Travel Review: Italy Tour, Rome, Venice, Florence, Milan, Cinque Terre

Not much, while Cinque Terre was fantastic and we insisted on it, it was out of the way:  if we were going to do a "do-over" without adding days, we might cut the three days we had there and add time in Venice, Florence and/or Rome.  But, no real complaints -- if we hadn't seen Cinque Terre, we would have probably been writing we wish we had allocated time for it.

A couple of the tours seemed rushed.  Apparently, while very knowledgeable, many certified tour guides in Italy have university degrees in art and/or history, and would prefer to be teaching but there are no jobs available.  They also schedule tours back to back, so they don't allow much time for questions off their prepared presentations.  Several of the three hour tours ended up being closer to 2.5 hours.  So, the approach the tours as high school classes and want to make sure they are ready for the "next period."  However, as certified tour guides they get priority entrance, so using them saved standing in long lines.