Turin Tours and Trips

Excellent tour, and Dario, the tour guide was the best! Hotels were generally very nice - settings were exceptional. Slight snafu with water being turned off in the hotel 2 days in a row, but assume that couldn't be helped! Dario added a vineyard and wine lunch to appease, and it was lovely. We particularly enjoyed the evening where we prepared our own dinner! Thanks for everything - we will travel with Collette again!

What a wonderful week! We especially loves Cinque Terre and the La Spezia region. Mike, our tour guide was amazing and all accommodations, tours, and everything in between was wonderful!

We loved our time in Italy! It is so hard to pinpoint my favorite part of the trip. I enjoyed the tours and all of the information the tour guides knew about the areas we were in. I loved seeing the architecture of the buildings and churches in the cities especially Florence. I also very much loved Cinque Terra and the history there. The cooking class was also very fun. Enjoyed learning about Italian cuisine and wines.

Thursday -10/17-Day 6 BEST DAY EVER!!!! Remember my story about the wine and food pairing for Chefs class that Stu bought me for my 50th birthday in Napa Valley? Well, this day trumped that experience! Today’s Private cooking class from Casa Grande’s Chef Guila was life-changing! I learned so much straight from the expert, hands on, in a real Italian kitchen dating back to the early 1300s, oh my God, the pictures and videos that Stu captured are amazing and will be cherished for the rest of my life. I am ready to bring this new knowledge and skills back, and teach it to others because the quality of ingredients, the freshness, textures, and flavor profiles, are indescribable and so much fun to learn. It was exactly what I needed to regenerate my passion for cooking and teaching. So grateful to Stu for making this possible and encouraging me to do it, even though I really was not feeling it last night. He knows me better than I know myself. And in only two hours, we made four types of focaccia bread, personal pizzas, calzone, white table bread and potato gnocchi with pesto! I even got a proper pronunciation lesson to boot. I had to promise her I would pass that lesson along to anyone I taught these dishes to. When everything was cooked and ready, we got to sit down in a very intimate dining setting in the family dining room just off the kitchen and enjoy all that we had made. Stu had plans to go to the gym and for a swim while I was taking the class, but it was so interesting for him that he stayed and took pictures and videos and even joined in and made his own pizza, it was such a good time. One of those things that just happen that you can’t really plan but he just knew that if I showed up, it would be an experience of a lifetime and he was right! Guila opened a 2019 bottle of Sangiovese Rosso for our meal and we dined like the King and Queen of the casa. After the Rosso we had more of the dessert wine with biscotti, said our goodbyes with much appreciation to Julia and stumbled back to our room through many hallways and staircases, trying not to get lost, again. About to take a big fat nap so much for the rest of the day! We are done! Buona notte!!

Awsome, lots to see and do, nice accommodations, great tour bus and driver. Excellent tour manager. He keeps things lively and fun. Great guy! My experience included service from the front door and back home to the front door. Who could ask for more.

We experienced Italia at is best. Great cities like Torino a jewel! La Spezia, Pisa, and Figline near Florence. The daily tours were well balanced and we were spoiled with a very knowledgeable and very nice Tour Director. The Hotels were very well chosen with all amenities and very bountiful breakfasts.