Traveling with Zicasso provides you with exclusive access to many activities, excursions, and tours for a distinctive experience. The following information offers insight into our recommended experiences and can be tailored to focus on your unique interests:

Food & Wine

Italy is one of the world’s top culinary destinations. Indeed, great food is everywhere in Italy. When you travel with Zicasso, you’ll get personalized recommendations on where to eat. The following recommendations highlight some of the best Italian regions for food and wine: 

Emilia-Romagna: Emilia-Romagna is known as Italy’s culinary heart, offering distinctive food and wine experiences focused on refined and bold flavors from homemade pastas stuffed with herbs to famous Prosciutto di Parma, Parmigiano Cheese to customary ragù accompanied by traditional wines.  

Florence & Tuscany: Florence and the region of Tuscany are incredible destinations for essential food and wine experiences due to the excellent history of regional gastronomy, turning simple ingredients, classic dishes, and delicious wines into renowned traditions similar to preserved art.  

Piemonte: Piemonte is a fundamental destination for food and wine in Italy. It specializes in producing fine Barolo, considered the best of the best Italian wines. This region houses the headquarters of the Slow Food movement, and hosts the world’s most distinguished food exhibition, the Salone del Gusto. 

Rome & Lazio: Rome and the region of Lazio are fantastic destinations for essential food and wine experiences due to the long heritage of winemaking around the hills and in the vicinity of famous cultural sites that date back more than two millennia. 

Zicasso’s Exclusive Access to Italy’s Best Wine
Zicasso travel partners can arrange private visits to vineyards not open to the public for exclusive tasting and a meeting with the vintner. You can also learn more about Italy’s more than 1,000 grape varietals from a sommelier.

Olive Oil
Tours in Lazio, Tuscany, and Puglia allow you to pick olives, visit a factory, witness the production, and sample the delicious flavors.

Truffle Hunting
This activity in Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna leads you into forests with specialized truffle-hunting dogs. The flavor and potency of truffles degrade every day, so this is your chance to sample the freshest truffles with a homemade meal made onsite. 

Art & History

Italy is one of the world’s foremost destinations for paintings, architecture, mosaics, and sculptures, making art an essential experience during your Italy tour. Italy’s art accounts for some of Europe’s most iconic images. 

Must-See Art Museums & Attractions

• Vatican Museums, featuring the Sistine Chapel - Vatican City
• Uffizi Gallery, featuring The Birth of Venus by Botticelli  - Florence 
• Galleria dell’Accademia, featuring Michelangelo’s David - Florence

Zicasso’s Italy partners can get skip-the-line tickets for you. Depending on when you visit, budget, and a number of other factors, they may also be able to arrange after-hours visits with specialized guides so that you can appreciate these treasures without the crowds. 

Lesser-Known, Less-Crowded Art Museums & Attraction

• Castel Buonarroti – Michelangelo’s home in Florence
• Capitoline Museum – the oldest museum in Rome and often overlooked 
• Bargello Museum – former barracks and prison transformed into a museum in Florence
• Palazzo Doria Pamphilj – one of the best-known collections for Raphael works

History
Italy is a history lover’s paradise. Witnessing the history around the Italian peninsula is an inherent experience due to its ruins, palaces, museums, and architecture which span from the ancient Roman Empire to today’s modern nation founded in the 1860’s. In particular, the entire cities of Rome, Florence, and Venice are living museums with some of the most significant historical developments in Western civilization. On a customized Zicasso trip, we can arrange private tours with specialized history guides, such as a former archaeologist with a PhD or a history professor. Or we can organize history-focused small-group tours with a certified guide.  

Active Tours

An active tour offers the splendor of the countryside or charms of villages and distinctive neighborhoods around the country at your preferred pace as seen from a different perspective. 

Recommendations for some of the best active tours in Italy:

• Bike Tours
  • Sunset bike tour from Fiesole to Florence 
• Hiking
  • Cinque Terre 
  • Amalfi Coast 
  • Dolomites
  • Mt. Etna
• Skiing
  • Dolomites 

Private Excursions & Special Access 
Zicasso’s travel specialist partners have insider access to unique experiences that you couldn’t get any other way. These experiences, customized to your specific interests, can often be your most memorable, turning your trip into the experience of a lifetime. Here are some examples, but the possibilities are endless:

• Leverage Zicasso’s connections and visit the Vatican Museums after hours
• Visit a parmesan cheese maker in Parma and meet the family who’s been refining their art for centuries
• Meet an artisan cobbler in Florence known for designing, crafting, and perfecting leather shoes
• Test drive a Ferrari on a private racetrack; visit the museums and factories of Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Maserati

Updated: November 27, 2019

The best time to visit Italy is during the first half of May, the last half of October, or the second half of August. 

Visiting Italy in the summer months has changed in the past decade, with the second half of August becoming a great time to visit due to smaller crowds and waning summer heat.  

Many websites recommend September to visit Italy, but this is outdated information. Italy travel specialists on Zicasso note that travelers in September spend more on higher hotel prices versus the second half of August, along with experiencing larger crowds. 

Visiting Italy in the first half of May or the latter half of October offers you better weather, fewer crowds, and the welcoming culture of shops, restaurants, and markets in full swing. 

How far in advance should I plan a trip to Italy?

You should plan your trip to Italy up to eight months in advance if you wish to visit destinations such as the Amalfi Coast and Cinque Terre. Due to the demand of visitors that travel to these gorgeous destinations and the limited number of hotels, you must reserve your space ahead of time depending on the time of year you wish to travel. We recommend planning your Italy tour up to 12 months in advance for the most optimal travel experience.
 

The best way to see Italy in 10 days is by train. The high-speed train travels from Venice in the north to Bari in the southeast, while also reaching popular cities like Florence, Rome, and Naples. The train system is very comfortable, fast, reliable, and accessible throughout the country. We recommend the first-class seats because they are much nicer than second-class and only slightly more expensive.

Internal, domestic flights are possible and convenient when needing to travel long distances or off the mainland peninsula to islands like Sicily or Sardinia. 

Car Rental
Renting a car is great in Tuscany or the Lakes Region but can hinder your Italy tour in other destinations due to the quality and size of the roads, traffic, and possible issues of property damage.

Always include private transfers to and from the airport or between destinations for your best stress-free Italy tour, which circumvents possible taxi service charges or miscommunications. 

Travel considerations during your Italy tour include safety, ease of logistics, and accessibility. The following information offers our recommendations on what to consider:

Is Italy Safe for Travel?
Italy is very safe. During your Italy tour, you will find the people and country welcoming and eager to share their culture. As anywhere, pickpocketing can be an issue throughout Italy, especially in larger tourist destinations like Rome, Florence, or Venice.  Health wise, there are no concerns regarding the general safety of eating and drinking throughout Italy.

Why We Don’t Recommend Short-Term Rental Apartments 
The short term rental market (such as those available through Airbnb, VRBO, etc.) is not a regulated business in Italy, meaning that if you book such an apartment today for travel in six months, by the time you reach Italy, the rental could have shut down and no longer be available. For this reason, it is much better to stay in a regulated hotel or in an apartment professionally owned and managed (especially if it’s personally inspected by a travel specialist).

For Families
Having a family-friendly guide can help maximize your time and enhance your experience for every member of your family. 

For Seniors
Having a guide knowledgeable in touring with seniors will offer more accessible tours, activities, and transfers to maximize how much you can see and experience. If traveling by train, arrangements can be made for drivers to carry your luggage to and from the train carriage.

For Couples
Having a travel specialist knowledgeable in planning romantic experiences throughout Italy will provide unique perspectives, advice, and opportunities to experience true intimacy during your couples Italy tour. 

Travelers with Disabilities 
Guests with mobility challenges can be well assisted by our Italy travel specialists.  Access and alternative arrangements can be made with ease to ensure enjoyment of certain monuments, historical sites, accommodations and restaurants. 

When returning for another Italy tour, you can venture beyond the essential cities of Rome, Florence, and Venice to discover destinations considered more off-the-beaten-path but equally worthy of your consideration. The following list offers our recommendations for where you could visit during a return trip to Italy:

Sicily 
The island of Sicily has six UNESCO World Heritage Sites as well as captivating cultural cities with food and wine representing the rich customs of the Mediterranean island. The incredible views of the city overlook volcanoes, preserved ruins from Greek and Roman civilizations, and approximately 15 islands, seven of which are volcanic.

Lake Garda 
This wonderful lake offers visitors a chance to actively uncover the beauty of the Lakes Region with hiking, wine tasting in the Valpolicella region, water sports, and the opportunity for a romantic getaway or a family-fun vacation. 

Montua 
This small town in the Lombardy region is surrounded by lakes and shining with beautiful Renaissance architecture with connections to 400 years of a single ruling family that date back to the 14th century. The town also features gigantic palaces and the graceful piazzas. 

Ravenna 
Ravenna possesses glistening Cathedrals known for gilded Byzantine mosaics and preserved Roman heritage. Ravenna is also the resting place of Italy’s best-known poet, Dante Alighieri. 

Puglia 
Puglia as a region that possesses a stunning array of cities, towns, beaches, and culture. Lecce glows with a Baroque architectural charm, Otranto glints on a hill with white architecture that overlooks the golden countryside, Alberobello boasts a unique, storybook architecture, and olive trees blanket the landscape before the coastline along the Adriatic Sea. 

The Dolomites 
This mountain range offers visitors a wonderful array of outdoor adventures in the summer with an abundance of hiking trails. In the winter, it offers an exceptional number of luxury skiing destinations. The Dolomites in summer definitely offer visitors who are returning to Italy something different to experience.