Travel Review: Italy Vacation, Rome, Venice, Florence, Tuscany, Siena, Pisa, Pompeii, Mask-Making Class, Cooking Lesson

Our favorite ACTIVITIES were pasta making in Florence, mask-making in Venice.  The GUIDES commentary provided added dimension and context to the sites in all three cities.  We very much appreciated the narratives and perspectives of these three women.  I particularly liked the fact that the TRANSPORT from city to city was perfectly organized and went so smoothly.  Our favorite hotel was the hotel in Florence, with it's fabulous breakfast, attentive staff and comfortable room.  My least favorite was the  Relais Della Rovere.  This hotel had a most peculiar creosote-like smell, which had me wondering if there had been some kind of chemical treatment, maybe for bugs?  I did find the exoskeleton of what appeared to be a juvenile bed bug in my room and that of a dead bee in the hallway  (one of the chemicals used to treat bed bug infestations is highly toxic to bees).  Whatever the source of the smell, I did have to sleep with the windows open (rather than have the air on)  to prevent having a sore throat.