Tuscany and Cinque Terre Itineraries & Tours

We had an absolute dream trip to Italy with the help of Zicasso's travel specialist! Traveling as a family of five, we visited Rome, Florence, San Gimignano, Greve, Siena, Cinque Terre, and Venice, along with many beautiful towns and smaller areas throughout the country.

The wonderful vacation rental accommodations were thoughtfully chosen and every detail of our trip was carefully planned. The local tour guides were incredibly knowledgeable and gave us a truly authentic experience. Our private transfers, train transfer, and private tours were efficient, informative, and made traveling from place to place seamless and stress-free.

The communication between all tour guides and transportation providers was great, as was that of each vacation rental host, who contacted us in advance to prepare us for our arrival.

One of our favorite parts of the trip was discovering the smaller, less-touristy areas within the larger cities, places we likely never would have found on our own. We enjoyed exploring Tridente for shopping and Trastevere in Rome for a private pizza-making class (highly recommended), artisan shops, excellent restaurants, and a vibrant nightlife.

Florence was wonderful, but we had the opportunity to travel to a few other areas, such as Siena, Greve, and San Gimignano. We even had a private vineyard tour and chef's meal while in Chianti. A must-see is the walk to the Boboli Gardens across Ponte Vecchio and, on the way back to our apartment, a stop at Piazzale Michelangelo.

While staying in Cinque Terre (Monterosso al Mare), be sure to take a private boat to visit all of the other villages and maybe even snorkel. The water is so clear!

Venice had great history, but we also enjoyed our boat tour to Murano to watch the glassmaking process and Burano, filled with gorgeous multicolored homes and artisan shops.

Every experience felt personal, meaningful, and special.

This trip was truly an absolute dream and we are so grateful to him for helping make our family vacation to Italy unforgettable. We highly recommend him to anyone looking to plan an incredible, seamless, and memorable trip!

We can't say enough good things about the trip planned for us in Tuscany and Cinque Terre. It was the perfect balance of cultural (museums, artwork, architecture), historical (tours of towns, churches), food (culinary classes, olive oil mill, winemaking/vineyards), and outdoor activities (hiking, truffle hunting, sunset boating cruise). The uniqueness of some of the activities made this vacation one of the best European vacations we have ever experienced.

The guidance of Zicasso's travel specialists was so appreciated and was spot on for planning meals and when to leave open time. The guides and drivers they provided were extremely knowledgeable, helpful, and very friendly. Even when we had major air travel issues getting to Italy, they immediately came to our rescue when we had to arrive in Florence instead of Pisa.

Also, all of the accommodations which they booked for us were comfortable, spacious, and within easy walking distance of local attractions. We highly recommend Zicasso. We are looking forward to being able to plan our next Italian adventure with them.

Zicasso’s travel specialist and her team crafted a wonderful 10-day trip to Tuscany, Cinque Terre, and Florence for my husband's 60th birthday. All the hotels were beautiful boutique hotels that we probably would not have found if we were planning it ourselves. The same was true with the experiences they booked for us. They have the local connections and can provide experiences you may not easily find by searching the internet.

We loved that our wine tastings were at smaller local wineries. All our guides were very friendly and very knowledgeable. All our drivers were always on time. They took care of reserving our train tickets, as well as dinner reservations. We felt very well taken care of throughout the entire trip.

Our Zicasso travel agent did a great job planning and executing our two-week tour of Italy. Transfers were seamless and guides were knowledgeable and experienced. We particularly loved Florence, our hotel, its staff, and its walkable location to so many sites. We loved the guide in Cinque Terre; he knew the area, specifically a restaurant where we were away from the crowds. Thanks to the travel agent for a job well done.

We had a fantastic trip, all thanks to our travel specialist. We spent a few days in Siena, touring different Tuscan towns like Montepulciano, Pienza, and San Gimignano, and then we spent a couple of nights in Florence. All of our drivers and guides were very thoughtful that we had my two-year-old nephew with us.

Most of the arrangements were fine, but as we've used Zicasso several times in the past, I was disappointed that the day trip on June 2nd to Spoleto and Perugia was on a national holiday. Nothing was open, and so we spent a lot of money, drove a long way just to have lunch in Spoleto. We spent 30 minutes in Perugia and did not use anywhere near the 9 hours we were paying for.

Also on Sunday, May 31st, the trip to Cinque Terre was not good planning. I told you when we started our discussions that I walked with a cane. The distance to and from the train stations in each of the cities was quite extensive so we only ended up in 3 towns. Again, we did not use anywhere near the 10 hours allotted for the tour.

In summary, I rely on your expertise of the area to guide us as to what to expect in the different destinations. We could have switched the days for Spoleto and Perugia, to avoid the holiday and could have tailored the Cinque Terre in other ways. I thought we were paying for a private excursion so I wouldn't have to do so much walking.

Again, my husband and I felt that the 2 days of private tours were money not well spent.

The transfers in all locations were excellent and the travel agent was delightful (although she did not give us the name and phone number of our drivers the day before, as was stated on our itinerary from the travel specialist).

All in all, we had a wonderful trip to Italy but feel some more personalized attention should have been paid to our specific needs, as this was a costly trip for 7 days.