Review By Penny D. - Nokomis, FL - US (September 2023)

Cooking in Pina and Bruno's home, Michelin Star restaurants and guided history tour of Venice.

Written By:	Penny D.
Rating:
Location:	Nokomis - FL - US
Review Source:	Website
Type of Traveler:	Couple
Itinerary:	Bologna

Full Review

I am struggling to write my review because I have such mixed feelings on this trip.  The trip was described as a family experience but the group of guests were highly dysfunctional.  The tour is very different in terms of you are cooking in peoples homes, attending local small businesses and even cooking in a Michelin star restaurant.  The host family for the cooking Pina and crew were fantastic.  We wanted to immerse ourselves in the Italian local culture and the cooking in a family home did just that.  My husband tried to speak mostly Italian as well with the locals and they were gracious in working with our rudimentary Italian.  The food was amazing most of the time ( one night of local appetizers after the Michelin star restaurant cooking class was terrible) but the excursions were lovely and the history guide we had in Venice was so good we hired her privately when we went back on our own to Venice the following week.  The problem was one very obnoxious couple traveling with several others in the tour that constantly wanted to change things to personally fit their private groups needs.  The leader of our tour became overwhelmed with their daily demands of change.  She made the mistake of giving into their demands.   From the first night they were asking for special things.  On Monday we cooked in the private house, they demanded the tv be turned on to a car race and kept the group in the host family's living room for close to  an hour after the cooking class was done!!!!  The tour guide apologized but things like this hap pend daily.  Now I get this tour involved cars and attracted people who love fancy cars, and lots of  money.  But this group tried to make it into car focused vacation and were obsessed with trying to get private tours and special privileges involving cars.  Those six really were not into eating nor cooking.  The group of six went against the guides advice and got ripped off buying cheap balsamic vinegar at outrageous prices , then made the tour guide call the police  and the vendor.  Then they left the group to go back to return it via cab, then  went off on their own somewhere to visit a racecar drivers house but had the nerve to show up in their group of 6 and hour and a half late to a lunch at the winery and still got served, while the rest of the group sat there being ignored by the host, cutting into our free time that day which we had very little of on the trip.  Those 6 people should have been told they could not attend the lunch at all due to their off tour excursions and not be allowed to  be so rude to the host.  The woman and her husband were constantly complaining and started asking the rest of the  group " are you really enjoying this trip, the food is this or the tour is that ... It was only at the end of the week when the 6 guests completely bailed from the group that the guide and the rest of us were  able to relax.   Last but not least, we need more lunches or dinners on our own.  Too much food and togetherness does not always work. After the trip I toured with another company and quite frankly had a much nicer time.  In that company if a guest is outrageous like this couple was on the tour , they blacklist them.  Bottom line, if you do not like food, cooking or trying new things this is not the tour for you.  I enjoyed the people that had gone into this wanting to be immersed.  Unfortunately out of the group only 4 other people besides me and my spouse had that attituded.  People who want special tours or accommodations should travel on their own and hire private guides.

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Sample Photo from this Itinerary