Viva Italia Trip report 9/30-10-8,2007

[Mamadis]

Our Angel and others who have taken this tour with kids,
How did the kids hold up? We have booked the tour for 5/29/08. We have three kids who will be 5,8 and 10. We are worried about the 5 year old being able to keep up. There sems to be a lot of walking. Also, how did your kids do with jet lag? Would you recommend going a few days ahead of time to let them adjust? Thanks.

 

[3pirates]

Mamadis, no experience to share with you, but that's the one we are probably going to do! My children are quite a bit older, they'll be 17, 15 and 11, and are all boys. I don't worry about them keeping up, just about them knocking each other down the Spanish Steps or something! Their picture is in my siggie, but it's from our cruise last Christmas so is already getting dated. Anyhow, we may get to meet one day.

But somewhere is a comment from a mom who had a four year old and thought it was fine for them. Oooopps! Never mind, that was OurAngel and was on this thread!

 

[ronny1]

Steve, you're doing a great job with the trip report. Thankfully they gave us extra time in Florence cause we had a lot of AVID shoppers in our group. We shopped till we dropped. We shopped everywhere we went. Steve was the wild one in the group, though.

The kids in the group had no trouble keeping up and I think they had an excellent time. We loved them so much. It was a pleasure having them with us. All of the kids were the most loving and well behaved kids I have met. I'm so glad they became our friends and I look forward to hopefully seeing them in September at Disneyland.

The people in our group are now my lifelong friends, along with Leo and Heidi, our tour guides. I'm so lucky that I got to go on this adventure.

 

[Californialady]

Mamadis- if you haven't already, go through my trip reviews from our tour this past July. I wore a pedometer, so you will see the distances we covered on the walking tours. The weather will play a big role in how everyone feels. We had 100+ degree days and no one felt much like walking. We were also in peak crowds, something I will NEVER do again. With your May departure, you should do better on both counts. Are your kids interested in art and history? The walking is at a slow pace, but there is lots of stopping to listen to the guides. Definitely, arrive a couple of days early. It is a shame to be exhausted and not fully enjoy Rome.

Elitravelor-your daughter may surprise you. If there are other kids, girls especially, in the 11-13 age range, you might not see much of your daughter. Dinners in Italy last for 2.5-3 hours, and being with her peers will be so much more fun. She might want to feel grown up and sit with you, but in reality, sitting and listening to adult conversation for that long of a period, isn't very appealing. On our particular tour, the only "kids" that ate with the adults were the 15+, and they sat with each other, not their parents.

 

[disneytraveler]

We departed the villa in the morning for the Florence trainstation. The villa made a box lunch for all us to take . At the train station, we boarded a Eurostar train! We had 1st class seats. This was my first time riding one of these trains. Theres a lunch car and one for snacks or coffee. I did not bother ordering a lunch because i ate the box lunch. The ride to Venice takes about 3 hours. It did not seem to be that long though. Upon arriving in Venice, there was a storm. We waited for the storm to pass and then took water taxis to the spot to start our walking tour.

We saw the following sites; The Basilica di San Marco, Piazza San Marco and the Campanile. There were also some squares we visited to. The Piazza is the main square with the Basilica . There are many shops and places to eat. Around the church there are buildings with various architecture . In addition, the Basilica has mosaics telling biblical stories inside. We were able to see some of the mosaics. There is a clock tower across from the cathedral. It has a zodiological clock as well as digital clock. In addition, there are 2 mechanical figures that strike the bell for time. On top of the toweris a golden lion.

The tour concluded in the late afternoon. Around 5 pm we registered into the hotel. I was tired and did not want to go far for dinner. I asked Leo for
a good seafood restaurant near by. He recommened a place called The 40 Theifs (translated in english). The seafood was the best i ever ate. Yum! As i was finishing my appetizer, some of the group sat with me. Melinda
and Donna thought i should have some company . They asked Leo where i went. I guess they did not want me to be alone. I am glad they joined me.
After dinner , we walked around the town to find a place that serves a drink called spritse. It is wine and an apertif and something else. It was very
good. We looked for gelato for dessert.

The next morning we boarded our gondolas for a ride down the canal. The weather was hot, sunny, and beautiful! The ride was wonderful ! A great experience . Next on the itinerary was mask making at Tragi Comica!
More to come-to be continued

 

[Mamadis]

3pirates, I hope you go on that trip. My 10 year old is a boy and would love someone his own age to hang out with. Keep me posted on which date you finally decide on. We chose that one because it was not yet peak season and the early booking was still available.The next early booking discount available at the time we booked was not until Aug. and I was worried the kids would not do well if it was really hot. We are a party of seven so the earlly booking saved us a bunch.

 

[disneytraveler]

Steve, you're doing a great job with the trip report. Thankfully they gave us extra time in Florence cause we had a lot of AVID shoppers in our group. We shopped till we dropped. We shopped everywhere we went. Steve was the wild one in the group, though.

The kids in the group had no trouble keeping up and I think they had an excellent time. We loved them so much. It was a pleasure having them with us. All of the kids were the most loving and well behaved kids I have met. I'm so glad they became our friends and I look forward to hopefully seeing them in September at Disneyland.

The people in our group are now my lifelong friends, along with Leo and Heidi, our tour guides. I'm so lucky that I got to go on this adventure.

Lol

 

[3pirates]

3pirates, I hope you go on that trip. My 10 year old is a boy and would love someone his own age to hang out with. Keep me posted on which date you finally decide on. We chose that one because it was not yet peak season and the early booking was still available.The next early booking discount available at the time we booked was not until Aug. and I was worried the kids would not do well if it was really hot. We are a party of seven so the earlly booking saved us a bunch.

That is definitely our date...we saved it awhile ago to get the discount, our problem was having to finally commit...which we now have!

We chose it for the same reason...off season, early booking discount. Our children get out of school the week before. By the time the non-peak season rolls around in August, we are back in school. With high-schoolers, missing school really isn't a good option.

Lol

Oh, come on Steve, the cat is out of the bag now.... Glad you had such a great group to travel with...hope ours is the same!

 

[Camicar]

Actualy there is not much free time. The most we had was inFlorence and it was only supposed to be 3 but the guides gave us 4. We needed the 4 hours to explore and shop there. There was just maybe 2 hours before dinner at the Villa. Maybe some time in Rome to get acquainted. I looked at other tour
companies also. But for what abd offers in activities and the extras i chose
abd.

Thank you for the answer. I really appreciate it. My dh is very nervous planning a trip and is a total workoholic and therefore will look for any reason not to go. (And spending big portions of an expensive vacation with free time to shop would be a deal breaker for him. He HATES shopping.) He has a good time once we get there, but overcoming his objections is a big job. (Definitely falls under the heading of, 'Things you don't know about your spouse until it's too late.')


Thanks to all of you for your trip reports. Even if we don't go, I enjoy living vicariously.

 

[kmcrosby]

Disneytraveler how did you like Heidi? She was one of our Viva Italia guides this past June. For our family, she absolutely was a highlight of the trip. So friendly and fun loving. Very attentive to every detail. Even after the trip, she will return e-mails and remembers little things that happened during our trip that makes us all laugh.

 

[kmcrosby]

Mamadis, I would definately go at least one day early. We had trouble getting out of DFW this summer and almost missed the tour because of mechanical problems and weather delays.

If you will be staying at the Excedra, it's worth an extra day. All the hotels were great, but the Excedra had the best a/c, and this past June was unseasonably hot in Rome. Plus, the Excedra has a very nice swimming pool on the roof that overlooks the Plaza de Republica.

 

[disneytraveler]

Disneytraveler how did you like Heidi? She was one of our Viva Italia guides this past June. For our family, she absolutely was a highlight of the trip. So friendly and fun loving. Very attentive to every detail. Even after the trip, she will return e-mails and remembers little things that happened during our trip that makes us all laugh.

Heidi is terrific! She is indeed very friendly and fun loving. She made me laugh at some of the things that happened to me during the trip.

 

[disneytraveler]

Mask making was alot of fun! First the history and the materials used was explained . We could chose the style of the mask and the base color ie gold or silver. All the mask start as white then the company puts the base color on. I chose a cat face mask. I contemplated for awhile what colors of paint
and designs to draw on it. To aid us we drew outlines of our mask . As a guide on degins, we could use one of the many masks hanging on the walls of the store. I finally decided on the colors of pink , blue, and white. I tried to a thin paint brush to paint whiskers but i did not find one. With the brush i used i started to make whiskers but they turned into big white cheeks.
I used some white for the mouth and pink and blue for the eyes. As a result
a simple cat mask ! It was not to elaborate. The children did better than i did! They made very elaborate and details creations. Everyone thought this was fun! We kept our creations as souveneirs.

We had some time after mask making to explore Venice on our own.
I did some window shopping as i was walking around with Don and Ellen.
We had lunch at cafe. The sandwhiches were very good. After lunch, i wanted to go back to TragiComica to buy a Pinnochio marionette. They accompanied me to the store. It is a tradional marionette not the Dinsey version. With their help, i was able to bargain the price down 40 eros.
With their help ,i was able to buy it for 550.00 euros . The price tag stated
590.00 Everything is handmade ie the woodbody, clothing,and painting! It is so beautiful! I had it shipped to my house. Finally,
I had finished my shopping.

We met other people at the Basilica and walked backed to the hotel
from there.
Tonight was our farewell dinner at the hotel. The theme is farewell carnevale. Once again, i chose seafood as the main dish. The Hotel Di Dogi's
fried seafood plate was outstanding! Disney likes to tell stories . We all are part of this adventure in traveling. Heidi and Leo presented a nice suprise to us. It was slide presentation of us from the very first day to the farewell dinner! Disney magic once again ! How could they get the last nights party
into the presentation so quickly!? It was heartwarming seeing everyone
during the adventure.
During our time together , my friends learned that i perform magic and ventriloquism.I had brought along with me one trick to perform . I performed
at the farewell party the trick and then demonstrated ventriloquism with a human puppet. He was my audience volunteer for the magic act. A great kid!
I am glad eveyone enjoyed the act. A little surprise by me. There were alot
of suprises that night!
It was the late evening and everyone was saying goodby in case miss each
other the next day. I was invited to join some of them at the bar . I ordered
a lemocello. I wanted to try one after learning about it. It was very good.
We talked for awhile and then headed to our rooms to pack.

My departure time from the hotel was not until 12pm. I had awhile to wait.
After breakfast, i bid farewell to Donna and Melinda . I watched them leave by water taxi. Since i had a few hours to go before i left, i took a walk around the city with some of the people. We bought gelato and then walked back to the hotel. While Ronny and her parents were waiting for their water taxi, i sat with them and had some coffee and we talked. Then it was their
time to leave
I said goodby to my friends . I was alone but i passed the time away by walking in the hotel garden. There are some paths there. The time was getting pretty close to noon and i was getting nervous. Leo was not around yet. Then he appeared! He told me that he would not forget me. He asked me
what my favorite things of the trip were. Of course,Orvieto,The Villa,and some of the other things. It was now my turn to leave!
I said goodby to Leo and thanked him for everything . I met Heidi at Venice
airport and she helped me to the terminal. She also asked me what my favorites were. It turns out just about everything. We hugged and said
goodby to each other. We both said 'Lets do this again" I was her last adventurer on this leg of the trip.

The end

 

[disneytraveler]

Pictures to come!

 

[sweetinmaine]

At the Coloseum!

Great pic Steve!

The next day was a fun day and the theme was a Tuscan holiday!
In the morning, we departed the villa to go the Castello Vicchiomggio for a pasta making party. The Castello is a castle that was filmed in the movie ,'Much ado about Nothing'. I thought i would never be able to make pasta. I did alright however, i needed to make the pasta thinner. The chef
helped me by rolling it through a pasta machine.I enjoyed this event!
At the conclusion of the pasting making, we had lunch at the castle . There
was 2 type of pasta. One had a wild boar sauce! Dessert was biscotti and dessert wine to dip it in. This was very tasty!

After lunch , we had a tour of the wine cellar. We arrived back at the villa
in the afternoon . The afternoon was left for us to do ourselves. I bought 2 bottles of wine and then explored the grounds. There are some walking trails
on the grounds. I tried to see where some of the lead to. In the evening , the
Villa presented a Tuscan BBQ for dinner. The beef and pork were very good but the chicken was rather small. Still i enjoyed it.

Hey 3P! Those must be the bottles of Pinot that we asked for!

Steve, you're doing a great job with the trip report. Thankfully they gave us extra time in Florence cause we had a lot of AVID shoppers in our group. We shopped till we dropped. We shopped everywhere we went. Steve was the wild one in the group, though.

Oh do tell! We heard that!!

 

[sweetinmaine]

Great report Steve....Looking forward to seeing more of your pics!

 

[3pirates]

Hey 3P! Those must be the bottles of Pinot that we asked for!

Thanks, Steve! We knew you wouldn't forget us..just let us know when you're ready to ship them!

Great report Steve....Looking forward to seeing more of your pics!

Yes, more pictures would be great!

 

[disneytraveler]

Thanks Tammy!

 

[eva]

Mamadis, I would definately go at least one day early. We had trouble getting out of DFW this summer and almost missed the tour because of mechanical problems and weather delays.

If you will be staying at the Excedra, it's worth an extra day. All the hotels were great, but the Excedra had the best a/c, and this past June was unseasonably hot in Rome. Plus, the Excedra has a very nice swimming pool on the roof that overlooks the Plaza de Republica.

Are they now using the Excedra? On the on-line itinerary they have the Hotel Bermini Bristol for Rome.

 

[disneytraveler]

Thanks, Steve! We knew you wouldn't forget us..just let us know when you're ready to ship them!



Yes, more pictures would be great!

One white and one red wine,the red is chianti classico both from the villa