i have just come back from the viva italia tour (9-14 thru 9-22). 4 people in my family went. we did not use dvc pts. but felt that the money was well spent. i don't think that we would have been able to find all of the things that we saw by ourselves in such a short time. we covered so much ground it was unbelieveable. 2 members of our family group were very experienced in european travel. just not italy.
i would now be willing to try it myself, but i still don't think i would be able to experience as much.