Culinary Tours & Vacations

This travel company was incredibly difficult to work with, and I would not recommend them. The travel agent seemed very annoyed when we asked basic questions about our itinerary. For example, the itinerary he sent us did not have the correct number of rooms booked for our party. When I asked him about it, he rudely told me, "Of course I have booked the right rooms". Later, we found out he was working off the wrong itinerary - our final invoice was based on this wrong itinerary and had a much higher amount than we actually owed. When we pointed that out, he went from being annoyed to flat out rude.

We also identified many gaps in transportation and logistics, with the travel agent continuing to be rude when we asked for clarification or support in fixing the gaps. For example, he had us driving a rental car to the Bologna airport at around 3 AM from rural Italy to make an 8 AM flight. We would be driving right through Florence on the way to Bologna. When I asked why we didn't simply take a later flight out of Florence, I was told there were no options to do this. A simple Google search identified several flights out of Florence at a more reasonable time.

We finally had Zicasso step in, and they were incredibly helpful in cleaning up our itinerary. Unfortunately, we still experienced several logistical issues during our trip despite Zicasso's support. For example, we were dropped off by drivers at train stations and were then on our own to figure out how to get to our hotels - all required lengthy walks up hills to access, and my 81-year old father was not able to do that. So we had to find our own transportation or have my dad attempt to walk (not good at all). As another example, my father really wanted to see the Matterhorn. The travel agent said it was an easy "day trip" from our hotel to the Matterhorn. It turned out to be a 3.5 hour drive each way. The driver left us at a train station below Zermatt (town below the mountain) to figure out on our own how to navigate the city of Zermatt. We had no guidance from the travel agency on how to best see the Matterhorn, and Zermatt was another town with steep hills that my dad had to walk through (with a cane) as we tried to figure out how to best see the mountain. Due to the length of the drive to Zermatt from our hotel, we had less than two hours in Zermatt because the travel company had booked us on a 6:15 AM train the next morning to leave Switzerland. It was a wasted day instead of being the wonderful experience my father had hoped for.

The best part of the trip was the hotels, and the travel company gets credit for selecting hotels with wonderful views and great breakfast options. They were not easily accessible from the local towns, so we had to figure out taxis and shuttles to get to nearby sites.

Most of the time, we were left on our own to find our way around. But we did have a guided tour in Florence and a knowledgeable driver that took us to a winery in Tuscany. Both of these guides were amazing, and it would have been nice to have more guided support throughout this trip (especially in Zermatt).

Zicasso's travel specialist organized an amazing 12-day series of private tours, taking us from Milan to the lake regions (Como, Maggiore, and Garda) and down to Bologna. Our days were filled with visiting churches, museums (including the Ferrari and Enzo Ferrari museums), a winery, parmigiano, prosciutto, and traditional balsamic manufacturing, a cooking class, boat tours, and food tours.

Along the way, we saw testing at the Ferrari track and a small portion of the women’s Giro d’Italia. With all that, we still had sufficient downtime to search the streets to find our own gems.

Our trip coordinator checked in with us daily to confirm the daily itinerary and transportation. When we had questions or needed to make a change due to the weather, she was thorough, attentive, and responsive in a way that was reassuring and comforting. She was simply amazing.

I would highly recommend using this travel specialist and team for any of your Italian travel needs.

We had a beautiful trip. All the drivers arrived on schedule and were courteous and professional. The guides for our tours were wonderful, especially one guide, who we were lucky to have on three occasions.

The Parmesan and balsamic experiences were great! The cooking class in Bologna, conducted by a local chef, was entertaining and educational. Our accommodations, particularly in Modena, were lovely.

The only change to the itinerary I would suggest is separating the food tour in Bologna and the cooking class by a day. It was too much food!!

Zicasso’s travel agent built us an incredible itinerary for our honeymoon trip. We asked for a food-driven tour of Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, and she delivered. Our trip was filled with unforgettable bites and views. We learned so much about cooking in those regions and can’t wait to experiment at home.

When one visit didn’t pan out as expected, the travel agent quickly pivoted and booked us another experience immediately, and we had a lovely time. She also got us a reservation at our dream restaurant and we can’t thank her enough.

This was the second trip planned for us by Zicasso’s travel specialist and his team. Attention to detail is the travel company's noted skill. The selection of hotels in Basque was perfect. Guides were the very best in Bilbao and San Sebastián. My husband and I would recommend this travel company to all travelers interested in a perfect visit to Spain.

My wife and I consulted with a handful of travel agencies in order to pick the right one for us to curate our dream honeymoon, and I could not be happier with our final decision to trust Zicasso’s tour company with this task.

Our travel agent was amazing throughout the process of building our itinerary, choosing experiences that fit exactly what we were looking for in an Italy honeymoon.

Start to finish, our overall experience was seamless. We decided to pack a lot into 10 nights, visiting Tuscany, Venice, Sorrento, and finishing the trip with one night in Rome. The tour company perfectly constructed our itinerary in a way that did not make our experience feel rushed in any of these locations. We had ample time to relax and explore these beautiful places on our own, while also fitting in world-class experiences specific to the region in which we were staying, all hand-selected by the tour company and their local expertise.

Every experience we had was incredible. From a private pasta cooking class and wine tasting in Tuscany to a limoncello tour in a quiet, picturesque village along the Amalfi Coast, each will be an experience my wife and I will never forget.

I would recommend this travel company to anyone visiting Italy for the first time or even those who have been to Italy, but want to experience breathtaking excursions curated by a local team of experts.

Our honeymoon was all we dreamed of and more, and I look forward to having the opportunity to use them for our next adventure.