Viva Italia light
Today we returned from the Viva Italia light tour from Incomartur (27.06) and decided to leave a review about the trip. Let's dwell on the main points of the tour: on the second day of the trip (transit day) a stop at a hotel in Slovenia and a bonus bathing in thermal springs. Five plus. Day three: Successfully organized travel along the coast line, wonderful views of the South of Slovenia and Italy. The hotel is average but ok for a one night stay. Day four: Accommodation in a hotel near Florence. The hotel is good. One drawback is very far from the city - an hour bus ride, which actually affected the fifth day - staying in Florence until 3 pm was exhausting and traveling in a crowded bus for an hour to the hotel unfortunately did not allow me to return to the city in the evening due to lack of strength to overcome such a road again a second time. Day 6-7 stop at the hotel in Rome (the hotel is chic) Rome is magnificent! 8-9 days the hotels are terrible, especially on the 9th day they are not even hotels, they are motels and even for one night they are too dead cockroaches. Plumbing does not work - boiling water from a cold tap. The only plus is Lake Balaton, which seemed to us in the morning.
Now regarding the organization of excursions. Having quite a lot of experience behind bus tours, the innovation was the imposition of headphones for 10 euros, while whoever did not take the headphones does not hear anything at all, as the accompanying Sergey goes and mumbles directly into the microphone and even walking next to him is heard very badly. Further excursions were conducted by the accompanying group, with the exception of excursions in Rome and Florence. It can be seen that Sergey is quite erudite and, in principle, he led excursions well, however, it seemed that he was always running away from tourists, turning into lanes quickly and unexpectedly, and even in headphones did not focus attention that now we would turn left or right (in comparison, local guides did exactly so) besides, usually for such cases, guides raise up, for example, an umbrella. Now about prices - in fact, most excursions are more expensive than indicated on the site, for example, an excursion to the Vatican on the site is 35 euros in fact 37 euros. Santo Croce website 5 euros in fact 6 euros. etc. Compulsory tips for drivers of 5 euros were also unexpected, although it was they who showed high professionalism in their work. The bus is very comfortable. There were no delays and problems. Now about the excursions: we were practically forced to go on all the excursions - for example, we wanted to abandon the excursion under Lake Trasimer and go for a walk on our own, to which we received the answer that you would then generally sit on the bus if you did not pay. I had to pay 15 euros and to be honest it's not worth it, you could just walk around the towns for free. (5 euros the real price of this tour). Further, evening Rome also does not cost 20 euros, since we walked in the same places the next day according to the basic tour of Rome number two. The only pleasant moment Sergei treated us with wine, although we do not think that it should cost twenty euros per person. Overpriced for gondolas in Venice - our group shared six people (so many people can sit in a gondola) and each gondola cost 13 euros (on the website they offer for 20 euros).
In general, the tour program is very rich and in 11 days allows you to see almost all the most interesting places in Italy. Impressions are very vivid! However, the program provides for early rises every day and when visiting all excursions every day (with the exception of two evenings), a late return to the hotel. On the 6-7th day of such a regime, you begin to get tired. Therefore, it would probably be rational to reduce this tour to 8 days.