Italy with Gartour and Ukrainian Delta-Travel (Rimini, Venice, Padua, Pisa, Siena, Florence
TOUR "CLASSICAL ITALY"
household notes
All "+" and "-" trips in group excursion tours
Day 1. March 1.2008 Arrival in Italy. Forli airport.
After a one and a half hour inexplicable delay, the Borispol plane lands at the Forli airport. Landing due to rain and wind is very dumb, due to the push of the plane, many almost flew out of their seats, despite the seat belts. But they arrived - and well.
After an hour-long "hospitable" meeting of the Italian customs (for 2 windows - a huge queue of 2 planes that arrived at the same time, some are asked to show a ticket for the return trip so that they don't stay with them, you know... ). The leaders of the groups are patiently waiting for us - they have been at the airport for more than 3 hours, but they waited, for which many human thanks. Due to the overlay, the transfer bus fills up gradually and very slowly. Plus, as usual, the human factor worked - one of the tourists mixed up the suitcases with luggage and took the suitcase (male) and left on another transfer bus to Rome - with someone else's suitcase, until March 6....The man is in amazement - ahead of him are completely unnecessary chores and expenses on vacation in another country - buying linen, shaving accessories, etc. , etc. In my opinion, before sending to another country, our tourists should be tested for IQ - is it really so difficult to check the tags on the suitcases before taking the luggage ?? ? It took about 40 minutes to solve this case. It is stuffy, hot and uncomfortable to sit on the bus (the seats are arranged so that the knees do not fit even if the seats in front do not recline). Finally, having filled the bus to capacity, the transfer begins. In view of the class division of tourists into 3 and 4 * (depending on the cost of the tour), hotel accommodation occurs territorially throughout Rimini and is also very slow. Turned out to be, of course, the latest and most remote, our "Petrarch" 3 * meets us due to the late arrival with a cold dinner in bags (frozen cold mashed potatoes and a hamburger cutlet on a plastic plate, a bun, a tiny Sicilian orange at a critical level freshness - i. e. already starting to rot + a bottle of water). In Europe, the concept of dry rations is generally known ?? ? it is unlikely that such food can be attributed to food that can be eaten cold - this is offered to pigs in our country...
Room: 1-bed single is a well-cleaned 2-bed room with a minimum of amenities: shower, toilet, bidet, washbasin, 2 disposable cups + bar of soap. About the shower gel, which, in principle, is part of the components usually offered in 3-star hotels, our "hospitable" owners of the hotel in Rome seem to have forgotten...
There is a slight hum of shuffling feet around the hotel, the clatter of heels, shoving suitcases on the floor, talking in raised tones - we had such a nice married couple from Russia in our group. Hearing is excellent.
Day 2. March 2. Rimini-Venice-Padua-Bologna
Morning in "Petrarch"... Breakfast - continental. A bun, 2 toast crackers, 2 jars of confiture, butter (margarine by smell and taste), a slice of ham and cheese. 1 cup of coffee or tea, for the second you have to pay 0.50 euros… Why on earth?? ? All drinks are usually paid only for dinner! Anyway, the girl near the hot drinks machine also needs to earn money on ours. Breakfast doesn't bring much satiety. . . But I didn't come here to eat.
The group is large, 80% consists of Russians. Vacationing with the Russians is also a kind of endurance test. It seems that it was not they who came to Italy, but Italy to them.
We leave for Venice. The bus is already 70% full. Breathing became easier. Good weather.
On the way we make a "stop on demand", drink coffee. In general, we are already behaving like real Italians. On the way, the leader of the group tells us in detail and in an interesting way about the program of the day, preliminary introduces us to Venice and Padua. Venice met us with thick fog. First of all, of course, we are taken on a small boat to a Murano glass factory shop - our "tasting", of course, pretty shocked our pockets... The prices are crazy... But everyone is happy: we (because very beautiful things), and the sellers of the store and our guide, all the more so (obviously they didn’t lose money! )....While we were shopping, the fog cleared. They put us on gondola rides. By the way, the legends about the beauty of the Venetian gondoliers are greatly exaggerated... Our gondolier - in a black tracksuit, white sneakers, a turtleneck hat and black glasses - looks like a Sicilian mafia, and not like a gondolier... We ride along the canals and canals. Very interesting. At times very "fragrant" due to sewage. Even got stuck in a traffic jam from gondolas. But in general I liked it. Then the guide "lures" most of the group to a set lunch for 30 euros. I ignored this event. It’s very expensive, but I’m not going to feed our guide, who will probably be fed for free as a commission for a group of tourists. On average, you can eat up to 20 euros. While everyone was eating, I ate a sandwich on duty and walked through the souvenir shops - everything is very beautiful... I made several purchases for my family and friends. Satisfied!! ! And for the rest, who ate for more than an hour, there was simply no time left for shopping! Then we start a sightseeing tour of Venice + a visit to the Doge's Palace. Very interesting, very fast paced. Then 20 minutes of free time, after which they are taken on a 2-story boat along the Grand Canal to the mainland. Then loading into the bus and going on an excursion to Padua. We visit Padua at night, so everything is already almost closed, and you can only see it from the outside... A very beautiful city, on the Oval Square (Piazza del Ovale) there are 88 statues of famous Italians, fountains, everything is fenced with a moat with water, the first spring flowers are on the grass. I would have been happy to stay there longer. But this is not included in the plans of our agency in Italy. They rush to settle in Bologna. In Bologna, we are just in transit, we are surprisingly accommodated in a 4 * hotel. Also a 2-bed room, but with a bath, and all shower accessories. Perhaps the best hotel for all stay in Italy for the facilities provided. Dinner is quite plentiful: 2 courses + fruits for dessert (apples and oranges). The first Italian dish is pasta. For us, accustomed to borscht, it's wild - to fill up on pasta at night, but in a strange monastery... For the second - meat with a salad side dish. At the same time with us in the restaurant there was a corporate evening of some local company, so we also enjoyed the local performance of karaoke + fireworks. Gone to sleep.
Day 3. March 3rd. Bologna-Pisa-Florence-Montecatini
In the morning we start class division. Those who have paid an additional 5 euros since the evening are invited to a buffet with ham, cheese, etc. Those who have refused additional fees are waiting for a bun, 2 crackers, butter, jam, a glass of juice, coffee, tea. Everything.
No one can understand this insanity. Really, if the cost of the tour had initially included 5 euros for a normal, familiar to us, the Slavs, breakfast, then someone would have noticed this on the total cost of the tour about 800-900 euros? Hardly. Can't this be done right away? Or were they still included, and the Bolognese owners of the hotel wanted to earn extra money? By the way, about the prices for vouchers - for Russians, a voucher costs 100 euros cheaper (1-seat single 817 euros + visa (I don’t know how much), we have 925 + visa 35 euros) - strange, given that they fly for half an hour more As a result, plane tickets are more expensive. It is not entirely clear why our travel agencies decided to make such an extra charge? Really, everything is so difficult in obtaining visas, in cooperation with the Italian travel agency Gartour? As far as I know, the level of Ukrainian salaries is lower than in Russia, so why else should we be robbed?? ? True, the Russians flew from Rimini, and we from Forli, but this does not mean that the transfer Rimini-Forli (50 min drive), Forli-Rimine costs 100 euros per person. Not those distances. . .
So, we are going on an optional excursion to Pisa. The tower really seems to be falling. Traditional photos of tower support. Lots of people (especially students), very warm. The photo session took a lot of time. We run to the bus.
We arrive in Florence. The traditional procedure for gathering a group of people who want to eat. I once again break away from the general mass - I walked in a circle around the central square, took a couple of photos, ate a sandwich, bought cola. There are a lot of people everywhere - and this despite the fact that it is not yet the season. Good weather.
The sightseeing tour began. We visited the Temple of Santa Maria Del Fiori, then walked through the central districts of Florence, traditionally stroked a piglet on a wild boar and made a wish, went to Piazza Senoria with statues of David and the fountain of Neptune, then there was free time, bought local Florentine ice cream (with fillers ), ate.
Ahead of us is a transfer to spend the night in the "suburb" of Florence - the city of thermal springs Montecatini. I did not accidentally take the word suburb in quotation marks. Drive from Florence to Monteca Tini 50 min. Is it a suburb?? ? When I bought a ticket, there was an additional option in the price list - 65 euros for accommodation in the center of Florence. I didn’t bother, because I can completely live in the suburbs, although according to my concepts, a suburb is up to 50 km from the city. Naturally, we were taken out of Florence itself quite early, at 7 pm, in order to have time to feed us dinner, although, living in Florence, it would still be possible to wander around the city until late. But on the other hand, in terms of humor, the Medici Hotel in Montecatina brought us a lot of pleasure. Among the group, it would be quite possible to conduct a survey tour of the provided rooms: who has what and how is it different... The sizes of the rooms were like those of Zadornov: "this is a bedside table, this is a closet - but this is not a room... ", 1-bed, 2 table lamps without general lighting, a TV, a clothes dryer, a table, a chair, a bedside table, and amenities are generally beyond common sense - in a room of 1.5x3 m they are located in 1 row from right to left: a shower (drain in the floor, without a pallet), oilcloth as a screen, bidet, toilet. The washbasin is located directly in front of the toilet. Those. You can wash your face only while sitting on the toilet, sorry for being frank. But it is very convenient to paint - almost a dressing table (literally and figuratively). For others, for example, it was possible to take a shower only by sitting on a bidet, and to wash in front of the washbasin while being halfway in the room. In general, the talented architect managed to "shove the unimpressible" into each of the rooms. And with fantasy, everything is different for everyone.
Dinner. Everything according to the program: pasta, second course (fries with chop), fruit, any drinks (except hot ones) - 2 euros each. Everything is OK, an excellent waitress (our Odessa woman, who has been living in Italy for more than 7 years). If not for one thing: a group of schoolchildren from Naples lived with us in the hotel. The noise that they made during dinner would have blocked even the roar of a plane taking off. The impression was that we were having dinner at the railway station, and then, on the railway, it was probably quieter. The presence of 5 teachers-supervisors did not hold them back at all. We were so fed up with these "gelsominos" that the next day we asked to separate our groups at mealtimes. Moreover, this "pioneer camp" did not end with dinner: until the very night they ran around the hotel, yelling like crazy. I even came up with a version of anti-advertising for a marriage agency: "Do you still want to marry an Italian? Look at what kind of children you will grow up... "
Day 4. March 4th. Montecatini-Florence-Siena-Florence-Montecatini.
Morning. A continental breakfast that has become familiar to us (ham, cheese, jam, crackers, buns, butter, tea, coffee). The kids haven't arrived yet. So everything is more or less calm...
Then they are taken to Florence: part of the group remains to wander around Florence on their own, while we go to Siena, the city where the annual summer Paleo races are held. An interesting little town divided into "animal" districts: Snail, Panther, Turtle, etc. These areas are rivals in horse racing. We had a sightseeing tour of the city and the venue of the races (a shell-shaped square), then an easy shopping of local sweets - and back to Florence.
In Florence, I was tempted to eat in a cafe - local fast food in the style of "Puzata Hata", service - Russian staff, prices - Italian (17 euros for lunch: vegetable soup, chicken chop + spinach, strawberries with cream and a glass of cola - for such money in Kyiv, this diet can be repeated at least three times).
Ahead of us is a visit to the Uffizi Gallery. Another overlay - in the gallery there was an intra-corporate meeting, as a result of which we had to stand in line for 1.5 hours. Question: why, having paid 20 euros for a future tour (by the way, it was previously said that it costs 18 euros), I, and not our escorts, should be waiting to be allowed into the gallery ?? ? Surely it was impossible for our escorts to approach the entrance of the gallery in advance and find out the situation, take a queue in advance, and then lead everyone and go to lunch at the cafe. The hour that we sat at dinner resulted in 1.5 hours of standing in one place, albeit under a canopy, but still in rainy and damp weather. The tour of the gallery is very interesting, however, while the guide talks in detail about one painting, you have to run around the hall and look at the rest of the paintings, because, after listening to the guide’s story, we immediately go to another hall. Of course, we did not visit all the halls. The tour ended at 18.00, and at 18.30 you had to be near the Montecatina bus. So we didn’t have time for an independent review of the rest of the gallery. Too bad, a place like this deserves a longer stay.
And again we trudge to Montecatini. Neapolitan children eat dinner an hour late, so
us at dinner unusually quiet. Moreover, we were told that the children were frightened by the carabinieri, who are conducting a raid today, and are very quiet, even outside of dinner. Too bad the police didn't show up the day before.
Day 5. March 5th. Montecatini Fabrio Rome
After breakfast, we left Montecatini. On the way to Rome, we stopped at Fabrio, this is a local trade transit point, where after a short tasting of truffle paste, dried tomatoes, olive oil and cosmetics on it, all this can be purchased. Well, of course, no one left empty-handed. We get on the bus. On the way to Rome, the rain intensifies. Rome meets us with wet asphalt, but the rain has stopped. By bus we go to the center of Rome, where our sightseeing tour should begin. As usual, running around Rome, we see Piazza Navona with fountains (in the form of a stadium), the Pantheon, Piazza Venezia, the Capitoline Hills, the Forum and, of course, the Colosseum (only outside). Then we will check into a hotel (4 *, Ritz - the name is as famous in Europe as the Hilton in the USA, but the hotel is old, although everything works, there is even Internet, food - one might say different from others, especially in the mornings, when is the buffet).
By the way, for the second time during the trip we were settled in 4 *. It's not that I'm against it, but if I paid 140 euros more for a tour with 4 *, then I would be offended that I paid for super conveniences, and those who bought a 3 * tour live in the same conditions...
Before the evening tour "Night Rome" we have a whole hour, so there is an opportunity to go to the supermarket, buy some dry rations for tomorrow (we are going to Naples for the whole day). In the supermarket, prices are about the same as ours, well, maybe for 20-30% percent differ.
Night Rome. Bus tour in the rain. The bus driver, Giuseppe, manages to drive along the not very wide streets and streets of Rome at such a speed that we don’t just take pictures, and sometimes we don’t have time to see the sights that the guide-accompany shows us. When asked to drive the bus slower, both the guide and the driver simply "froze off", saying that it was impossible. For such a speed of driving in Kiev, this driver would have to pay fines to traffic cops all the way. There are 2 stops along the way: at the night Vatican on St. Peter's Square and at the Trevi Fountain. In the rain, romance! So we can say that we really didn’t see Rome, especially at night - 18 euros thrown away for nothing.
Day 6. March 6th. Rome-Pompeii-Naples-Rome
After a very early breakfast, we immediately set off on an optional excursion to Pompeii and Naples. Part of the group stays in Rome to walk on their own. But I'm going to see Vesuvius. The rain is falling non-stop.
Pompeii was struck by the size of the excavations. Despite the rain, we enjoyed the tour very much. True, having bought a book about Pompeii, I realized that we didn’t even see half of it, although they took us through the ruins for a long time. Then we had lunch at a local cafe with a Neapolitan pizza and wine and went to Naples. Naples is a city of 300 sunny days a year. But not today. The Gulf of Naples (Tyrrhenian Sea) in the haze, the island of Capri is barely visible. So no one objected that our excursion was short enough: in fact, we visited 3-4 blocks from the embankment and returned back. We're going back to Rome. We arrived very late, because at the entrance to Rome there was a traffic jam due to an accident, we had to make a detour. Despite being tired, we still managed to have dinner and went to sleep. Get up early tomorrow - the Vatican is waiting for us.
Day 7. March 7th. Vatican-Tivoli-Rimini
In the morning we leave for the Vatican. Surprisingly, we get there very quickly. There is rain. But in the galleries of the Vatican Museums, this is no longer important. Then we are waiting for St. Peter's Cathedral, striking in its magnificence and overwhelming size, and then we go to St. Peter's Square, where rain awaits us again. The tour is over, we leave the Vatican and Rome, and on the way to Rimini. we are waiting for an excursion to Tivoli - Villa Dasty (local Uman Sofiyivka and Peterhof in one bottle) - amazing nature and many fountains. The most beautiful place we saw in Italy is in the yard on March 7, and we are waiting for blooming ground daffodils, violets, camellias in pots. I'm already silent about trees with tangerines. Even the rain didn't stop us from enjoying the visit - we didn't even notice it!
Then our sightseeing tour essentially ends, and we cross all of Italy to get to Rimini, from which Forli airport is a stone's throw away. And the Russian part of the group will fly out tomorrow directly from the airport in Rome. There are many misunderstandings in this forced march across Italy: it is clear that we have a charter on Wednesdays and Saturdays from Forli from UIA, but in my opinion, it was quite possible to fly back from Rome by another plane, even if it were more expensive, but the whole day we practically rode the bus, instead of seeing something extra. Late in the evening we were brought to Rimini, again on the Adriatic coast, settled in another hotel, not the one that was the first time: a room with a double bed, amenities are in order. True, some complained about the presence of cockroaches in the rooms. Thank God I didn't. True, here too a "pioneer camp" of children was waiting for us - are they on vacation, or what ?? ? Again they run, make noise, knock on each other's room, it's terribly noisy.
Day 8. March 8th. Rimini-San Marino-Forli-Borispol
Breakfast (sweet with buns, without meat and cheese). After which they urgently begin to evict us from the rooms, the maids constantly knock, ask permission to clean, in short, they survive as best they can. Do they not have a system to release rooms no later than 12.00?? ? Finally, we got tired of it, and at 10 o'clock in the morning we leave the rooms, put our things downstairs and go for a walk along the coast of the Adriatic Sea. There is no rain. The weather is getting better (well, that's right, we're leaving today! ). We looked at seagulls, crabs and shells, we go back to the hotel, where by 12.30 the transfer bus Rimini-San Mari no Forli was served. Yes, before the flight to Kyiv, the Ukrainians still have an optional trip to the Republic of San Marino. And the Russians leave Italy in the morning, they have a plane at 12.00, and they visited San Marino immediately after arriving in Italy.
San Marino meets us with large piles of snow piled up. We are high in the mountains, lays ears. In San Marino, we find ourselves in the world of Italian bags, branded sunglasses and other women's joys - such a local Istanbul. The local castle remains almost unnoticed by the female part of the group : -))))
When loading onto the bus, all the women happily brag about their "trophies": each has from 1 to 3 bought Italian bags of different prices and beauty. In general, the Women's Day was met with dignity.
We're leaving for the airport. Local turmoil, luggage packing (no longer a pity for 7 euros for "taping"! ), very inexpressive duty free, boarding the plane. The flight went well. Another plane, another crew. The landing is soft. We are at home and on time. A lot of time was spent waiting for the luggage to be received (the stewardesses secretly told one of the passengers in the toilet that the bags of our flight were being “snatched” right now - it’s just disgusting to realize that such orders are flourishing in our country! ).
But the main thing is that we arrived (I'm very afraid to fly... ).
In general, the beauty and history of Italy seen are amazing! And living conditions are not the main thing! so the vacation was a success!
