Rita Pagano

This hotel was beautiful, we had a wonderful time here. The dinner was spectacular.

We had a great experience here. The amenities were great, including the rooms and breakfast. The hotel staff also did a great job when there was an extended power outage, making sure people were comfortable and taken care of. We are grateful!

Clean but basic accommodation but was fine for our needs

Staff was rude. We actually opted to not have dinner there (which was already paid for) so we didn't have to deal with them.

Excellent

Ana was awesome and we loved this experience. Food and company was excellent.

Guides were excellent as was the lunch stop

It was raining and our guide (Pedro?) was happily willing to continue the tour. He did an excellent job and the tour was great

Guide and driver were excellent. Wineries and lunch also excellent

Karla was excellent and this was a really fun tour with a lot of really good food. Great experience!

Guide was really good, knowledgeable. He customized our tour for us and was spot on

What an amazing experience this cooking class is. My husband and I have taken many cooking classes in the past and this was the most unique so far. We were not aware before arriving that the class would be in a locals home. We also expected a "small group" but for our class we were the only ones. A private class, learning from a local---making traditional food, that she has made her whole life, what could be better? We started by making pasta dough and letting it rest. Next was desert, each making a tiramisu for later. After that was a type of Tuscan dumpling made of spinach, a small amount of parmesan cheese, some salt and flour. I was so surprised how this turned out. Are you getting tired yet? Cause there is more...next was a potato filling for a tortellini, that we later made by rolling our pasta, cutting to size, piping the filling, and learning to fold into pillows of awesomeness! Donatella took over from there, giving us a glass of wine, water, and tomato and white bean bruschetta. She cooked the spinach dumplings with a simple tomato sauce with garlic, and the tortellini with olive oil, and sage. Simple ingredients, and unbelievable flavors. I was so surprised, and left full and very happy from the experience.

Our guide, Daniela, was on time and personable, providing history and commentary. We chatted on the hike up the hills and through the trees to the castle. (really more of a tower, but still very cool). We stopped and took pictures part way up, also a good time for a rest, drink and to cool off. Once at the top the views were amazing, but we continued on, going inside the tower and climbing to the top. At the top the 360 degree view as promised was worth the hike. It was so pretty. We could see up Milan in one direction, the Lake and valley in the other. We had a nice tasting of a Barbarossa wine and some crackers while enjoying the view before walking back down, and returning to our hotel.

We had an amazing time learning how to make Neapolitan pizza. Our small group was just us (2 people), and we started by learning what simple ingredients are combined to make the pizza dough. After making our own dough, we were taken back to the pizza station in the kitchen, right next to the wood oven and made our own pizza. We watched the professional cook the pizza and then we got to take it to our table and dig in. A very fun experience, with a bonus friend pizza provided by the restaurant for us to try and take home. (too much good food is such a wonderful problem to have).

This is up to a 1.5-2 hour drive from Naples each way. It's a long day of being in the car. We started at the Cheese farm for a short tour. We learned how they take care of the Buffalo, and got to see them up close and even got to pet them. After hearing about how the farm is run we tasted some cheese. It's so different in flavor and texture from cow mozzarella, you really can taste the difference. It's a nice place, beautiful grounds with coffee shop, restaurant and pastry shop on sight. (our paperwork said light lunch, and all there was for lunch was the cheese, so be aware and ask your guide to stop someone for food or grab a pastry) The ruins in Paestrum are really interesting, it was less crowded and had a very different from Pompeii if you decide to do that. We had a great guide named Mario who gave us history and commentary, taking us through the museum as well. Not as much to see due to the history of the ruins overall, which again is different from Pompeii but if you like history it's really enjoyable.

Really fun, hands on experience. I highly recommend. We helped to make, what turned out to be pretty simple, a small batch of limoncello and our instructor (Valentino) made it really fun. Playing that he had an injury so we had to do the work we peeled, shook, and combined all the ingredients. When it started to sprinkle, and we we went inside from our private view overlooking the water, they quickly got setup to show us how to use more of the lemon (no lemon goes to waste here) to make lemon marmalade. I was surprised how much I like it, and look forward to trying both recipes at home. This was an amazing experience with a friendly family run business, and I will not only buy from them in the future to ship, but I encourage everyone to to stop by for a tasting or to do the hands on experience. They love what they do and it shows.

We have started to do a food and drink tour on all of our vacations because of how interesting they are and how well it's done. Our Venice experience did not disappoint and from start to finish Beatrice was an excellent guide, telling stories, and history and generally keeping our group engaged. At each stop everything was planned and ready to go and the food and pairing were excellent. As a vegetarian, each stop was able to accommodate my diet with substitutions that looked better than whatever one else was having (but I might be biased). From a Prosecco I had never had before (and loved) to wine (you choose white or red) and ending with a nice dessert wine to sip -- everything was delicious and felt very customizable. We left happy with the experience, getting an idea of the overall city of Venice which helped us to get around later. We also left stuffed, with no need to think about dinner.

The drive takes a little over an hour to go to Siena (our first stop) where we got about an hour and 15 minutes to explore before heading off to the winery for lunch and our tasting. After lunch we went to San Gimignano where we had about and hour and a half to explore before heading back to our starting location. Both stops were really nice, with beautiful views and architecture to admire. We got a pastry and some stuff to take home while window shopping in Siena. We had the biggest slice of pizza we've ever seen an a nice glass of a local wine. At the Winery we had a great table outside with a wonderful view. After a brief introduction to the winery and the wines we had our first tasting paired with bruschetta, cheeses and salami. For our meal we had a choice of pastas or a traditional tuscan stew (a vegetarian choice). The food was wonderful, and the wine paired nicely bringing our the fresh flavors in the food. Our last stop was San Gimignano, where we got a gelato while wondering through the streets and shops.

A great activity to see Naples. We met Clemente at Neptune's fountain and started our tour by heading to see the Castle Nuova from the outside because it wasn't open yet, Galleria Umbero I, with all it's beautiful details (being restored to a sparkling white marble), walking by the theater where the Opera was held. Next to the Royle Palace, with statues in every archway. As we continued to walk we went through the narrow streets, hearing history and dodging shoppers. The tour ended at the underground ruins which was really interesting and worth a trip--it doesn't take too long, but it's a good place to cool off it's it's getting warm outside. A nice 3 hour trip taking it all in and hearing stories from a local who loved to show off his city.

Pompeii was so much larger than I expected! Amazing historical site. Our tour guide, I think might have been Mike, was great. The wine tasting was a nice break between larger experiences. The food was very good, but not too much to feel overly full. The grounds were very nice. Mount Vesuvius was more of a hike than I expected, but the guide was interesting.

This was a nice walk that took us a few blocks from our starting point and showed use some history of Florence. Seeing the David and hearing about about that was probably the highlight. I think it was the perfect length for the walk, at the right pace, as well as the time we needed to see what we saw.

This is a fun idea and I did enjoy the trip, but keep in mind how long it will take to get where you are going. We spent a lot of time in the car. The roads are narrow and speeds are low so it takes twice as long to go a short distance. We stopped for an hour which was nice to look in shops and get a feel for these buildings on the side of the mountain. We also did a limoncello experience (which I recommend and have reviewed separately) but that took 2 hours from our day so we didn't go to the 3rd stop on this tour. Additionally the only way home is the same way you came, so it took us roughly 2 hours to get home after our last stop. Even though we were not driving the say felt long, with a lot of sitting in the car.

Beautiful hotel with a warm and friendly staff. Walkable to many tourist sites and lots of restaurants and cafes. Rooms are spacious and well appointed.

A beautiful boutique hotel on one of the most walkable streets in Porto.

Wonderful accommodation, staff & location.