Ciao Florence Tours & Travels

Unilocaler Jim D and I booked with the Ciao Florence Tours & Travels agency a tour of the Principality of San Marino and Bologna. As it turned out none of the tour portion of San Marino could actually be conducted by Ciao Florence Tours as there was a San Marino law that any such tours of San Marino must be conducted by a San Marino resident. The governing powers of San Marino will tell you that such is to assure you have «certified and knowledgeable» tour guides but I think to actually be a plug for Local 101 of tour guide union or meant to increase local employment. So, in actuality that part of the tour was contracted out, and the tour guide, as far as tour guides go, didn’t amount to much. Being the foodie I am, I would have thought there would have to have been some local indigenous food specialty of San Marino, or at least something particular to San Marino that might distinguish it or set it apart from Italy. I there was, however, she didn’t say anything about it. It was more like one of the tours wherein you’ll hear the same, «one your right you’ll see and old historic church, on your left is a view point of the valley below, you’re now free to wander around on your own, just be sure to find your way back to your bus on time.» So, pretty much a bunch of blah, blah, blah with little if any helpful or interesting content in what she had to say.“
Then, as for the Bologna part of the tour, which was conducted by Ciao, we were lead to the center of town and again pretty much left on our own. We were told of some decent restaurants, but not lead into them, told anything about the distinctive foods of Bologna, treated to anything as a group. For me this real letdown. After all, isn’t the area world famous for certain sausages with the word «boloney» actually having been derived from their famed meat based sausages, especially those comprised of black pepper, nutmeg, allspice, celery seed and coriander seasonings? So, for me, again pretty much of a blah type of tour as it didn’t do anything for them that I couldn’t have easily accomplished on my own.
The only reason to take one of these tours is for the ease of travel which Ciao attended to rather well. Other than that, since you are mostly left on your own, not worthwhile. So as actual informative tours go, meh! I’ve been on better.

We took the all day tour from Florence to San Marino with a stop in Bologna the tour guide was fantastic it was a smaller van going is 3 ½ hours with just one stop in if you’re old like me and Marcus you need a stop more than once there views from the top of the city are breathtaking Bologna was nice lots of people but I prefer Florence but if you have four or five days this would be a must tour but the tour only takes place once a week on Saturdays

We went on a tour today to Pisa and Lucca with a sweet tasting. This was by far the worst tour I have ever been on. The pamphlet said this bus had wifi and it didn’t. The tour guide a small woman was horrible. Her meeting instructions were not clear so we were constantly looking for people. Then the bus left and she realized she was missing two people. Shouldn’t she have counted the people before the bus left. Save your money and go on My Tours and fabulous experience with caring knowledgeable guides

Horrible experience. Not worth the money. Expensive and our guide was a waste of time — «follow me to this church. OK, now meet me back here in three hours.» We would have been way better off taking the train.