3-daagse Italië-reis: Florence en Pisa

Used Carrani Tours/ I Love Rome previously so I knew communication would be lax but they'd come through in the end. The tour started with a train ride from Rome to Florence and included half a day sightseeing tour of Florence sights and then lots of free time. Carrani Tours put me up in a beautiful Hotel Corona d'Italia but I spend the duration of the trip chasing their office for information about my return to Rome as the tour guide who brought me to Florence knew nothing. Pisa tour departed from Florence and was meant to return there but the Tour Guide left 2 elderly ladies behind in Pisa as they got delayed between the meeting point and the bus. Instead of retracing her steps back to the meeting point the tour guide just waited by the bus for 20 minutes. The walk from the meeting point to the bus was quite treacherous and the ladies wouldn't have been able to find their way on their own. That was beyond unprofessional and heartless.

Be very aware of this tour. The description makes it sound like one tour guide is with you throughout the 3 days and they are not. Gray Line I Love Rome by Carrani Tours is the tour provider and I have to say it is the luck of the draw as to who you get for your guides throughout the 3 days. Depending where you stay we were in Rome you are picked up by the first guide our guide was Antonella, very eary 6:45am, who travels with you from Rome to Florence via the train. Dropped us off at our hotel then thats it. They are gone to leave you on your own. You are given a list for the next 3 days activities and where to meet. You need to get to these meeting points on your own. We stayed at then Hotel De La Ville. It was in a wonderful area of Florence, very nice room and free breakfast. The posted itinerary changed and the trip to Pisa was the first day. So we needed to get ourselves to the bus station asap where you join another tour group of about 25 to 30 people total. Once at Pisa, you are handed off to another local tour guide who walks you thru the grounds. So for us the first day was very long...train ride, then bus ride. Alot of traveling, very little site seeing. The second day was the local Florence tour. Meeting place was the train station. Again you join an already established tour group. This was about 15-18 people. Stefano was our guide but he basically just walked us over to another guide, Favio. Favio was fantastic! His wealth of knowledge was amazing. Not only was he our guide for the city but also the Ufizi Gallery. He was the highlight of the entire 3 days. Lunch was at a local restaurant...nothing special. The last day is basically on your own. We elected to stay an extra day. They did work with us to adjust our train ticket back to Rome. So my main issue with this tour is that, in my opinion, you are given the impression that you are a single tour group with the same guide for the 3 days. When this is not the case. If you expect to be hand held on this tour do not book. If you dont mind some work on your own then you will be fine here. Reading other reviews it appears some people had really good guides...others not so much. Honestly the guides can make or break the tour experience.

Felt rushed and I was forgotten about on the day 3, when it was time to get home to Rome. Had to call and email them. Schedule on the described Tour was also different from an actual schedule.