highlight of the trip for all of us.

The cooking class and wine tasting in Chianti for me and my sisters-in-law was so much fun and delicious, too. My brother-in-law enjoyed his day of golf, too.

Our last night in Milan at the airport hotel was great. It had incredible views of the snow-capped mountains and an amazing breakfast buffet. It was wonderful just walking down the connecting hall into the Milan Malpensa airport.

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

I would use the travel agent my daughter and my daughter-in-law's mother used. Their agent was very responsive and put together very interesting trips for them and was extremely helpful and informative. Unfortunately, our group did not feel that way about this travel company, it just felt transactional.

Travel Company Comments:

Dear Maureen,

First of all, I would like to thank you for taking the time to write the review and for the kind and positive words on the overall trip. I appreciate your feedback regarding both the highlights and some negative experiences. We strive to provide the best experience for our clients and take negative comments very seriously. We always appreciate all constructive comments which may help us to improve our operations and above all make our clients happy.

Let me follow the order of your comments and add our thoughts:

Rental car: our policy is to use local companies because they have a more direct impact on the local economy vs. big multinational companies. More in detail, the local rental car company we use is one of the best in the country and provides excellent service and several perks which are usually very expensive with other companies. For example, our special agreement with that company includes a free GPS system, full insurance coverage, additional driver, and web check-in to speed up pick-up procedures.

Google Maps directions: to make our client’s life easier, we always include in all our tour programs the link to Google Maps with the exact directions to all destinations included in the itinerary. We double-checked all the Google Maps links we included in your program and they are all accurate and point to the right destination addresses (including the 2 examples you mention of the winery in Bolgheri and the parking in Lucca). You just need to click on the link and you will prompted to Google Maps which will guide you to the final destination. Having said that we understand that driving in a foreign country may be stressful, we can only guess that was the main reason why you were not able to follow the Google Maps directions provided.

Rapallo vs. Santa Margherita: both locations are lovely towns of the Italian Riviera. We had this week another client staying in Rapallo and she just loved it. We checked the 2 versions of our proposal and the hotel has always been in Rapallo. That was clearly stated in our proposals and you booked a proposal with a hotel in Rapallo, not in Santa Margherita. If you had in mind to stay in a different town on the Italian Riviera, you should have requested that change at the time of booking the trip and even in the following weeks/months.

Tour of Cinque Terre: we do apologize for the misunderstanding but both our 2 versions of the proposal and the final detailed tour program clearly described that the boat tour was operated by ferries. It was never mentioned as a private boat. However, we will closely redraft the description of that activity so that in the future there won’t be any misunderstandings.

Wine Estate in Montepulciano: Wine Spectator in 2022 ranked the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano by Boscarelli as one of the top 100 best wines in the world (and the best - and only one - in the denomination of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano). It is surprising to read that you considered their wines mediocre. However as we are located just 30 minutes drive from Montepulciano, we will certainly pay a new visit to that estate and investigate your complaints in detail.

Once again, we thank you very much for your feedback but we would have appreciated you reaching out during the trip to report any of the problems you mentioned in your feedback so that we could be more helpful during the trip and find solutions on the spot whenever possible. We always assist our clients 24/7 during their trips with a dedicated customer care team for any questions and requests of assistance so that any issue can be solved right away. That is always highly appreciated by all our clients and we are sorry that it was not the case with you.

Thank you very much and best regards.