Travel Review: Italy Vacation, Ravello, Tuscany, Florence, Nerano, Positano, Wine Tours, Fine Dining, Cheese Tasting

Review by traveler

Matt M.

7.17.2016

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, this travel agency worked with me every step of the way. They were prompt in responding to all messages, provided excellent recommendations and expert opinions, and provided support throughout the entire process (even when we needed to reach out during our trip). They customized the trip to our needs adding locations based on our requests as well as suggesting alterations to our itinerary based on their expert knowledge. We had a wonderful blend of relaxation time along with activities that fit our personality. The trip itself was excellent. We were able to find a nice blend of quality accommodations, food and wine activities, delicious dining options, and very importantly, stayed within our budget. The greatest tip that our travel advisor offered was a simple one, but made the greatest difference in our enjoyment of the trip...get a driver for your trip. It allowed us to relax, enjoy the scenery, and made sure that we got where we needed to be safely and on-time every single time. It was excellent.

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

Ravello - Visting the gardens at Villa Cimbrone was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Wonderful addition to the trip
Wine Tours - The food and wine tours at Tenuta San Francesco, Casa Emma, and Poggio Antico were each unique - offering different types of wineries, different setting, different types of wines. Each was excellent and complemented each other perfectly while providing variety
Cheese Tour/Tasting - This was such a unique experience. Being able to see and taste the local cheeses where they were being made was so much fun
Our driver in Tuscany was one of the highlights of our trip. He went above and beyond to stop at many little villages in Tuscany showing us what only the locals know. He was a true advocate for Tuscany and helped us fall in love with and appreciate Tuscany more than I could have imagined
Positano - Enjoying the beach here and the sheer beauty of the city was hard to imagine. Visiting Da Adolfo was a great addition
Nerano - The dining options in this small village were incredible and offered the perfect quiet way to start off our trip
Dining - The dining suggestions that our travel specialist provided were really helpful. We tried many of them and they did not disappoint. Food is a critical part to our travel and this was key to our enjoyment.

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

There are a few things that I would do a little differently
- While Panzano was a beautiful setting and location, we didn't get to enjoy the town itself much since we were traveling to other towns, wineries, etc during the day. Panzano is located further north in Tuscany, so as a result we were traveling 1-2 hours to these wineries/villages. In retrospect, it may have made more sense to stay a little further south. Also, we had a beautiful hotel and villa, however, it is located outside of Panzano which caused us to need to walk back from dinner in Panzano each night in the dark. The walking wasn't the issue, we love doing that each day after dinner, however, it was a little uncomfortable to be in an unfamiliar place walking back in the pitch black
- I would have probably changed the day that we spend in Florence. We were in Florence on a Monday and all of the museums were closed. This was disappointing, although we did make the most of our time there. It would have been good to switch the order around and maybe stay the last night in Florence. This could have given us some time to see the museums and we would have been in Florence if we decided to fly out of there
- This isn't a direct comment on our travel specialist, just some thing that I would potentially change for our trip. Our driver on our trip from Panzano to Florence on our way back to the states asked why we didn't book flights out of Pisa or Bologna as there are direct flights from there to the US. We booked our own flights, but it would have been helpful information to know that there was these options. Since we were in Panzano the last night, I made plans to fly out of Florence. Knowing that there were better flight options in other cities may have helped us if we had stayed in Florence the last night and then took the 60-90 min drive to drive to a city with better flight options instead of driving from Panzano to Florence and taking a connecting flight from there.
- Most of the hotel suggestions were excellent, but I would have stayed at a different hotel in Ravello. That hotel is a part of the trip that I would like to forget. It wasn't dirty, the staff wasn't mean, and the view was beautiful as advertised. However, the room itself was just sad and in need of some serious updating. The staff was robotic and not warm in any way. The atmosphere literally made me not want to be at the hotel for any period of time. I know we decided to stay there for budget reasons and were stuck based on availability, but I would have paid a little more or adjusted our dates in order to not stay here again.

Photos

Travel Review: Italy Vacation, Ravello, Tuscany, Florence, Nerano, Positano, Wine Tours, Fine Dining, Cheese Tasting

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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