Post by Owen on Nov 26, 2015 22:32:33 GMT
Southern Italy & Sicily (Winter Tour) ~ March 2006 ~ Vera
This travel tale was written by Vera and relates to a Insight Vacations Tour.
It was originally posted on the Insight Vacations forum.
In lieu of a detailed daily journal, I’ve jotted some notes below, as well as posted some photos from the tour – which I hope you will find helpful.
I went on the Southern Italy & Sicily (Winter tour) on March 16-26, 2006. We had great weather – cooler in Rome (and we experienced some rain) but the weather became much warmer as we headed south to Sicily, though some evenings were still cooler.
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HOTELS: No complaints about the hotels. In my opinion, rooms were clean & comfortable and breakfast buffets and included dinners were fine.
ROME (3 nights): Grand Hotel Tiberio - hotel is close to Vatican city. We arrived a day earlier to do some sightseeing prior to the tour. The front desk informed us that you can catch buses down the street from the hotel, but we opted to take a cab to Piazza Navona instead.
SORRENTO (2 nights): Grand Hotel Flora – located on the main road in Sorrento, and within walking distance to all the restaurants, etc. I had a balcony overlooking the main street, it was great to sit outside and watch the cars and people go by.
GIARDINI NAXOS (2 nights): Sant Alphio Garden Hotel – reminds me of Greece, with all the blue and white colours. I also had a balcony overlooking great views.
PALERMO (2 nights): Astoria Palace Hotel – typical hotel, nothing special to write about. We were warned by our TD to be careful if going out at night, go out in groups.
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OPTIONALS: I did all the optionals offered, except for the Blue Grotto and Dinner in Sorrento (for reasons stated below).
● Rome by night and “pizza” dinner party – €41 – this optional was offered on our first night, after the Welcome drink gathering. Good food and it’s a great way to meet your tour friends for the first time. I’ve been to Rome before and since there would be other opportunities for me to meet our tour friends, I could’ve skipped this optional and had dinner elsewhere (ie. local restaurant).
● Tivoli Gardens – €39 – The Gardens of Villa d’Este. I enjoyed the walk in the gardens with the many fountains.
● Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel – €36 – this visit is the second time around for me. You can’t go to Rome and not visit the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel!
● Amalfi coast and Positano – €35 – breathtaking views that you can’t get enough of! I was also glad that we were able to visit Positano. As we neared Positano, we transferred to smaller buses to get there, and we had a couple of hours to walk around, shop, enjoy the views and even have a cappuccino right by the beach.
● Excursion to Mt Etna and “Siracusa” – €52 – you can’t go to Sicily and not visit Mt Etna! We headed up to Mt Etna in the morning when the fog was still thick.. it gave me this kind of eerie feeling (all I needed was the scary background music!).. it was windy and very cold with lots of snow around (just like home!).. but it was really amazing to be up there!… even picked up a lava rock from the ground as a souvenir! And the restaurant opened up in time for us to warm ourselves with hot drinks (espresso, hot chocolate, cappuccino).
● The “Fish dinner experience” in Palermo – €47 – a must, if you love seafood… I really enjoyed this dinner experience! We were seated in a long table, and they brought out sets of 3 kinds of dishes at time… they did this numerous times which seemed like an endless flow of seafood dishes (calamari, shrimp, fish, crabs, seafood risotto, seafood salad, marinated fish, octopus, etc!) coming out of the kitchen.. Delicious!!
● Santa Rosalia and the Capuchin catacombs – €20 – I was a little apprehensive going to the Capuchin catacombs in Palermo.. it was kinda spooky to see mummified bodies, but all was fine after some jitters at the beginning. It was also interesting to see the mummified body of a 2 yr old child, who looked like a doll. There was no picture taking allowed in the catacombs. As for the Santa Rosalia Sanctuary, we went up a flight of steps, entered the building and walked towards the small church built inside the cave.
● “Masseria” farewell dinner – €47 – a chance to celebrate a great tour with our new friends, with delicious food and lots of wine!
● “Blue Grotto” or Island cruise and Anacapri – €47 – no takers on this optional due to the weather (cold & windy). I’ve done this tour on my last trip to Italy, so I chose not to go on it this time around.
● Dinner in Sorrento – €49 – we opted to skip this optional and go out for dinner ourselves, seeing as the hotel was within walking distance to all the restaurants. We ended up eating at Caruso (recommended by our TD) which had great food (ie. Fish baked in rock salt), though slightly pricey.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This was a fabulous tour and truly enjoyable!
We arrived in Rome a day earlier and got a chance to walk around Piazza Navona, and see the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain. The Grand Hotel Tiberio is about a 5-10 min cab ride to Piazza Navona.
I had been to Italy a few years back, and had toured most of the northern and southern cities. This tour is good for those of you who have been to Italy before and would like to see more of the south. I’d already been to Rome, Capri, Pompeii and was happy to visit them again. I truly enjoyed visiting Sicily and would have liked to stay longer. And if you love seafood, you’ll love it there!
Our Tour Director was Francis Touschek and our Tour Driver was Antonio – who were both great and helpful.
No complaints from me on our stays at the various hotels and their food. When we were in the Sant Alphio Garden hotel, a group of us skipped one of the included dinners and ate at the Sandokan Ristorante-Pizzeria which was only a short walk from the hotel. Amazing food!! Mussels in broth, pasta with wild mushrooms, seafood risotto, etc, and loads of red wine – cooked on the spot so there could be a wait for your food, but it is definitely worth the wait!!!..
Our last night in Palermo was our farewell dinner where we travelled to a family-owned restaurant and B&B. We were served 3 kinds of dishes at a time (similar to the fish dinner optional) and the food kept coming and coming – antipasto, pasta, seafood, meats, etc… it was great!!
On our last day, wake up call was at 4:30am so that we can get to Palermo airport early enough to check in for our flight to Rome. The unfortunate part was the clocks turned back that same night, so in essence, our wake up call was at 3:30am!! There was a long line up at the airport, even though we were the second group in line (a Trafalgar group was first). We lined up together but checked-in individually... and interestingly, as time ticked on and line-ups were getting longer, there would be people who'd try to sneak in within our group line ... so everyone banded together and “stuck like glue” to each other so no one else could sneak in. Flight back to Rome was about 1 hour.
I recommend this tour and would definitely do it again!… I just wished it was longer – 4 days in Sicily was too short of a trip!... Smiler
PHOTOS: Please click the following links
Southern Italy & Sicily - Part 1 = forums.insightvacations.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/84110241/m/168108472
Southern Italy & Sicily - Part 2 = forums.insightvacations.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/84110241/m/939108472
Southern Italy & Sicily - Part 3 = forums.insightvacations.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/84110241/m/540109472
This travel tale was written by Vera and relates to a Insight Vacations Tour.
It was originally posted on the Insight Vacations forum.
In lieu of a detailed daily journal, I’ve jotted some notes below, as well as posted some photos from the tour – which I hope you will find helpful.
I went on the Southern Italy & Sicily (Winter tour) on March 16-26, 2006. We had great weather – cooler in Rome (and we experienced some rain) but the weather became much warmer as we headed south to Sicily, though some evenings were still cooler.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
HOTELS: No complaints about the hotels. In my opinion, rooms were clean & comfortable and breakfast buffets and included dinners were fine.
ROME (3 nights): Grand Hotel Tiberio - hotel is close to Vatican city. We arrived a day earlier to do some sightseeing prior to the tour. The front desk informed us that you can catch buses down the street from the hotel, but we opted to take a cab to Piazza Navona instead.
SORRENTO (2 nights): Grand Hotel Flora – located on the main road in Sorrento, and within walking distance to all the restaurants, etc. I had a balcony overlooking the main street, it was great to sit outside and watch the cars and people go by.
GIARDINI NAXOS (2 nights): Sant Alphio Garden Hotel – reminds me of Greece, with all the blue and white colours. I also had a balcony overlooking great views.
PALERMO (2 nights): Astoria Palace Hotel – typical hotel, nothing special to write about. We were warned by our TD to be careful if going out at night, go out in groups.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
OPTIONALS: I did all the optionals offered, except for the Blue Grotto and Dinner in Sorrento (for reasons stated below).
● Rome by night and “pizza” dinner party – €41 – this optional was offered on our first night, after the Welcome drink gathering. Good food and it’s a great way to meet your tour friends for the first time. I’ve been to Rome before and since there would be other opportunities for me to meet our tour friends, I could’ve skipped this optional and had dinner elsewhere (ie. local restaurant).
● Tivoli Gardens – €39 – The Gardens of Villa d’Este. I enjoyed the walk in the gardens with the many fountains.
● Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel – €36 – this visit is the second time around for me. You can’t go to Rome and not visit the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel!
● Amalfi coast and Positano – €35 – breathtaking views that you can’t get enough of! I was also glad that we were able to visit Positano. As we neared Positano, we transferred to smaller buses to get there, and we had a couple of hours to walk around, shop, enjoy the views and even have a cappuccino right by the beach.
● Excursion to Mt Etna and “Siracusa” – €52 – you can’t go to Sicily and not visit Mt Etna! We headed up to Mt Etna in the morning when the fog was still thick.. it gave me this kind of eerie feeling (all I needed was the scary background music!).. it was windy and very cold with lots of snow around (just like home!).. but it was really amazing to be up there!… even picked up a lava rock from the ground as a souvenir! And the restaurant opened up in time for us to warm ourselves with hot drinks (espresso, hot chocolate, cappuccino).
● The “Fish dinner experience” in Palermo – €47 – a must, if you love seafood… I really enjoyed this dinner experience! We were seated in a long table, and they brought out sets of 3 kinds of dishes at time… they did this numerous times which seemed like an endless flow of seafood dishes (calamari, shrimp, fish, crabs, seafood risotto, seafood salad, marinated fish, octopus, etc!) coming out of the kitchen.. Delicious!!
● Santa Rosalia and the Capuchin catacombs – €20 – I was a little apprehensive going to the Capuchin catacombs in Palermo.. it was kinda spooky to see mummified bodies, but all was fine after some jitters at the beginning. It was also interesting to see the mummified body of a 2 yr old child, who looked like a doll. There was no picture taking allowed in the catacombs. As for the Santa Rosalia Sanctuary, we went up a flight of steps, entered the building and walked towards the small church built inside the cave.
● “Masseria” farewell dinner – €47 – a chance to celebrate a great tour with our new friends, with delicious food and lots of wine!
● “Blue Grotto” or Island cruise and Anacapri – €47 – no takers on this optional due to the weather (cold & windy). I’ve done this tour on my last trip to Italy, so I chose not to go on it this time around.
● Dinner in Sorrento – €49 – we opted to skip this optional and go out for dinner ourselves, seeing as the hotel was within walking distance to all the restaurants. We ended up eating at Caruso (recommended by our TD) which had great food (ie. Fish baked in rock salt), though slightly pricey.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This was a fabulous tour and truly enjoyable!
We arrived in Rome a day earlier and got a chance to walk around Piazza Navona, and see the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain. The Grand Hotel Tiberio is about a 5-10 min cab ride to Piazza Navona.
I had been to Italy a few years back, and had toured most of the northern and southern cities. This tour is good for those of you who have been to Italy before and would like to see more of the south. I’d already been to Rome, Capri, Pompeii and was happy to visit them again. I truly enjoyed visiting Sicily and would have liked to stay longer. And if you love seafood, you’ll love it there!
Our Tour Director was Francis Touschek and our Tour Driver was Antonio – who were both great and helpful.
No complaints from me on our stays at the various hotels and their food. When we were in the Sant Alphio Garden hotel, a group of us skipped one of the included dinners and ate at the Sandokan Ristorante-Pizzeria which was only a short walk from the hotel. Amazing food!! Mussels in broth, pasta with wild mushrooms, seafood risotto, etc, and loads of red wine – cooked on the spot so there could be a wait for your food, but it is definitely worth the wait!!!..
Our last night in Palermo was our farewell dinner where we travelled to a family-owned restaurant and B&B. We were served 3 kinds of dishes at a time (similar to the fish dinner optional) and the food kept coming and coming – antipasto, pasta, seafood, meats, etc… it was great!!
On our last day, wake up call was at 4:30am so that we can get to Palermo airport early enough to check in for our flight to Rome. The unfortunate part was the clocks turned back that same night, so in essence, our wake up call was at 3:30am!! There was a long line up at the airport, even though we were the second group in line (a Trafalgar group was first). We lined up together but checked-in individually... and interestingly, as time ticked on and line-ups were getting longer, there would be people who'd try to sneak in within our group line ... so everyone banded together and “stuck like glue” to each other so no one else could sneak in. Flight back to Rome was about 1 hour.
I recommend this tour and would definitely do it again!… I just wished it was longer – 4 days in Sicily was too short of a trip!... Smiler
PHOTOS: Please click the following links
Southern Italy & Sicily - Part 1 = forums.insightvacations.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/84110241/m/168108472
Southern Italy & Sicily - Part 2 = forums.insightvacations.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/84110241/m/939108472
Southern Italy & Sicily - Part 3 = forums.insightvacations.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/84110241/m/540109472
