Rome, Florence, and Venice Itineraries

Edwin and I struggled during this trip. It started in Venice with the hotel room and location. Horrible room with little or no amenities. Please note, the other hotels were much better.

There should have been better communication between Zicasso’s travel company and us. I was unaware we were not going to have local tour guides in Arezzo, Montepulciano, Verona, Orvieto, Cortona, etc. The drivers took us to these locations and dropped us off in the piazza or city gates and we were on our own. The drivers shared some notes about the city, but we wandered aimlessly most of the time. Please note, the local guides in Venice, Florence and Rome were great.

As per the restaurants, I had received recommendations from friends and family, which I shared with the travel company. They made the reservations on our behalf. However, they never told us how far the hotels were from these restaurants. It would have been nice for them to tell us. As a result of the distance, we asked the travel company to cancel some of the reservations on our behalf.

The three positive things I can say are as follows:

The travel company responded quickly when we called them from Italy.

The private drivers in Venice (from airport to hotel), Verona (driver), Florence (driver) and Rome (hotel to airport) were great. However, the driver from Florence to Rome with a stop in Orvieto was terrible.

The local tour guides in Venice, Florence and Rome were great.

All in all, we were not happy and very disappointed with this trip.

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.

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!

The cities we visited were wonderful. We really enjoyed the tours, especially the cooking class with our chef! I will be making homemade ravioli over the holidays.

The hotels were located close to the city centers. But the hotel in Bologna was very close to the university, with lots of graffiti and live music late into the night. The hotel, however, was quaint and very nice. The hotel staff was very friendly and accommodating.

The hotel in Florence was just weird. Our travel companions' room had no windows and was small. Ours was oddly laid out but much bigger. The desk person told us both rooms were the same when we first checked in. If we came back after 9 p.m., there was no hotel staff, and we had to use a code to walk through an apartment lobby.

The hotel in Venice was situated right in the middle of lots of restaurants and gelato! The hotel was by far the best one, with much nicer amenities and rooms. It had a bar and restaurant on-site. It was a good way to end our trip.

This was our first time visiting Italy, and we were very excited to experience the country through a thoughtfully planned luxury itinerary. Overall, we had some wonderful experiences, but there were also several disappointments that affected our trip and that we feel are important to share.

Highlights

Venice was a highlight of our trip. We loved the atmosphere, scenery, and overall experience of being there.

The wine tasting experience in Tuscany was another major highlight. Our trip to Chianti from Florence was beautiful, and the Tuscan countryside was exactly the type of experience we had hoped for. Our cooking class with our instructor in Florence was also exceptional. Making fresh pasta and tiramisu while enjoying wine, music, and great conversation made it feel authentic and personal. These are experiences we will truly remember.

Areas That Fell Short

We would have appreciated much more advance guidance about how incredibly hot and crowded Italy would be during peak season in September. We experienced a significant heat wave and extremely limited air conditioning throughout the trip, including in hotels and fine dining restaurants. This made traveling much less comfortable than anticipated, particularly as first-time visitors to Italy.

We also visited four cities in just eight days, which in hindsight felt far too rushed. As first-time visitors, we were relying on the agency’s expertise to help us create a realistic itinerary. We would have appreciated being advised that this pace was too ambitious and that fewer destinations with more time in each would have made for a more relaxing experience.

We also did not particularly enjoy Milan and felt there was not much there that appealed to us. In hindsight, we would have preferred to spend more of our limited vacation time in destinations that were a better fit for us.

The Lake Como boat tour was canceled at the last minute because we were given the wrong pickup location. This was especially disappointing because it was an experience we had been looking forward to and had planned our day around. Having it canceled at the last minute due to incorrect pickup information was frustrating and felt avoidable. For a luxury travel itinerary, we expected a higher level of coordination and attention to detail.

Transportation was another area that fell short. The three-hour private drive from Venice to Milan was exhausting, particularly because the driver was blasting music throughout the journey. We also had a four-hour drive from Lake Como to Florence in cramped transportation with limited air conditioning, which was extremely uncomfortable given the heat. For a luxury itinerary, we expected transportation to be spacious, comfortable, and properly climate-controlled, especially for longer transfers.

The hotel in Florence was particularly disappointing. We found the atmosphere to be creepy and uncomfortable and did not feel that the property matched our preference for modern, understated luxury. The shower would not drain properly, and although maintenance told us they had fixed it, the problem continued. The hotel did have an excellent location, a balcony, and warm, attentive staff, which we appreciated, but the overall property was not a good fit for us.

Communication

One area where the agency excelled was communication. The team was consistently prompt and responsive through WhatsApp, which truly became our lifeline throughout the trip. Whenever we had questions or needed assistance, we were able to reach someone quickly, and we very much appreciated that level of accessibility and support while traveling.

Overall

Italy was beautiful, and we are grateful for the opportunity to experience it. However, the trip did not consistently feel like the luxury experience we had envisioned. For future clients, we would strongly recommend providing more candid guidance around itinerary pacing, September peak-season crowds, heat, limited air conditioning, hotel style, and destination selection, as well as ensuring greater attention to detail with transportation and excursions.

Our 16-day trip through Venice, Florence, Tuscany, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast, and Rome was outstanding in every detail. Every transfer ran on time, every guide was knowledgeable and warm, and every hotel was a great choice.

Our favorites were the private lagoon boat trip in Venice, the Brunello wine and cheese tour, the pasta class at a Tuscan farm, Pompeii, the Capri cruise, and the Vatican tour. We couldn’t have asked for better planning or support. We highly recommend Zicasso's travel company.