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).
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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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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