Tuscan & Umbrian Countryside

Tour manager was exceptional. Well versed in local history and made experience the best tour that I have traveled. She made sure everyone was comfortable and able to ascend the terrain. This is my second Collette tour- and I have been extolling my kudos to all.

Lunch at local Italian family. American husband / Italian wife that rebuilt a stable into a lovely home. Delicious meal prepared by Italian grandmother.

As usual they knocked it out of the park. The tour was awesome and our Tour Manager Mari was outstanding!

Lunch with a local family in the Umbria Region.

Tour guide Jovanka was wonderful. The planned activities were better than we hoped for. Collette app was helpful. Had no snags at all with Collette service. They had taken care of every detail.

Lunch hosted by Italian family at their country home.

Collette put together a great view of the Italian countryside and culture. Excellent tour guides, great accommodations and a wonderful knowledgeable tour manger. The small size group made it possible to explore many areas a large group would never be able too.

Everything about the trip was perfect, very talented and knowledgeable local guides made all the visited sites memorable. The tour manager was able to make the tour a very pleasurable experience.

Our tour guide was very substandard. She had more interest in her smartphone than her job. English language skill seriously lacking. The hotels were ok, lots of things broken in the rooms.Pretty setting though. Our guide knew nothing of our Leonardo da Vinci tour and just ignored our repeated requests UNTIL we had left the area. Tour guide didnt show up until the day after we arrived from the airport! Arrived at 6:30 Am at airport...arranged by Collette. Got to the hotel at 8:30am, the lobby was jammed with check-in groups. Couldnt get a room until 3:15pm. It was raining heavily so couldnt explore. Couldn't leave our luggage because the hotels security room was full. So much more to be said. Lets not forget Luigi, our bus driver, an employee of Collette. Rude, discourteous and arrogant until two days before the end f the trip? Wonder why? We were testing Collette tours in preparation for a Kenya Africa trip that we are planning next fall. Collette loses that one bit time.

Read our review. We were an English speaking group and our Collette guide seemed to ignore that fact, so did the bus driver. The countryside was beautiful and the 1st wine tasting was nice. The 2nd was unacceptable. Florence and Assisi are beautiful places. Local guides were ok but seemed to think the only thing we wanted to see were churches! The home hosted lunch was very nice.

Your tour service is the worst we have ever been with! Your tour leader could have cared less about the travelers. She was busy texting and using her phone. Not to mention she was unable to communicate in English. Never bothered to talk about sites along the way....just busy with her phone. Airport service was terrible. We had to hunt through the airport to find someone. We arrived at 6:30 Am got to hotel at 8:30am and had to wait in the lobby until 3:00pm to get a room. It was raining heavily so we couldnt even go exploring (not your fault). Our tour guide never even showed up until the next day!

Siena and getting to the airport! We were signed up to see the Leonardo da Vinci museum and the tour guide said she knew nothing about it!

The trip was great. Little problem with the transportation from the airport to the hotel in Rome. My flight changed at the last minute and I called the transportation service to alert them. When I arrived in Rome, I was told I would need to wait an hour and a half so I took a cab to the hotel. The tour itself was great. *Personal Details removed by Feefo* was a fabulous tour guide.

Lunch at a private home with an Italian family.

The service was excellent. While we planned our own flights, Collette did the rest and it was all very well coordinated. Our tour manager, *Personal details removed by Feefo*, was very good. He managed all aspects for ultimate enjoyment and was, himself, a great addition to the tour. One area of improvement is product knowledge by those who provide phone customer service. I asked more than once on how many people or bus size indicating number of people on the tour. I received responses of up to 44 people. However, this was an Explorer tour so the maximum is 24.

We loved the smaller group and focus on small hillside towns! Highlights include the visit to the olive oil farm, Carletti, where the intimate setting was marvelous as was the olive oil. The cooking class in Vallo di Nera was a lot of fun and laughs. The small town is worth walking around too. The meal at a home near Bevagna was spectacular! What an idealistic home and place to live! The small towns and history the represent was also fabulous like the fortress town of Monteriggioni. Assisi and its history, cathedral are amazing and inspiring. Saint Francis is fascinating as he didn't start off as such a nice young man, but he certainly grew into a very special person. Learning of the painter Giotto who painted fresco's in the Assisi cathedral and was also the architect of the Florence bell town was beyond description. We also made some very nice and fun trip friends, Mary and Nancy, who made the trip more enjoyable with many laughs. Our tour manager was exceptional, *Personal details removed by Feefo*, and in addition to his tour management capabilities, he can sing beautifully. The weather during our tour was cooler than I expected so it's a reminder to be very prepared for expended cold weather or it could have gotten warm and Italy mandates no A/C until 6/1. We recommend this tour and Collette.

Very good tour thanks to Steve our guide.

Hotel's did not meet the expectations presented within you marketing materials. We felt like we got the second tier rooms were we stayed. Rome we too noisy, Spoleto had no heat the first night and I got a cold, and Mannaioni the room was too hot and with the window open were attacked by mosquitos.

If you can't sleep, you can't enjoy touring being weary! Tour seem to be pinching pennies as you had to buy water on the but.

This tour was everything we hoped for and more. Our guide was so knowledgeable and caring. We learned and we laughed - a lot. The hillside towns that we visited in Umbria and Tuscany were exquisite villages frozen in time and Florence was truly where the Italian Renaissance was born. We were treated to wine often and the wineries we visited were interesting and generous. In the words of my favorite wine that we discovered there - Est!Est!Est! -translated This is it ! This is it!, This is it ! - you won't be disappointed. Thank you

The tour of Siena was wonderful and informative and the city is beautiful and different. I really enjoyed this day.

Tour guide exceptional, organized, personable and knowledgeable. Sites interesting, full experience. Farm house afternoon interesting experience. Hotel staff very helpful. transport company that was to meet with me at arrivals Rome Airport failed me and should be fired. Other participants of tour who were to be transported also struggled to find them.

Great wineries and hotels

Would definitely take another Collette tour!

Best vacation we have ever taken! Our tour manager, was very knowledgeable, organized and entertaining. We were able to go to places that we would have never found on our own. Loved the local guide, Romana. Lunch at the private home was outstanding. Everything about the trip exceeded our expectations!

They are fantastic. We just came off of our own individual pre-vacation, and it was nice to relax and let Collette take care of all the arrangements and problems. I would recommend the company.

My favorite day was the trip to the olive oil factory and the cooking class.