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Duration: Nine Hours -  8:30am - 5:30pm

Type of Service: Full day Valpolicella & Amarone Wine Tour

During the day, we'll visit two celebrated wine estates to taste the Famous Valpolicella wines, like the Amarone, Valpolicella Classico, the rare Recioto and other wines.

In between wineries, we'll travel through the enchanting Valpolicella hills, stop for lunch (optional) at a local trattoria, where you can taste some of its local cuisines, and time permitting visit a lovely small village perched on top of a hill from where you can enjoy beautiful vistas over the surrounding scenery: the view on a clear day arrives as far as the Lake Garda.

THE WINES
The region boasts numerous types of indigenous grapes that have been naturally selected over the last 2,000 years. Like the famous wines of Bordeaux, the wines of the Valpolicella are made from a blend of these indigenous vines. Each vineyard has its preference in regards to the types and quantity of grapes used in the production of their wines.

On this tour, you'll enjoy two full wine tastings and vineyard tours of two selected vineyards in the Valpolicella wine region. At each vineyard, a local expert sommelier will conduct a tour of the vineyards' facilities so that you fully appreciate the unique methods of production utilized to make the very special wines of the Valpolicella. With this new knowledge at hand, you'll be able to truly appreciate the unique and diverse wines that you'll taste at each vineyard. Noting the subtle differences between the different wines produced, and the varied tastes they produce on your palette.

THE COUNTRY
In between vineyards, we'll traverse the soft undulating hills that stretch like fingers from the high mountains above, to create the valleys where the Amarone and Valpolicella wines are produced. You'll be enchanted by the lovely country with hills covered in vines, olive and cherry trees punctuated by small rural and sleeping villages. Along the way, and time permitting, we'll pause at a lovely small village, from where, on clear days, you can enjoy views of Lake Garda and visit an Ancient pagan temple that dates back to Roman times.

THE CUISINE
You'll have an additional opportunity to taste the Valpolicella wines during the optional lunch at a selected local trattoria, that excels in both its regional cuisine and its choice of local wines.

After completing your wine tour of the Valpolicella, sit back and relax while we head back to Venice arriving at approximately 5:30pm (1730).

Things to Know:

  • Visit Two Selected Wine Estates
  • Two full-wine tastings with appetizers at selected wineries in the Valpolicella hills with olive oil tasting
  • Enjoy samples of Amarone wine as you learn about its production
  • Tour the Cellar and Vineyards
  • Mercedes vehicle or similar make with an English speaking driver - private tour
  • Meeting Point - Your English speaking guide will come and meet you at Tronchetto water bus station, Venice, at the platform of the water bus line nr 2 station holding a sign with your name written on it.
  • Directions: You can arrive at Tronchetto by taking the line nr. 22 Water-Bus from the Rialto Bridge. For clients not staying near the Rialto Bridge, please ask your Hotel Concierge how best to arrive at the Tronchetto Water-Bus Station
  • Exclusion - Lunch ( optional) is not included
Published in Venice Half Day Tours

Duration: 3 Hours

Type of Service: Discover Florence Walking Tour - private tour

Explore the most important sites in Florence with your very own privately guided walking tour. Your English-speaking guide will meet you inside your hotel lobby, and then you will embark on an adventure and learn what it’s like to live as a local in the Renaissance city. With your guide, they will bring you around to the most important sites including the following:

  • Piazza Signoria, with the gorgeous outdoor sculpture gallery – the Logia dei Lanzi
  • The Ponte Vecchio, the oldest and most gorgeous bridge in Florence, dotted with little artisanal gold jewelry shops
  • Via del Corso, the famous shopping street
  • The Duomo, the famous church of monumental proportions, featuring Brunelleschi’s famous dome
  • The Accademia, where you can see the David by Michelangelo, we will provide skip-the-line tickets
  • Church of Orsanmichele, with its gorgeous architecture and outdoor sculptures
  • Admire the Palazzo Vecchio on one side of the square, once the Medici family home, and the many sculptures that surround the piazza, including a replica of Michelangelo's 'David' where the original once stood
  • Piazza Santa Croce, an important piazza and church in Florence in which many famous Florentines are buried, including Michelangelo and Galileo

Things to know:

  • 3 hour central Florence walking tour, led by an expert local guide
  • Explore the San Lorenzo neighborhood and learn about the Medici family
  • See the Medici Chapels and the Basilica of San Lorenzo
  • Walk around the Duomo Complex
  • Stroll through Piazza della Signoria
  • Visit Florence Accademia Gallery (Galleria dell’ Accademia) 
  • Skip the line tickets for Accademia Gallery - tickets must be bought 10 days in advance
  • Choose morning or afternoon tour time frame (3 hours)
  • Most Popular and Highly Rated tour
  • The Accademia Gallery is closed on Mondays, therefore the tour will visit an alternate museum 
  • Tour offered 7 days a week, based on availability / no tour dates available December 24 - January 2)
  • Wear comfortable walking shoes
  • Tour can be customized around your preferences to include shopping and fun food stops along the way
  • Tour does not operate the last week in August and the first week of September
 

Duration: 2.5 hours walking tour and (includes 30-minute gondola ride) - tour begins at 11:30 am

Type of Service: Walking Tour of Venice with Gondola Ride 

Follow your expert, English-speaking guide through the quieter streets and piazzas of Venice. As you walk, your guide will captivate you with histories of Ca’ Dario, the cursed (and possibly haunted) house whose owners have continuously met untimely and often suspicious deaths. You’ll learn why music schools around the world are called ‘conservatories’ at Fondamenta degli Incurabili, the hospital where monks took orphans from the streets and trained them as nurses and world-famous musicians.

Along with local legends, you’ll hear tales of familiar characters. You’ll see Harry’s Bar across the canal, where Ernest Hemingway once kicked back after a long day of writing. You’ll see the home of Peggy Guggenheim, the heiress who lost her father to the Titanic but gained the means to build one of the world’s most interesting art collections. (Back in her day Peggy used to scandalize the locals by sunbathing naked on her roof and parading around town with a pack of tiny dogs on leashes.) Remember the play, Othello? You’ll see the house where Desdemona supposedly lived before her tale was transcribed by an Italian author and stolen by a man called William Shakespeare.

Your tour ends on the sweetest note with a gondola ride along the quieter back canals of Venice. Relax as a gondolier, in his ubiquitous striped shirt, rows along waterways built for these very vessels. With a maximum of five people per shared gondola, your tour will be intimate and, with no commentary on this section of the tour, quiet and romantic too.

Things to Know:

  • Discover the famous landmarks and hidden gems of Venice, first by land, and then by the sea!
  • Step away from the crowds and get off the beaten track with this original tour that explores Venice’s less seen, more romantic face on the other side of the Grand Canal
  • Accompanied by an English- speaking local guide, enjoy a leisurely walking tour around the city’s charming bridges, streets and hidden squares.
  • Admire unique architecture and Renaissance masterpieces while your guide shares fascinating tales from the history of this former maritime superpower. 
  • Small group tour for best experience - group size 24 or less
  • Headsets so you can always hear your guide on the walking tour
  • Relax on our pre-booked and pre-arranged 30-minute gondola ride with a local gondoliere and just 5 other people.
  • Toured Offered only on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
  • Tour begins at 11:30 am
  • Meeting point - Accademia di Belli Arti (more details are given upon booking)
  • Wear comfortable walking or tennis shoes

 

Published in Venice Half Day Tours

Duration: Two hours and Thirty minutes 

Type of Service: Cicchetti and Wine - Venice's Appetizer and Wine Walking Tour

Taste your way through the back street's bars of Venice with this delicious appetizer and wine tour. Your guide will take you to 3 different enotecas to discover where local Venetians go to drink, eat and mingle. You will visit a nearby bar that occupies the former site of a charcoal store and then stroll over to the Cannaregio neighborhood and visit a 18th-century watering hole on the bustling street of Strada Nuova. The tour will then cross the Grand Canal on a traghetto passenger ferry and stop at the historic, open-air Rialto Market, where many Venetians shop for daily fresh produce and seafood. You will visit one more local bar in central Venice.  Each tavern has its unique atmosphere and specialty appetizers  (Cicchetti) dishes. Your tour will end at the iconic Rialto Bridge.

 Things to Know:

  • 2.5-hour Venice food walking tour with a food-loving local English-speaking guide
  • Visit three of the city’s best Cicchetti bars, famous for their Venetian tapas-style dishes
  • Savor small plates of local specialties like marinated seafood with polenta
  • Private walking tour
  • Minimum of 2 with a maximum of 8 people
  • Tastings and one beverage of choice at each location included tour cost
  • Wear comfortable walking shoes
Published in Venice Half Day Tours

Duration: 6 Hours

Type of Service:  Private Tuscan Castle and Ancient Cellars Visit with Cooking Class and Wine Tasting Experience near Florence - small group tour/cooking class

The day will begin with your private, English-speaking chauffeur picking you up in a Mercedes at your hotel. From there you will head up into the beautiful rolling Tuscan hills to a castle in the countryside. Once at the castle, a staff member will lead you on a private tour of the enchanting castle which includes its wine cellars and vineyards.

The castle has an incredibly rich history and was built by the Pazzi family in 1184 AD. At the height of Florence Renaissance in 1478, the Pazzi  family masterminded in these castle halls the now infamous plot to kill two outstanding representatives of  Florence ruling family, the Medici. With the “Pazzi Conspiracy,” the family - long rivals of the Medici - intended to eliminate Lorenzo de' Medici and so dethrone Florence ruler. Today, in the Castle nucleus,  the magnificent “Conspiracy Room” can be admired.

After the tour, you will have a cooking class with three courses which include learning to make handmade pasta, sauces, and dessert. Once you have finished cooking, it’s time to try your masterpieces along with three wines produced at the vineyards of the castle in the castle dining room. Then, you will meet your driver who will take you back to your hotel.  A beautiful and intriguing castle, great food, and delicious wines are awaiting your arrival.

Things to Know:

  • In a 4 hour experience, you get to visit a still inhabited 900-year-old castle and wine cellars, you cook 2 different type of handmade pasta and 2 sauces, dessert and taste 3 wines during the light lunch with the self-cooked food
  • Private castle tour and wine tasting at a historic estate located 45 minutes from Florence
  • The castle tour and wine cellar visit last about 55 minutes and includes the historical part in the castle's courtyard, the family history in one of the private rooms
  • The Pazzi family’s crest still adorns our courtyard today and was created by one of the true Renaissance masters, Donatello.
  • Learn about wine and olive oil in the ancient cellars and enjoy a typical Tuscan snack of crostini, olive oil, salami, and cheese
  • Cooking class with personal chef
  • You will have the opportunity to purchase farm products like pure saffron, honey, cheese and natural cosmetics, wine and olive oil, available in the farm gift shop - at the end of the tour, you can walk in the vineyards, olive groves and take pictures in the countryside
  • Florence hotel pickup and drop-off in luxury vehicle with English-speaking driver
  • No more than 12 people in small group tour and cooking class
  • Private Castle and Cellar Visit is available for groups 4 or more.
 

Duration: 4.5 - 5 hours

Type of Service: Truffle Hunt with Lunch and Wine Tasting - day tour from Florence to San Gimignano

Visit a unique Winery located outside the medieval town of San Gimignano, in the province of Siena. The Giachi Family has been producing wines since 1720. You will spend an amazing time as your host teaches you to taste all the wines produced at this estate and hunt for truffles with dogs who are trained to seek black and white truffles.

Located at the entrance of the Valley of Chianti, in Tuscany, about 45 minutes from Florence. This winery, is a place of relaxation and fun with food and wine. It’s the ideal place to enjoy wonderful wines and Italian specialties. A most precious delicacy of the region is the exquisite, world famous black and white Truffles. You will partake in a truffle hunt with dogs for 60 minutes and then enjoy a Tuscan lunch that includes appetizers: Tuscan salami and cheeses, Bruschetta (Bread with Olive Oil). First Course: Truffle lasagna with meat sauce. Second Course: Roasted meat with potatoes and vegetables. Dessert: Cantuccini with Dessert Wine and the tasting of over 12 wines.

Things to Know:

  • You will enjoy a truly authentic "truffle hunting", accompanied by an expert truffle hunter with dogs, through the flat Tuscan woods
  • In the private truffle land in Tenuta Torciano, you will find precious white and black truffles
  • Learn to identify the different species of trees and the ideal habitat for the growth of truffles
  • Enjoy a 4-course lunch with dessert and wine tasting
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off from Florence Hotel
  • Luxury Vehicle with English-speaking driver/guide
  • Tour offered Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday (March - November)
  • Tour begins with hotel pickup at 9:30am
  • Wear comfortable clothing and walking or tennis shoes
Published in Other Cities

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