User:Vtaylor/Italy 2019

Rick Steves

https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy

https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/books-movies

https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/italy/venice-florence-rome

photos - https://photos.google.com/ android phone . google fi

Florence tomorrow. We did the cheesy gondola trip last evening. Good fun. Good group. Families, couples, girl friends and single travelers. Nice mix of organized and on your own. Venice is quaint and crowded- mostly tourists as not many people actually live in Venice any longer. On the boat trip today we went by the Venetian storm gates project MOSE. Way over budget and of questionable value.

Boat trip to Burano and Torcella. Wine tour and tasting Le Veletta

So here I am in city 2 / 3 - Florence with 27 of my new best friends having a lovely time. The hotel is across the river from the city center. We can see the dome, towers and roof tops from the hotel terrace. Itinerary for tomorrow includes churches and a cooking class.

The no grump people rule applies.

... hotel room in Rome having just spent the day touring the Colosseum and all that remains of the Roman Empire. Talk about getting too big for your toga.

It has been a great trip. Learned a lot. Lots to see and do. Plenty of walking with great guides. Boat trip. Cooking class. All the important sites without much hassle. Good accommodations in great locations. Too much good food. Apparently the restaurants doing meals for the tour know they over do it but they don’t want other customers to think the skimp.

Great trip with Rick Steves. Highly recommend it. Good group. Well organized. Saw all the important stuff with enough time to do more exploring on own as well. Only "problem" was the included meals were way too much food. That is the restaurants - not wanting anyone to think their portions were skimpy.

Tour included a cooking class - we were divided up into to small groups at the cooking stations in a big room. We all had jobs that contributed to the meal which we then ate. Pleasant surprise to several people who were expecting a "sit and git" demo.

Included a tasting at Le Velette winery levelette.it - Celcila is 6th generation and her niece has come into the business is 7th. Great cave that has been used and expand over the last 2500 years.

We got the full Rome experience. The three Metro stops nearest our hotel by the Spanish Steps were all closed for repairs.

All three cities including Rome were surprisingly clean. Garbage seemed to get picked up. Street sweeper vehicles were out. Little if any litter, though there were cigarette butts on the ground outside coffee shops. In most public spaces there were plenty of garbage "cans" - metal collars on a stand that held plastic bags to put trash in.

Venice

https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/venice

Venice backstreets walking tour • St. Mark's Square and Basilica • Venice lagoon excursion • Accademia art museum •

St. Mark's Square Doge's Palace

Accademia's treasure trove of great Venetian art, starring Titian, Veronese, Bellini, Tintoretto

Venice that we do not do as a group: Campanile di San Marco (bell tower), Dalmatian School chapel, Jewish Ghetto and Museum, Santa Maria della Salute and San Giorgio Maggiore churches, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the island of Murano.

• boat trip to Burano - lace, Murano glass, quaint, good food at Trottoria de Roma
• + Campanile di San Marco (bell tower), Correr museum, Doge's Palace
• + group evening gondola ride with musicians on board

Florence

https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/florence

Renaissance Florence walking tour • Florence's Accademia Gallery (Michelangelo's David) • Uffizi Gallery • Florence backstreets walking tour • Cooking class and lunch • Palazzo Davanzati • Umbrian wine-tasting lunch

Brunelleschi's magnificent cathedral dome, Ghiberti's Baptistery doors

Palazzo Davanzati

Uffizi — home to the finest collection of Italian paintings anywhere — including works by Leonardo, Botticelli, Michelangelo, and more.

evening at the Accademia Gallery to marvel at the power of Michelangelo's rough-hewn Prisoners and his greatest masterpiece, David.

• + gelato

This tour does not include Brunelleschi’s Dome in Florence - have to book several days in advance

Rome

https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/rome

Rome orientation • Roman Forum • Colosseum • Church of San Clemente • Pantheon • Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel • St. Peter's Basilica • Evening walk through Rome including Trevi Fountain

Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, and the remarkably preserved, 2,000-year-old Pantheon

Vatican Museums Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. We'll then be introduced to the greatest church in Christendom, the awe-inspiring St. Peter's Basilica, home to Michelangelo's sublime Pietà. * dome access closed by end of tour as Pope speaking at 5 so everyone out about 12:30

San Clemente — a 12th-century church sitting atop a fourth-century basilica and a previous Roman temple. * really interesting to see 3 levels of structure.

Colosseum and the birthplace of ancient Rome: the Forum.

free Palatine ruins, St. Peter-in-Chains Church (home to Michelangelo's Moses), or climb to the top of the Victor Emmanuel Monument

This tour does not include the Borghese Gallery in Rome.