Why is Italy Rick’s favorite country? In this show, Rick and tour guide David Tordi uncover the answer by exploring Italy’s great cities — canal-laced Venice, Renaissance Florence, and eternal Rome; by sampling Italian countryside delights from the Chianti hills to the traffic-free Cinque Terre; and by savoring the “abbinamento” between the country’s renowned food and lovingly produced wine. Plus, they share how you can experience all these wonders and more on a Rick Steves Italy tour!
Recorded 1/23/24. *Promotions may no longer be valid.* #festivalofeurope #ricksteves
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Good evening everyone and welcome to Rick Steve’s Festival of Europe I’m Lisa friend and I’m delighted to be your moderator this evening as we do our first Deep dive into a destination Bella Italia please put your travel dreams in the upright and locked position as I have the pleasure to introduce our tour
Guide for the evening Rick Steves ciao Rick ciao Lisa thank you so much it’s great to be with you it’s great to be with all of our Travelers and we are going to Italy and that just puts me in a good mood right there so we want to
Thank you for joining us as Lisa said every night this week at this hour we’re going somewhere in Europe and next Monday we’re having a big party right here in my house a virtual party and you’re welcome to join us we’ve invited our staff we’re going to have a blast
And right now we’re going to go to Italy so thanks for much so much time I’m going to get right into it because there is a lot lot of ground to cover um this is our schedule for the week and as you can see here every night we’ve got lots
Going on and if you are curious about any of these destinations you are more than welcome to get on board and join us now when we’re thinking about our tour program Italy really kind of dominates it’s our bestselling guide book it’s our bestselling tour we’ve made more TV
Shows in Italy than any other place and tonight we’ve got all of these different tours that we’re going to be talking about if you look at that you can see Rome is one of the great cities of Europe there’s a week dedicated just to Rome there’s the heart of Italy if you
Got a little bit of time and you want to see a representative sampling of that beautiful Peninsula we got the best of Venice Florence and Rome if you want the biggies in 10 days if you want to focus in on Tuscany you can do that if you
Want to head down to Sicily you can do that if you’ve done the best of Italy and you want to go south while that’s a very popular tour Village ity goes to all the little tiny spots to get into into the culture of the countryside and
Of course the best of Italy tour is just the greatest hits there’s also a my way tour which I’ll talk about later but it’s a a tour that comes with the bus the hotel and the breakfast it’s less expensive less regimented it’s just you and the and the guide book to enjoy
Yourself as you go that’s a my way unguided tour we have the most wonderful gang of guides this is something that I am just so thankful for when I travel uh we take 30 ,000 people to Europe every year and they are in the capable hands
Of this gang we’ve got 150 guides that just really are the core of our program as we offer more than a thousand departures at Rick Steve’s Europe every year and these are all the itineraries here across Europe and uh today if you look at the most dense um concentration
Of tour roots in what we call the spaghetti map it’s Italy and we’re going to zoom in on Italy just a quick review because we’ve got so many itineraries I’m not going to talk about specific itineraries we’re just going to talk about the wonders of Italy and then you
Can decide what turns you on and find out the itinerary that fits your your vacation time and your budget and your interests this is the big tour and this starts up in the north you fly into Milan and you and you have your first couple of days on romantic Lake KO then
You go through the Alps you got Venice Florence the Riviera Sienna Tuscany Umbria C and you finish with a finale in Rome wow if you want to do everything but you don’t have all that time the last nine days we can think of is what we call the heart of Italy and that
Would be starting in Rome doing my favorite Hilltown voltera my favorite bit of the Riviera that’d be the chinua and finishing with Florence the art capital of Europe if you’ve done the best of Italy and you want more the best of Italy goes as far south as Rome this
Picks up from Rome and does a wonderful 13 days in the South a bunch of offbeat attractions a bunch of romantic Countryside and it finishes after Rome it finishes in Naples with sento the the Mofi Coast the aisle of cpri and the Greek ruins at Pam if you’d rather get
Right into one region of Italy the most popular in romantic region I would say is Tuscany and this is one of our newer itineraries and we’ll talk about that in a few minutes and I mentioned the MyWay tour this is the unguided sort of best
13 days in Italy and uh that is a delight if you’d rather be more on your own but have somebody else do the driving and arrange all the hotels for you I took my family on the village Italy tour uh because I wanted to go to all the
Places that whose names we don’t know uh and this is the best of Italian culture without going to the famous cities and uh it is a delight for those who are connoisseurs of Italian culture a very popular tour our bestselling tour of all is Venice Florence and Rome of the 40
Some tours that we offer this itiner is the bestselling Americans have the shortest vacations in the rich world and you could not get a more intensive 10 days of sightseeing than this or nine days three days in Venice three days in Florence three days in Rome wow what a
Great trip you can do that with a rick Steve’s tour you can do it on your own all of these tours you can use as a springboard for your own independent Adventure that’s what our guide books are for or you can hire us to do the driving and arrange everything and uh
We’d love to take you around that’s what the guide books are for everybody who takes a tour gets the appropriate guide book for where they’re going and if you want to do it without um without the guide in the bus and just do it on your
Own that’s what the guide books for too but this is our our passion is to make sure these guide books are right up to date now I am blessed with a lot of friends all over Europe and I I’ve got more friends per square mile or square
Kilometer in Italy I think than anywhere else and I am just uh so happy to be able to share an event like this with one of our guides and that is the man you see right there David Tori and David is waking up um about 3:00 in the
Morning right now in Italy and David thanks for joining us good morning everyone cha thanks for having me it’s a pleasure hey you don’t look like you just woke up out of a deep Slumber how are you feeling no I feel fine I feel fine I I got a good early
Night sleep so I’m all ready to go that’s great well you’re a mission you’re a musician right so you know the the late hours with your band yeah hey David how long have you been guiding tours with Rick Steve Europe This is my 10th season 10th season nice and you um
Uh you live in orto which we’re going to go to and and orvet is a sort of a classic Hilltown tell us a little bit about your life in ORV what do you do in ORV and what what’s it like to live there it’s very cozy I mean I live just
An hour north of Rome two hours south of Florence in the middle of the country I barded three regions Soto is logistically one of the finest stops uh in Italy because you can reach anywhere you like within an hour or two life is very simple you know you know we don’t
Really Drive much we walk all over the place I own a car and a scooter but I’m almost always on my scooter on my feet so nice well and you’re very safe because you live on top of a a volcanic Plateau right a little plug and it’s actually the place where for centuries
The pope would go for Refuge when Rome was unsafe correct correct we’ve had many popes residing here that’s also one of the reasons why we have a lot of great art architecture and and history in town and food and you’ve got some great wine nearby I’m drinking some uh V
Notio for our little party what are you drinking in Oro right now I’m drinking some Grappa and um you know Grappa is a distillation of grape uh grape skins so if this is if this is beef you’re doing you’re having beef jerky I think that’s the correct correct oh baby graa all
Right well Chin Chin Chin Chin salute Eric so David I’m going to I’m going to whip through a lot of territory here and I’m glad you’re with me to help out so um we’re going to carry on here and uh thanks again for joining us but oh this
Is where you and I uh met just a year ago I think in oreto and I remember uh it turned out we both had the same scarf which is kind of nice uh you got your scarf Andy I’ve got my scarf right here I have it here all right we we’ll
Recognize each other when we’re when we bump into each other in Italy um so uh when we are thinking about this uh tour ah Venice is just an amazing place and uh Venice is a place that just does not disappoint it’s the best preserved City in so many ways anywhere in Europe and
When you look at this city here it’s shaped like a fish and you come in by the causeway you see at the mouth of the fish there in the upper left and the Grand Canal is like the the the the grand intestine really everything comes in at the mouth and everything dumps out
There at the bottom and that’s where the Doge’s Palace is and the St Parks Basilica and we stay right downtown and you can walk everywhere you want to go within 10 or 15 minutes the amazing thing about benice is there’s no no new buildings a lot of tourists not many
People who live there I think 60,000 people live there but in the summer it is packed out I love looking at uh paintings from a couple hundred years ago and you can see from a couple hundred years ago until today really not a lot of change just different people
And uh it’s a timeless Wonder Venice there’s the does Palace and there’s the does Palace today uh this is an interesting photograph for me because this is the reality of Tours and uh uh David we need to be mobile with our bags don’t we because there’s many cases that
I think a good tour cannot get the bus immediately to the hotel that’s correct yes especially in places like vanice or my town or VTO if you pack too large it’s it’s it’s a it’s a problem to to walk around so we always recommend packing light and eventually towards the end of the
Tour if you want to buy an extra bag for yourself that’s more than better more than fine but to travel around pack pack lights you can always put a box or another bag under the bus and leave it there for your what we call Deep storage
But I find that a lot of the medieval Town centers no longer let um traffic in and the buses can’t get that close to the hotel and that’s great because it’s quiet there’s no traffic congestion you hear the birds in the morning but you got to be mobile with your bags a great
Thing about the location of our hotels is you can get up before breakfast you can walk around after dinner it’s safe and it’s just the magical time like in Venice when there’s no tourist crowds I like this Photograph here David because it reminds me when I’m leading a tour
One of my favorite things to do is hold the map for the local guide that we hire to show off his or her town right how does that work on our tours it’s incredible because the job of a local guy together with the job of a tour guy
Like me running the whole tour is the best uh use of uh any any tour members time because we we we get to spend two three hours with an expert a local expert which will know everything better than a tour guide specifically in details about the area so what you’re
Doing is just the perfect combination supporting the local expert and you or I could give a walk through Venice and it would be perfectly fine but there’s something great about having somebody who lives there who knows what it’s like to to be there all year long with their
Neighborhood friends and so on and that’s something that we invest in with our tours because we have so many great local guides as so many and also so many great tour managers like you uh with our tours we try to maximize the experience for instance in Venice we’ll see the
Mask maker and he’ll do his thing for the group as we gather around fun souvenir and we also give something that could just be a touristy stop meaning because there’s a cultural foundation for these Traditions a lot of people complain about the crowds I think our
Guide to know how to get away from the crowds you can walk 10 minutes from all of the tourists and find yourselves in some beautiful idyllic wonderlands in Venice and you wonder where are all the tourists again we want to organize as many lifelong memories as we can in
Venice you really need a gondola ride and that’s a fun thing to organize for our groups and we have that experience and it is quite quite an amazing thing uh on our tours all the breakfasts are included and about half the dinners are included and uh it’s the guides uh joy
To find a place that fits the group that makes the memory and also help the tour get the most out of their free evenings because H it’s nice not to be with the group every night for dinner half the nights you’re on your own and there’s plenty of options for people I love
Going to the bars and eating ugly things on toothpicks in Venice it’s called CH and David tell me about this wonderful tradition of chti in Venice and the Italian um philosophy of U what do you call call it AB Abino what is Abino Abino in Italian means
Pairing when you pair two things or more uh together and they match just right for your in this case for your pallet so two completely distinct flavors together they make a perfect Heavenly flavor when I when I was 20 years old just slumming through Italy on my first time I
Discovered pretto and cantaloupe or Melon right melon and ham salty ham sweet fruit wrapped together and I didn’t know what aino was I just thought there’s something crazy good about this well that’s no accident Italians know how to pair things like that it’s a good marriage when you have a nice red wine
With just the right cheese or meat I can’t put my finger on it but it really is like the the whole Majesty of the meal comes into Focus doesn’t it yes it’s like when two people meet you know two different people together they often create something special you know
AO I never thought about that in the case of a two people in a romantic relationship well we’ll have that at our meals uh we are right in the center of town we’ll be on campus or Pat San Marco and listen to the orchestra and uh we’ll
Be there uh if there’s a high tide and a wind and a and a perfect storm of conditions we’ll have a flood it happens quite often and the first place to flood is the main Square uh and it’s a reminder that we’ve got some serious work to do when it comes to climate
Change that’s for sure uh in the lagoon around Venice you’ve got plenty of places you can go visit most popular is Morano where we can go to see the glass works or you can go out to Bano famous for its lace making and also for me just an idyllic pastel Village likee Venice
That really is quite Charming now 3 hours on the bus south of Venice we get to Florence Florence was the epicenter of that cultural explosion called the Renaissance 500 years ago and here we see the Arno River with historic Bridges and we are we stay probably within five
Minute walk of the Pono with most of our groups don’t we oh yeah even two there’s one of our hotels is just at the end of Paco in the old town and and the nice thing about that is you can drop by your hotel in the middle of the day you can
Go out in the in the evening you can uh you have that sense of being being anchored in the center of the town you know a f minute walk away you’ve got bruni’s Dome the the kicked off the architectural Renaissance at the at the Beloved dwomo in Florence on the main
Square we can see uh remnants of the medich and their old offices were called the uiti that’s the um the word in Italian for offices and today the ofit is the greatest collection of Italian Renaissance paintings anywhere anywhere in the world and to going there is great
But David tell us what it is like to go in there with a great local local art historian it’s Priceless honestly it’s Priceless um when when we hire local guides uh like in this picture we have Ricardo A good friend of mine from Florence he’s a Florentine born and
Raised and he’s been guiding uh local guiding tours for like over 35 years and it’s just uh an outstanding use of our time and by the end of the walk through the museum in this case we’re inside you Fe in this picture people have a wealth of knowledge uh Beyond imagination you
Know David I know that the typical tour company just takes the next guide there’s a list of guides and they don’t know who it’s going to be and they book them and they get the lowest price and they meet him at the bus and they jump
On and do the thing uninspired you know Ricardo I know from all of my Italian guide friends that Ricardo is beloved and we choose him he loves us and we work together for years that is an intangible beauty of our tour program that we should be proud of because it
Really does make a difference another thing that we do is we make reservations in advance to avoid the crowds so many people are spending so many precious hours waiting in line but we have an appointment and it’s complicated in Italy because everybody wants to go to the same place you can imagine the
Crowds going to David but we go there with res we got reservations right now for our groups months from now because we do not want to be standing in line because we want to go and see David and be able to look into the eyes of David
And look into the eyes of Renaissance Man and with your guide you’ll know the importance of humanism and the birth of the modern age in Europe that really happened right there in Florence I know from my own experience what a joy it is to be with groups with curious Americans who have
An attention span and really want to learn and have a transformational tour and David as guides it really is a thrill to have this opportunity to show off the culture whether it’s the high culture or even the Sweet Gelato culture there is a lot to teach and a lot to
Enjoy this is a very crowded photograph of the Courtyard at the EIT Gallery in the middle of the day and I show this just to remind you that in peak season at peak times in Peak cities like this it’s a mosh pit but even in the most
Crowded Square in the most crowded month if you come back after hours it is literally all alone and all yours and for me David one of the magic things about Florence is to take a stroll after dinner it’s totally safe and on the P ofo what might you find you might find
Live music you might find lots of people hanging out and uh meeting each other for the first time or for the lifetime it’s just it’s just incredible and the way we run our tours is perfect because um we stay in the heart of the action so people even if you’re jetlagged and you
Cannot sleep you just walk down the street in your flip flops and you’re right here it’s incredible really and it feels safe it feels like a neighborhood and as you said there’s beautiful music it’s like a concert at 10:00 with no crowds at all you know the typical
Tourists are jamming into the places between 10 and 4: and then they’re in their hotel that evening watching TV uh they do everything following the umbrella of their tour guide and they’re parked outside of town so the only way to get into town is to get onto that bus
Pay the extra for the optional tour and go downtown uh a lot of tour companies want to keep you in the countryside because the hotels are less expensive for groups uh they’re modern hotels so there’s no quirkiness and there’s no complaints because the elevators work and the air conditioning works and we
Stay in funky 400y old hotels right downtown that have poison ality don’t we oh yeah big time Big Time I I would I wouldn’t exchange it for the world I wouldn’t it for the world really it’s just uh it’s just magical you know you these these are all items of a traveler
That make the group Bond you know let’s get out for a drink let’s get out for a stroll absolutely and when we cross the river we get into Ultra Arno in the United States in our history we always had the wrong side of the tracks you
Know all the decent stuff was on the big side of the tracks and then if you cross the tracks that’s where you had the um the non-conformist let’s put it politely well in Europe they didn’t have the train they grew up not on train tracks
But they grew up on Rivers so you have the wrong side of the river you got you know um the South Bank of the temps in London you got the Latin quarter in Paris you got Triana in seevilla you got Trav literally across the Tyber River in
Rome and in Florence you got the ultra Arno over the Arno River that’s where the action is historically and even today when you cross that historic bridge and get into the old part of town David what kind of characteristic change do you feel about in Florence well you
Definitely feel um less crowds because there’s less popular highlights on the ultar in this case over the Arno on the other side but you get immersed in the culture in the local uh people in the local shops you see local florentines talking to local florentines going to local Florentine shops their daily life
You know it’s just magical and we take our groups to a cooking school or a cooking experience in that District along with all of the artists and the Galleries and The Artisans we see can you tell us a little bit about this t uh the the the food experience whether it’s
In Florence or somewhere else on our Italy tours yes anywhere on our Italy tours on all of our itineraries where possible we have cooking experiences we just don’t call them cooking class because we all put our put our hands in the dough and we learn the the ancient
And and yet incredible technique of of making Italian food pasta is one of the main dishes of course but we get to learn how to make Italian desserts how to make Italian vegetables how to make an Italian Sofrito to the base of an Italian sauce we learn all of these
Things and then people when they go back they they enjoy making it on their own and then we eat it that we eat it we M because I I I did the wonderful experience in in Florence in trust Tav and we made this this beautiful lunch
And it was delicious it must for me it was the best meal in town uh I I felt very proud that we actually made this meal and then ate it it’s a beautiful experience yes okay a couple hours south of Florence we get to the Eternal City
And that’s Rome and to walk the ancient streets of Rome this is the Via Sacra the sacred way from 2,000 years ago the common grounds around the fabled Seven Hills of Rome the Roman Forum remember in its heyday 2,000 years ago the PX Romana the word Rome meant more than
Just the city the word Rome was what how you referred to the Civilized world everything was Roman or Barbarian if you spoke Greek or Latin uh you were in the Roman Empire and and you were in the Civilized world and of course to the Romans everything north of the Ryan
River was just Bar Bar Bar like a bunch of animals up there barbarians hardly human uh that was the Roman Empire at its peak the the they actually called the Mediterranean Our Lake marrom and and if you look at this map look at how Central Rome is to that Empire what an
Amazing thing to be able to go to Rome the capital of that Empire with a good guide and then you’ll understand the Coliseum 50,000 numbered seats they could fill it in and empty it as quickly and efficiently as we do our modern stadiums uh uh when you get to the uh
The rubble of Rome I know from my days when I was a tour guide back as when I was in my 20s there was nothing more rewarding than to sit my group down on a bunch of pieces of a broken column and explain the rise and fall of ancient
Rome and uh David now we have local guides like Franchesca that take us around and uh and and they’re really quite amazing aren’t they David at at make bringing life to the ruins big time yes this is uh Franchesca in this picture Franchesca one of our finest
Local guides in Italy I have to say she specializes in Rome and again here you’re inside the Coliseum with an expert uh you go through the crowds um you move around you find your own quiet spot and then you learn and you soak it all in thanks to somebody like
Franchesca and she’ll know how to how to interpret the the propaganda carved into the marble on an arch like this and she’ll know how to let us imagine what this city was like 2,000 years ago when it was the only city in Europe with a million people look at that it’s just
Mindblowing I you know it’s amazing to me David that there are actually ancient doors that have been swinging on the same hinge for nearly 2,000 years yeah this is one this one is in the Roman Forum has the original uh key lock the original hinges and still functions
Probably better than most of the doors in my house that’s kind of an interesting thing when you see things malfunctioning in Italy you kind of go hey you guys the Romans did this 2,000 years ago this is the square facing the pantheon and the pantheon is the
Building that gives us really an A Feeling a feeling and an appreciation for the magnificence and the Splendor of Rome at its Zenith this was the biggest Dome built up in until that time and as as far as I understand David it remained the biggest dome in Europe for 12200
Years and when you step in during the middle of the day it’s just mobbed and this is a good example of the fact that during peak season if you go to the famous places in the middle of the day put on your shoulder pads you know but I
Like to go early and I like to go late and you can’t avoid the crowds all the time David but tell us a little bit about the art that you employ to help your groups enjoy a place like the pantheon more like this this is a peaceful moment in the pantheon that’s
Correct so if you go on the early side or on the late side uh by yourself you are always away from the crowds uh almost always of course but in general when it’s a crowded moment it’s probably better to take a left or right turn and
Go see something else and then go back to the main highlight the pantheon is one of the biggest highlights in Europe not only in Rome so of course it’s crowded but when you see crowds it means that the level of what you’re looking at is unique and in this case it definitely
Is unique so it’s worth the hassle it’s worth the extra 10minute line doesn’t matter it’s a one in lifetime experience this this is poured concrete it’s amazing from 1,00 years ago um you know what I think is interesting is when you go to Rome you can see the ancient
Foundations of the Renaissance the Renaissance is the rebirth to the greatness of classical Rome you know and that happened around 1500 in Italy it started in Italy and spread elsewhere I love the thought David that Michelangelo and the the great Renaissance Architects they were not so proud or or or bold to
Say we’re going to do this they’re going to say let’s take two elements of the ancient world the basilicum accentus for instance look at how big this ruins of a basilica is and the pantheon and let’s put them together we’ll put the Dome of the pantheon on top of the Basilica
Maxentius and we can make a big church and call it St peters’s but that is two ancient elements put together the does that make sense to you David as a guide that’s exactly correct the Renaissance is The Rebirth of our ancient classic knowledge so on top of that uh with
Newer technology 500 years ago we were able to put several elements together and and make it what we call today Italian and European Renaissance I love it and when you’re going to tell people all about that you’re going to be a good guide like we see right here and put
Your people in the shade right yes especially if it’s June or July but but yeah could be warm but the in Rome there’s always a nice breeze the So-Cal pentino oh the pentino I love that oh baby there’s a oh geez um and here I just love this shot because it
Does show a guide that is compassionately keeping his group in the shade in the shade of an of a of an Egyptian obelisk that’s twice as old as the Roman Empire that was moved there from Egypt and that’s the Obelisk that uh St Peter saw in the day he was
Martyred 2,000 years ago and then they took his body up to the and buried it on the humble uh on the hill there that you see the church now those little Vatican cemetery and then 300 years later the emperor Constantine became a Christian and Bam you can worship uh in the
Daylight there and they built a big church and for all for for centuries now this has been the the headquarters of a billion Roman Catholic Christians and to go there and to understand the history and the importance of this and Michelangelo’s beautiful Dome and the
Guy with the bushy beard and the big key has got to be Peter and he’s buried in the middle of that church and up there in the dome you see six foot tall letters with that gold leaf Mosaic and it says in Latin to as petris you are
Peter and Upon This Rock I will build my church it is so important when we go there to understand it in its terms I went in there for years as an angry Protestant just pissed off and then I realized no become a Roman Catholic as
You go in see it on its terms see it in its context understand what what it was meant to be why was it built why did they pay for it and then you go in there go wow this is quite an accomplishment 500 years ago to step into the greatest
Church in Christendom and to gaze up at that Dome and to think that was the design of Michelangelo and then in the back of the church you’ve got the incredible P another statue by that same artist Michelangelo I do want to remind anybody who’s thinking of our tours I I
Want to be straight with you this year is the first year that tour companies are generally not going to the Vatican Museum it’s this is the Vatican Museum it’s too crowded the Vatican doesn’t want to let in big groups and it is more practical to go as individuals so this
Year we’re giving people free time in the afternoon who want to go to the Vatican you need to book it like so many important sites these days after covid you have to book it in advance but it’s pretty straightforward you just got to do your due diligence as an independent
Independent traveler and make your reservation buy the ticket and be there and enjoy the vaan Museum and what we’re relying on is the audio tours that we’ve produced uh Rick stev’s audio Europe you’ll be using that occasionally on your tour there’s 60 free tours on our
App and one of those does cover the Vatican Museum but uh you will not be able to see your way to the next uh stage of the ATA Museum these days uh it is so crowded and if you want to see the cine Chapel you can do it but I just
Want to remind you this year we won’t be able to do that with our groups at night Rome is is just sparkling and it’s sparkling with floodlit treasures and that’s something we love to do I just love to be on the Via do Corso David and
Uh be there when they shut down the traffic and everybody’s out strutting their stuff and all over Italy you live in a small town or Vio and two hour south you is the biggest city around Rome and it’s the same thing isn’t it tell us about the passata it’s the same
Thing all over the place whether you live in aund 100 people Village or in a 4 million City people City like Rome Italians love their stroll Pata is the stroll is the slow walk with no destination you don’t have to go anywhere you just come downstairs dress as much you know as you
Like and just take a stroll meet your friends your family or nobody and maybe have yeah I love it you can uh you know if if you like you know that’s the time when you make the scene isn’t it let’s say you got let’s say you got a new
Scarf and really are proud of your scarf and you want to put it on and maybe you’re going to find a neighbor that’s wearing the same scarf and then you goia come good I’m drinking some great wine here do you know the uh kuchi we’ve been visiting the
Cana I’m having Cafe Corto right now ah okay little espresso with a with a shot of graa inside oh tell me more about that that’s called Cafe coretto Cafe coretto yeah my grandfather father taught me the name cuz in Italian Cafe coretto is Coffee espresso with a splash
Of of Grappa if you want the harsh flavor or sambuka which is an like an Anis leor swe um coretto because for the old Generations coffee without alcohol was considered wrong so they corrected it with with alcohol so correcto is correct right correct correct Cofe how do you say incorrect uh non correct
Cafe Corto I have a I have a cafe non Corto every morning yeah so hey I know you’ve got your um coffee maker there because you’re a connoisseur of traditional coffee can you give us a little tour of your coffee maker of course I just used it 10 minutes before
We we we started we we should remind people David it is six o’clock here in Seattle but for you it’s about 3:00 in the morning you’ve gotten up for this party that’s correct so I’m having my coffee to wake me up but then I have my
Graa to put me back to sleep for another nap so I usually make coffee the old way before the invention of espresso machine the one that you all might have seen at an Italian Cafe Bar uh we have the mocha mocha was invented in the 30s by Mr
Baletti and it’s a machine made of three pieces I’ll show you in a second so there’s the head there’s the filter little filter and then there’s the chamber so you feel this with water to the knob and then you put the filter in and you fill the filter with coffee
Powder ground specifically for mocha different consistency and then you have the most important part which is the the upper chamber so you screw it tight and like this you put it on the stove medium low fire low fire is better and then the percolation happens so the pressure of
The water goes through the filter with the powder and it fills the upper chamber and then you stir the the upper chamber and you pour it in your Italian tsina which is also the name of my cat and then you drink your coffee and then you rinse this and you put don’t
Wash it with soap just rinse it no washing with soap there you go thank you this is the kind of fun that I love when I’m in anywhere in Europe with friends that know what’s going on in that culture thank you for that little insight that was that was really really
Nice and uh I hope you’re enjoying your Cafe correcto I hope you’re having am all right well let’s carry on with our this is uh this is the uh comp F here and uh it’s just one example of the neighborhood squares that we can see and
We like to lace together with a nice walk through the evening uh five minute walk away is pavona and famous for its fountains by Bernini and then a 10-minute walk from there we get to the Trevy Fountain which is famous for Romantics to toss a coin in to make sure
They can go back hey I want to review with you what’s included in these tour when you’re thinking about a rick Steve’s tour uh first of all all the sseeing included which is really important to me um uh we have small groups 24 to 28 people rather than 50
People on a 50 seat bus we have uh about uh two seats per per person uh you’ve got a rick Steve’s guide and a local guide uh and this is very important because there is a philosophy of travel that we all have in common um we took
30,000 people on our tours last year and half of them were return travel and they were coming back because they had a good experience with their last guide and they’re expecting the same quality of an experience with the next guide and that’s what we’re very proud of our
Accommodations are not you know fourstar fancy Resort Hotels they’re two or three star hotels located in the center of town they’re generally not chains they’re generally one-off family run hotels uh in in a beautiful part of town they’re safe they’re friendly uh they’re quiet and they work just great for us
All your breakfasts about half your dinners are included and all the tips are included something really fundamental David about the way we do our tours is the fact that we’ve made all our money upfront we pay our guides up front pay the driver up front the tipping’s all included all the
Sightseeings included there’s no shopping for Kickbacks and you know because you’re a professional guide if you wanted to work for another company you would get a smaller wage and an in in encouragement to make money with tips and kickbacks on shopping and selling sightseeing optional tours right that’s
Correct that’s also one of the many reasons why I’m really happy to guide uh for Rick Steves Europe because the the the the quality of the tours but also the philosophy mainly the philosophy is what really triggers um tour guides and and and tour members and travelers to
Join these stores we we do no Kickbacks we have no interest whatsoever where people go and Shop if they need some advice of course we’re there to provide advice personal advice like another person but no no interest in that I’m so glad that you guys and me we’ve made our
Money up front we’ve advertised it honestly it might cost a few more bucks from the start but when the dust settles your tour cost probably less than the other kind of Tours and your guide is on your side from the beginning rather than keeping you in the dark in order to sell
You things and make more money after you’re already on board yes that’s correct and that also works for the meals you know when we decide to even when we decide to have an optional meal uh outside of the the tour schedule and everybody wants to
You know I’m happy to say okay A friend of mine has a restaurant 10 blocks away do you want to walk let’s go and then everybody pays their own fee and and we all leave and we enjoy well I’m so thankful that you guys enjoy teaching rather than selling options and taking
People shopping for Kickbacks because you don’t need to and that’s why I started this tour company 30 or 40 years ago hey um we want to remind people that next Monday we’re having a big party right here in my house a virtual party and you are virtually invited to come um
And my staff is actually going to be here and it’s just a blast and we’re going to give away two tours next mon um Monday and anybody who attends um any of these um U evening events this week uh can fill out the form and get their name
In the list and the odds are not that bad and you might win yourself uh uh uh tour to any of the the great cities that we do in Europe also I want to remind you that uh if you book during this Festival time until February 5th and you
Use the promo code you’ll save $100 per seat on the tour last year we did this Festival over 22 days every night there was an event like this and I want to stress that because this year we’re getting a little lazy we’re just doing it for eight nights in a row and that
Means David and I are covering what we covered in four hours last year in one hour the point is if you want more information on what David and I are talking about we’ve got all of this archived it’s all recorded it’ll feel like you’re just with us like you are
Right now live and if you look here you see on H Tuesday January 10th uh we covered Venice Florence and Rome in a whole hour uh on January 15th David joined me and we went to the Italy Countryside uh and then on the 21st we went to Sicily we won’t even be covering
Sicily this week so there’s an hour on Sicily there and then on the 29th I did a sort of a extra just the joy of Italy evening also with David Tori uh the point is there’s four hours of information on our tours in Italy right there if you are interested in any of
That if you go to our website at ricksteves.com go into the tour section and when you drill in there and you find the tour and you look okay this is the heart of Italy tour you will then be able to click and watch uh the show here
Of your choice I hope that you can take advantage of that and I also want to remind you that we’ve made over a hundred episodes of Europe and 18 of those are in Italy so we got 18 half hours in Italy if somebody ask me what
Should I do in Sicily well I would say you should watch the two half hour shows the one hour that I made about Sicily after taking our Sicily tour and it’s essentially the tour uh with two TV shows from public television and there’s a lot of good information
There all of these shows are available for free at the PBS app or on our website uh I also want to remind you today we’re having a a blowout on the first book that I ever wrote this is the 39th Edition this is Europe through the
Back door and I don’t get a chance to talk about the basic skills of European travel but this is the book that I’ve written and updated with my staff every year for the last 39 years and um it retails for $27 just as long as Supply
Last I think it’ll only be tonight we won’t be aaring this tomorrow but if you want to get uh this book at that special price it is $10 all right um now David we’re going to go off into the countryside and we’re going to start with the chin qu and we
Are I’m sorry we’re just it’s so much fun to be sharing all this and especially to have you here dve we’re going to have to crank it up because we have we have another half an hour in this evening and the chin I’ve seen a lot of the Riviera this is my favorite
Part of the Riviera one town is a resort monter Roo we either sleep in mon Roo or lanto and that’s the beautiful um place where you might want to lay on the beach and then the four the five Villages are just gorgeous it’s a national park nobody can change any of their buildings
And it’s a delightful place as guides we like to orient people and then they basically have a whole day free for the Riviera wonderful food fresh seafood uh and something that is very special in Lura tell us about pesto David pesto Pesto Italian pesto was invented in the
Italian Riviera in the chiner and janua area and it’s uh originally it was not for pasta it was a spread meant for Pacha for bread for Sailors you know going away for several days so you could safely store it and preserve the food um it’s it’s made with local BAS which is
Small uh light green color leaf basil and pine nuts parano and Pino cheese and oil I love it and they even have their own pasta special pasta that’s kind of designed for the pesto isn’t it correct there’s a few styles of pasta yeah these are TR TR with I love being in Italy
With somebody like David who can explain to me all the history of this food that I’m enjoying because it’s tasty but it also has a history and can you imagine having an evening in a town like verata can you imagine the next morning hopping on the boat and going to the next town
And looking at the five towns of the Riviera from the water can you imagine hiking from town to town to town that’s what our groups love to do that is the Italian Riviera and I look at that I just can’t get enough of it and you’ll
Have all sorts a chance to meet the locals and have your own adventure I met this uh this uh um I think he was a frier or a a brother a monk at a church outside of monteroso and he said said would you like to come in to the Abbey
And try my homemade lemon jello I said sure I don’t know if you know this guy David but we had the greatest time together I got a little tipsy with my with my uh monk friend here in the chinu and it was a lifelong memory and just a wonderful wonderful
Man who shared with me his whole world um nearby is Pisa and of course we like to stop by Pisa because you got to see the Leaning Tower and we can check that out and then up in the north are the Lakes of Italy I love the lakes and my
You know what I do for a living is visit all the lakes and figure out which one I think is best for my readers and um you know it’s not a definitive thing but for me Lake KO lagu Koo is Far and Away the best lake for the kind of traveler I am
Uh Lake KO is nicknamed Luna De is that the word for honeymoon David yes Luna De yes Luna De this is honeymoon country and uh you can take these romantic Steamers up down the lake you can go to the lovely little Resort town of balagio
And we like to stay in Vena just a 10-minute ferry ride from belagio and talk about Luna De country it is just Exquisite I this is if I ever need to convalesce in Europe This is Where I like to go to cones up into the mountains that is the dolomit day the
Dolomites and uh this is the Limestone rugged mountains that are the Italian part of the Alps and we have a a good chance uh to go to the highest Alpine Meadow in Europe This is called the Alid dzi and it’s just a Wonderland to explore and hike and walk or maybe just
Pull up a chair and have a beer and pretend you’re at the beach ah my favorite Hilltown is volara and we stay at volara in several of our itineraries volara is kind of a dark a little bit windy in for boating medieval feeling town and to go there is a chance to
Really get into the Hilltown culture of Italy and our our friend Annie lives there and Annie is married to franisco uh what is what is his name again Francesco that’s right FR Francesco and Franchesco is like a Sumo right he knows his wine oh yeah he’s also my roommate
When I come visit you in Edmunds he’s my roommate as a roommate you got a good roommate and so does Annie here who’s an American who has married into the culture but Annie is an example of what of our local guides and she meets our groups and she
Has a wonderful expit view of things she’s a she’s now a local they’re raising their kids there and her husband’s wonderful and it’s the kind of connections we have where you can actually come to a town like this and get a intimate understanding of the atrans that is an at truscan Arch that’s
From 500 BC It’s amazing And there you’ll find remnants of that fascinating and mysterious civilization that was there before Rome also in vol you can see the alabaster workshops and that makes for a very nice souvenir another great stop in the central part of Italy is Ace this is the town of St
Francis and we can wander through a cc and get close to the whole story of St Francis and visit the Basilica of St Francis and see where his tomb is and it’s just to me an inspiration aisia is one of those places David that says it’s
A a thin place right it has a thin atmosphere there’s something I don’t know what do you think there’s something spiritual about Ace yes it’s spiritual it’s historical it’s magical you have everything you you need in a great food incredible art the art of jotto Simone Martini Pi DEA Francesa you’ve got
Hundreds of amazing uh medieval and Renaissance artist the architecture San Francis and everything speaks about San Francis and S Clair oh I love it yeah also nearby is Sienna and Sienna was a very important part of Italy back before Italy was united we got to remember
There was no Italy before 1870 it was a bunch of small Italian speaking states that dreamed of making one United Italian speaking country which only happened after the resort jento the Italian unification movement around 1870 but back in the midd middle medieval time it was a bunch of little countries
Today you look at the map and you can see San Marino uh is a little remnant of those feudal times the little independent of country of San Marino buried in the middle of Italy but Sienna was the proud capital of of its own city state and here you see on the main
Square not a proud Church SP but a proud Bell Tower of a city hall reminding you that this was the age of humanism where people were taking the reins into their hands and they wanted to be an independent republic of course they had a nice church but on that main Square
What you’ve got is the city hall and I love to buy a spritz and just enjoy some little munchies and watch the world go by observing the parade of life in a place like Sienna uh the compo my favorite Square in all of Italy boy if
You come there on a festival day it’s crowded and that Festival day might be having something to do with the Poo uh the most Crazy Horse Race you’ll ever get a chance to see I do want to mention that we do not build our tours around
Festivals uh but David if there is a festival going on and we know about it we can try to work it into our plans can’t we yes that’s when a tour guide and a local guide are useful you know you know also because we might know a
Guy who knows a guy who knows a lady they can find you the tickets but in general when it’s a special event we all try to enjoy I was in Sicily in December running a Sicily tour for Rick Steves Europe and we happened to be at um St
Agatha in sorry St Lucy in sakusa and uh and it was just incredible and all of my group and myself we all went for the procession and the parade and the music and the food and it was just an incredible experience and David if you didn’t have a guide you might not
Even know what was happening it could be five miles away and that’s what I love you have these festivals in the countryside what are they called Sab sagra Sabra something like that sagra Saga are food festivals yes every town in Italy has uh one or more sagras dedicated to one specialty local
Specialty in my area we have porini mushroom Saga uh wild boore meat art chokes sorry you arted choke AR see sag sag couple of towns over yeah yeah of course I went to that one once and I swear it was the best I still have vivid memories of the beautiful tasting artia
Chokes that we had during that Festival there’s a lot of festivals in these towns like Sienna oh man these little hilltowns to me are so romantic this is chivy it’s about 10 miles away from where David lives this is David’s Hometown um Oro and uh we just love ORV
And last year I was um leading a group of guides around in the winter uh David every winter you know we I I become the tour guide and I have 25 professional guides that want to work for us and they’re all good guides they’re Pros but
They need to know the philosophy of a rick Steve’s tour so they get to be tourists on a rick Steve’s bus along with some other people from our tour operations department and we have a wonderful time letting them understand the philosophy of a rick Steve’s tour
And uh what was it like for you David because we dropped by your hometown and you showed us around for a morning in your beautiful Church yeah it was it was a lot of fun and it was great to meet some future new colleagues and uh and it
Was a great privilege for me to show them and you around my hometown this is where I had my first communion baptism uh confirmation that’s where my parents got married this is the D Cathedral of orto so to me this is more than a church
It’s it’s part of my heart you know and I’ll never forget the joy and the pride and the expertise that you shared when you took me and 25 you know guides in training around and now many of these guides um you know they made the cut and
They are colleagues of yours and they’re leading our groups around this year we have 1,200 departures every year that’s a you know 150 guides there’s a lot of organizing and a lot of talent in that school I love to walk across your town pick up maps at the tourist office I
Orient them and you know this Bluff it’s on the far side of town where very few tourists go and then I tell the group okay you got an hour and a half of free time I’ll see you back at the Cathedral and we’ll get on the bus and carry on
And they go really we’re all alone now in the town you got a map you’ve had your orientation walk I’ll see you back at the duo it’s beautiful it is beautiful hey um let’s talk about Tuscany um D because this is a new tour of ours and um I just
Think there’s a huge demand for Tuscany and uh people really uh you know of course it’s Tuscany is named after the truskin and that was the Empire there north of Rome you know 500 years before Christ and you’ve got a lot of um ruscin artifacts in Tuscany that really are
Mysterious and amazing this is one of our local guides Roberto Becky looking at the sarcophagy but uh what what is Tuscany to you like I’m just going to show the slides here and I’ll let you just talk about Tuscany and I’ll move the slides whenever I feel like it okay
So tell us sure so uh I’m very glad that we started running this tour in 2022 and um and I’m one of the guys that run the tour I’ve run it many times and it’s an incredible mix of one of the largest regions of Italy but not only sizewise
Also the the amount of things attractions of Lo locations that the region of tuskan has to offer is really incredible so we had to make a special selection this is valdor one of the iconic Landscapes of Tuscany if you watch the movie The Gladiator with russer Crow some some sections of the
Movie movies were fil the movie were filmed in bota bota is an incredible Rolling Hills system of Tuscany we get to meet local people like in this case luchano which makes his vinsanto his holy wine a special kind of wine that in taskan they make to to drink and with
Your kuchi cook I love Vin Santo it’s a beautiful thing dessert dessert wine and I love to have it with a with a family that actually makes it yeah taskan is all about family small communities and families I live 5 minutes away from taskan I live between three regions so
Part of taskan is also part of me and uh and and that’s that tour but in general exploring tasani Tuscan has Florence uh Pisa um San jimano many destinations but has much more to offer that’s why we decided to run the store and it’s a a
Lot of tasty pigs oh yes tasty pigs great vegetables for those who are um who prefer vegetarian like like in this case you have a beautiful capres salad with fresh tomato fresh mozzarella and basil in the back on the right you see pruto actually that’s spala that’s the
Shoulder of the pork and Capo I mean Tuscan is famous in the world for their cold cuts the Italian cold cuts excuse me David you come to the United States occasionally and you have to eat tomatoes here does it make you homesick uh yeah sometimes yes I have to
Say because tomatoes here are very very tasty very flavorful and in tasan we have amazing quality Tomatoes you are polite I’ve never if you have only had American Tomatoes I I don’t think you know what you’re missing when you go to Italy when you go to Greece there’s
Something about the um the richness of the flavor uh Pienza is a great example of a a very Once Upon a Time important Town isn’t it definitely town uh town of origin of Pope P II but also the town that’s also that’s famous for the spectacular picino cheese of Pian so
Again in Italy in towns like Pian in tasan in everywhere in Italy you go you have a mix of everything in One Small Place family uh the stroll making new friends great food great locations incredible art and history and the architecture and I honestly don’t see
What I would need more than that and edible souvenirs correct correct oh and drinkable souvenir deino that’s the finest wine and uh we’ll visit a Vineyard wonderful oh yeah we visit a producer a producer of Brunello de monino the the the seller the winery we have launch there and we
Do a t a tasting of several of their Brunello and Roso de monino wines oh and again when you taste these kinds of wines it’s not easy to go back to you know David I’m having I’m having wine from the same region right here m m
Montio V montio yeah yeah Tuscan is the region in Italy that that has the the highest number of Doc and docg wines which are protected recipe wines you know special recipe wines and uh Brunello monoo Sano and so on blah blah blah I can stay here forever there many of them
Come from Tuscan and Brunello is in the top five red wines in the world wow and we’re g to try them and we to try that aino the The Good Marriage between that and uh and the local produce and there’s that zero kilometer concept s of Italian slow food movement where it’s wonderful
To have everything from the same Community the wine the the P the pet petto and the cheese and the bread it’s all good isn’t it correct and that’s also why going back to the tomatoes uh that’s why the tomatoes taste great because they come from the very farm that also produces the wine
And you can get wine really cheap this is just about a mile away from where you live tell us what this is this is a wine station it’s a social Co-op Winery where people go with their empty jugs or or or containers um and like you’re doing in
The picture and like a gas station you pick up the pump you know and and you insert it in your container and you fill the tank except that you fill it with local wine and the price is like 150 nowadays is 150 160 a liter which is
More than a dollar and a half for a court and it’s good and it’s you know it’s it’s decent wine of course uh you’ve got that rich culture we’ve got Artisans that are proudly doing their thing this is cheser in mon monino or Monti panoo mtio and chz he leaves his door
Open he loves to show off he’s such a beautiful character and his wife will sell you whatever he’s made uh there’s so much fun to be had uh Pano beautiful town that we stay in call home and then yes exactly and then what’s going on here David here we’re
Doing a truffle hunt with my good friend Bruno the man with the stick he’s the Truffle Hunter with his dog one of his dogs and um and that’s what we just found you know in this in this picture that’s that’s worth a lot of money isn’t
It this is like a like kind of a relative of of a mushroom but it’s underground and the dog can sniff it out correct correct that’s why you need dogs and um and it lives underground in lack of oxygen it expands it’s like a Spore like for mushrooms except that it grows
Underground like a potato it’s it’s a it’s a fungus growing underground and it’s a truffle and then you shave it fresh on the on the food this is shaved on on buffalo buffalo mozzarella cheese next to pruto that’s a great abin I was just going to say I don’t know but that
Looks like that’s got a Bento written all over it doesn’t it fresh olive oil oh baby olive oil pet the ham and the um bata bata is something that takes mozzarella to special Heights yes correct and then you got more artifa Artisans and and local
Culture you can go to darut and and and uh visit this man yeah this is this is Mao one of my friends in duta at the jalti far Factory and this is one of the painters they have a painting room with about 15 professional pain painters and
This is the style of ceramic that they produce the duta style which is famous all over the world and there is a reason why uh the technique is incredible and since in since the Roman times theut has been producing incredible Ceramics in this picture instead you have the marma
The wild west of tasan we call it the cowboy country of tascan because even though they’re not Cowboys there are Bo the tuskan Cowboys they uh they made they manag this incredible variety of cattle we get to experience that on the Tuscany tour we go through this ancient
100-year-old uh Olive Grove and then we have again an amazing meal tasting all local produce um you know I got to say David you are selling me on my own tour I want to sign I want to sign up on this tour and one thing I love I mean with all respect
To vegetarians of course but I love the Kina beef you know and this is when you say Kean we know the keti wine which is used to be famous table wine now it’s quite good wine and you’ve got the Kina beef which that means keti beef basically doesn’t it yes canina is a
Variety of C of of of cattle that uh lives thrives living in in the area of valana the valley of river Kiana which then connects into the kti area and uh and that’s the kind of meat that kind of of cow cow that’s butchered to make the famous the famous Florentine steak which
Is a T-bone Florentine steak and many other kinds of canina steaks this is the example I love going into a steakhouse in multipul chano or monino or in Tuscany and and they bring you over a piece of meat red meat and uh you don’t tell them how you want it there’s only
One way seven minutes on each side 15 minutes later you got yourself a beautiful beautiful steak and shortly after that that steak is history oh what an experience with the red wine a Bento exactly exactly and you got to pick up the bone huh if you don’t pick up the
Bone the the Cook gets offended you gotta CRA the bone and clean it up unfortunately that’s traditional here I gotta get back I gotta get back and then if you need a little detox after all that red meat there’s plenty of um antipasto buffets where you can put
Yourself a nice plate together and that’ll be history as well lots of fun to be had there um also uh when you go south of Rome uh we we have uh Sicily Sicily is a great tour you can see the map there we don’t have time to cover it
Tonight but I do want to remind um our our Travelers that are viewing that uh we’re really hot on Sicily lately this is one of our best-selling guide books our Sicily book we have two TV shows about Sicily that explain what the program is like I took the tour myself
It was so good I love our Sicilian guides and you can go back uh in the archives and watch last year’s hour on Sicily if you would like but we’ve got a little time left with David and we’re going to go now south of Rome on the south Italy tour which really complicate
Complicates it complement the uh rest of the tourist that we’ve talked about Naples is a couple hours south of Rome and Naples to me is sort of an urban jungle can you explain to us uh David about baso living see so Naples um for those who
See it for the first time is what’s the closest to modern Europe and ancient Europe in one place and you leave you live you live the city in the streets the neapolitans live outdoors they do everything together Outdoors their the rules are different and it feels some
Some some places it feels like a an African kashba some other places it feels like a Spanish ancient city some other places it feels like a European city it’s all in the same place andet it’s all in the street yeah it’s all in the low streets in the in the bus
Yeah in the incredible food products I mean I’m not going to even go there Naples has among the best flavors I’ve ever tasted in the world I have to say the markets are great I love going to a market in in Naples and and and buying
Bread from the person who baked it and to hear the song of the merchants and uh to look up up above and and you see there’s a pensioners living right there on the fourth floor that can’t even hardly climb down down the stairs anymore and they’re lowering baskets on
Ropes to pick up their fruit and vegetables and it’s just a community that looks after itself and takes care of itself and of course this is the birthplace of pizza you’re going to get some great pizza in Venice and there’s a look south from Naples at Mount basius
And that looks like a big mountain but you know 2,000 years ago it was not shaped that way it was shaped that way according to the Roman paintings yes there we have a there we have a painting of vvus before it erupted in 79 ad and
Then it erupted and the lava flowed down that slope and buried Pompei and today with our groups we can walk through an excavated ancient Roman city can’t we exactly and that’s again the best use of our time we spent like three three and a half hours in Pompei with the special
Local guide Gano and again that’s the best use of our time and it’s magical to walk the street and then just half an hour south of Pompei we got sarento and this I think of as lemonchello Ville you know it’s just a delightful Resort after the gritty reality the urban intensity
Of Naples you come here and it’s holiday time and from there in an hour you are at the at the Romantic enchanted island of Capri or you can head south for the Amalfi Coast and check out Positano there is so much to do and then just beyond that are the ancient Greek ruins
Of pum and you can do that all with sento as your home base David I love to think that one of these people could be one of our tour members probably because we mingle with the locals that’s that’s the goal and uh and we want to be right there where the
Action is uh so again we’ve uh kind of skipped uh through a lot of ital right now and David what I’d like to do to finish things off is if you could talking about as fast as you know I like to talk walk us through each of these
Itineraries and I’ll just go through each of the itineraries but introduce them to you because um you know these itineraries intimately sure so your this one is the best of Italy it’s the longest tour we have in Italy 17 days it does an incredible selection of Center
And Northern Italy and it starts in the area of Milan Lake comoo and then we come we find our way South touching many different regions of Italy tours like these give you an incredible Taste of different color cultures within Italy ital is one of the most diverses one of
The one of the most diverse countries in the world definitely Europe culture-wise and uh this tour gives you an incredible extent and what I like about this David is if you look at those number two two two two2 two we do not like one night stops if possible these are two night
Stops so you have a day of travel and then you have two nights in an entire day to get used to a place and it lets you feel rooted even though it’s a fast itinerary but I cannot imagine a smarter more diverse and variety filled and intimate look at the culture Big Towns
Small towns hilltowns Riviera towns mountains lakes then you could get anywhere else Italy in 17 days if you only have nine days exactly heart of Italy is a great uh uh shorter version of of the best of Italy tour and it touches four of my favorite areas I love
Rome of course I live in hour north of Rome but we begin uh we begin in Rome two nights and then so we explore Rome extensively and then we drive into tasan evil Terra uh to see the atrasan world the ancient atrasan world the pre-roman civilization of the atrans and then we
Spend time in the Mediterranean Sea in the chinu where we have plenty of free time to enjoy and explore the area and the local food with the pesto and all the other Specialties and then we end up back into tascan capital of which is Florence capital of Renaissance and
Again nine days straight incredible tour and there’s a good airport in Florence or you can hop on the train and in two hours you’re back in Rome as we mentioned can you can go south um tell us about the south Italy tour please south of Italy is one of my favorite
Tours by the way I also run this one in Sicily and I love the South myself I always go south on vacation uh we start in Rome but we see Rome in a little different way rather than other itineraries so we diversify the itineraries and then we take a peek into
The Adrian Villa the emperor Adrian Roman Adrian Villa on the way to the Gargano Peninsula the tip the top of the hill of the buot you know the region of Pula and that’s where we’re staying for two nights in the town of vieste which I
Love and then we peek into Pula to see Albero Bello where we have an incredible tasting we stop in Mata one of the most ancient settlements human settlements in the world in Mata that’s also where they filmed the movie The Passion of Christ which was an incredible movie and shows
MATA in in full and then we come to the West Coast stopping p to the Greek settlement and temples of pesum and then we enjoy the Naples area malf Coast Capri Santo and end up in Naples for the last two nights beautiful and it’s six two night stops in a row very
Comfortable and here we have one two three four five two night stops that best of Tuscany yes best of Tuscany again one of the largest regions we go to most of the the the most beautiful areas of Tuscan even though there’s more to explore but when we choose an
Itinerary when we design an itinerary together with the with the office team we we do have to think of what matters on a tour so we have to make choices so you always can come back to places like tasan this is our choice so valdor chanti Florence Sienna lucah Mara the
Wester the West the well west of tascan Pano the atasan area so this is a real good taste of tasy and I like when you say you have to make choices because it’s a temptation to promise everything in 11 days but guides know the reality
If you try to do too much the bus drivers say they call it a pajama tour why even get out of your pajamas you never settle into anything um but what we have is a very reasonable speed and a very um High expectation of what you’ll cover without any sort of chaotic
Insanity or exhaustion or stress um I love the thought that you guys get together every year all of your colleagues and debate the itineraries every every hour of the itinerary you guys talk through after your experience you with my staff of course yes yes it’s very important because Logistics
Logistics are incredibly important on a tour it’s it’s very easy to make a beautiful tour turn bad if you do the wrong Logistics so it’s a it’s a big teamwork you know the tour guy the tour managers the tour directors and so on absolutely the MyWay tour is what we’ve
Been talking about but this is a kind of tour we have five or six of these itineraries around Europe and they are less expensive less regimented and they are just stripped down it’s just designed to take the efficiency of a tour you’re sharing the bus you’ve got
The hotels you’ve got the guide book you’ve got a member of our staff who serves as your your guide but that person just has office hours in the morning and you got free time and it’s basically the bus connections and the hotels and the breakfast and this is a
Wonderful uh compromise between doing it yourself and taking advantage of the efficiency and economy of bus travel and then Village Italy is the tour that I took my family on and I just loved it because you go to all sort sorts of intimate slices of life it’s rural it’s
Small town it’s it’s AGR Turismo it’s the culture and uh that’s just a beautiful tour and we’ve uh got this is sort of the intense tour the three great cities three nights in each City uh it’s just a delightful look at the three three of the greatest cities in all of
Europe in 10 days of all the 40 tourist that we sell this is the best selling tour because Americans have the shortest vacations in the rich World they love Italy and we know how to do the big cities marvelously with our guides Venice Florence and Rome all right I do
Want to remind you that we have 20 hours of these kind of presentations archived if you go to uh Monday night travel this is uh we’re doing Monday night travel eight nights in a row during our Festival but ever since covid hit every Monday we’ve been offering u a party and
These are archived if you go to Rick Steves on the homepage you’ll see Monday night travel you see what’s happening next week and the next week and you can sign up you can also just go into the archive right there at that same Tab and see all
The shows we’ve done over the year and if you look back one year to January click on any of those Monday night travels and you will see the whole festival all 22 nights and there if you wanted to do uh Sicily or if you wanted
To do small town Italy or if you wanted to do big city Italy you’ve got entire hours for that that David and I were not able to cover tonight uh so tonight we’re doing Italy tomorrow it’s great Britain the next is Spain and Portugal and then France Germany Central Europe
And our grand finale next Monday right here it’s a virtual party I hope you can join us on those I’m so thankful for our guides I mean if you enjoy David there’s 150 passionate guides like David that are colleagues and we’re all on the same team together doing our best to share
Our love of Europe with you in an efficient and economic way hey um I think Lisa it’s time to have a few questions oh we have so many questions I’ll try and Corral them all um the first one’s kind of a philosophical and personal question for David Charlotte would like
To know what keeps you coming back to guiding even after a long day it’s just it’s to me is one of the most beautiful jobs in the world honestly it’s uh you get to meet new people every time you get to share new information and learn more myself every
Time I run a tour I get to learn from the local guys from the local people the vendors it’s just a it’s a NeverEnding Loop process for me as long as I can do it I’ll be more than happy to do it it I got I gotta jump in and and remind uh
Everybody not everybody can be a guide it’s it’s a lifestyle you’ve got to enjoy living on the road you’re always on call it’s physically very demanding but for the right person and I when I talk to people who are in this business I just know this person was born to be a
Guide and it’s a beautiful thing when that person finds their Niche and I think David we we can both think of our our colleagues uh and like your enthusiasm for this and my enthusiasm for it we’re blessed to have found our niches and it makes life go easy because
We know what we’re supposed to do on this planet agreed it’s it’s like a life lymph you know you you if you don’t have it you miss something so it’s a yeah it’s needed yeah well and and you couldn’t probably couldn’t do it all year long by the nature of the work it’s
It’s a half a year you know so you you don’t you might burn out if you tried to do it 12 months straight correct thanks y okay Lisa all right for both of you gentlemen Susan would like to know what’s your favorite chapter of Italian
History M Mia Rick you want to go first resiment ah you like the res Baldi baby yeah I just think you know in 1850 Europe was ruled by a bunch of Royal F families and nobody wanted Italy to be independent they were colonized by the other big powers and these Italian
Patriots got together and they were subversive and they schemed and they plotted and they had the perfect storm of George Washington’s and Thomas Jefferson’s and Benjamin Franklin’s and and so on and they got it all together and incredible story and around 1870 be uh you know it’s Italy is United
It’s a great story that’s the resiment um of course there’s the re Renaissance in ancient Rome and everything but resiment is underrated yeah it’s a great moment of History actually as a matter of fact I’ve been learning more and more about the resurgent the unification process of
My country which is a great moment in our history I also love the moment of our history that predates the Romans so to learn more about the ancient pre-roman civilizations like the atrans the the area where I come from was populated by the atrans but not only the
Atras all the other civilizations that somehow brought a lot more than we think into the the new let’s call it New Roman world that for the Western world that we live in today so and a lot of people would would claim that some of the most interesting Greek temples ancient Greek
Temples are in Italy because Italy was a Greek colony correct southern Italy was a Greek colony and was never unfortunately devastated by the wars or the Ottoman Empire Conquest like it happened in in some areas of Greece and Turkey of course uh while southern Italy Sicily and southern Italy was never
Touched by the Ottomans and that’s why you go to agento CC or pesum near Naples south of Naples and you find amazing temples but not only temples even the art other part of of architecture in the museums you find incredible findings so I’m paying attention I just want to tie
My scarf like you do okay Bravo yes why don’t we know more about the at truskin or why don’t we hear more about the at truskin because um May I answer this one Rick please okay because um you know when when Rome became Rome for like a
Thousand years 500 BC to 500 AD give or take if you like dates it’s 476 ad BC to 453 453 sorry 753 BC to 476 ad sorry but anyway for a thousand years Rome romanized the Western World conquered everything they needed to conquer throughout the Mediterranean so all the pre-existence civilizations were
Absorbed not destroyed always destroyed like we all think the Romans arrived and destroyed no that’s that those are rare cases most of all they were absorbed by the Roman and Beca and and got romanized I use this word with my tour members romanized for so long that we lost track
Of them and they became Romans the atrans became Romans the umbrians became Romans the ligurians became Romans the Iberian people became Romans so for so long we lost track and with new technology archaeology we are able to start slowly but surely finding traces back and learn more about them but
That’s why we call them mysterious they’re not mysterious they were not mysterious they were there before the Romans but they were absorbed you have a necropolis and a trus necropolis about a five 10minute walk down the cliff from your house correct and it’s it’s a NeverEnding digging process every every
Week I meet my friend the the local archaeologist was in charge of the diggings and he said yeah we need more people we we need volunteers we we know there’s a 2,000 tombs right there under that uh beautiful Hill but we got to remove the owner of the Olive Grove and
The vineyard on top first to dig and it’s impossible so but we know what’s there Rick says no no Digging Up The Vineyards no I want to drink I want to drink to the archaeologists who are out there digging it up for us there you go yeah I what happens is that the
Archaeologist often tries to convince the land owner and they get together for lunch and drink wine so the archaeologist forgets about the diggings and the owner is happy and sends the archaeology the archaeologist away hey that’s the Italian way what’s another question Lisa well David I grew up
Knowing or thinking that I knew that Italians vacationed either in the mountains or the beaches is that still true and where did you go as a child uh as a child we my parents uh used to rent a a beach house for the whole family and we
Would go to the Beach mainly uh later when in my my young young young years like in my 20s I like to go hiking in the mountains but not really in the winter and uh and I’ve always liked to travel uh the world and see other countries capitals continents and so on
Um so Italians now are more are better Travelers than they used to be Italians started to travel later because first they was traveling by immigration reasons you know people had to migrate and those who stayed stay didn’t really have a luxury to travel but traveling is also a luxury and now Italians are
Wealthier than ever before and so now they extended their um their Horizons you know so I thought Italians didn’t leave the country because they were worried about the food not being as good as back home that’s all it took me a long time to convince my parents to
Leave Italy I I I confirm I confirm that I just have a tough time in Italian restaurants in the United States they can be excellent but there’s just something not there and it’s it’s not just the quality of the food it’s the it’s the commotion and the Ambiance that
You love when you’re in Italy it’s just a beautiful beautiful thing the garlic in Italian ah the garlic the garlic Everywhere You Go italian americ rest you open the door he’s like it’s a lot of garlic in your face we don’t use that much garlic here at all wow good good
Insight okay l so a lot of the people in the Q&A are asking about tours and what do we do with the bus time on our tours what are we how are we utilizing that time on the bus I personally love that we can give some concise talks on the bus that are
Relevant to the group like cultural talks or often I share with my my tour members personal insights of my life my family my local culture but we don’t talk all the time we leave people free to nap relax read a book see sightseeing um and we also take what we call rest
Stops at very nice local areas where we can use of course use the bathrooms but also have a nice coffee capucino croan and which is not cran it’s called Cornetto don’t don’t let’s not get mistaken Cornetto is Italian croan is fren they’re both amazing but they’re different but anyway it is interesting
By it is interesting by the way that a rest stop a freeway rest stop with a restaurant has to have a decent restaurant it’s not going to be a fancy restaurant but it’s got to be good or the bus drivers won’t stop there you know it’s quality you can get a good
Lunch at a freeway stop in Italy better than other places that’s the absolute truth all right this one is for both of you or maybe specifically Rick Allison wants to know what are your thoughts on travel boycotts should we avoid traveling somewhere if we disagree with our government she’s travel is a
Political act yeah um you know I I think a boycott doesn’t really accomplish as much as going there and learning about the problem and having people get to know you when we travel we get to know people that a lot of cases are supposed to be our enemies and they get to know
Us and it makes it tougher for their propaganda to demonize us and it makes it tougher for our propaganda to minimize them and we also gain an empathy for each other so I just feel like People to People travel and that’s that’s a difference than just travel but
Travel where you honestly meet people if there’s a wall you get to talk to people on both sides of it if there’s a boycott you get to understand who’s what are this what are the cases what are the sides that’s the most constructive thing so I cannot remember a boycott from a
Travel point of view that I would Embrace I always think it’s better to go there and meet people I’ve had a lot of people that would say don’t go to that place because I don’t like their government you know they might be anti- this or anti- that and I don’t like the
Fact that they’re anti- this and anti that but I don’t like the fact that we’re not talking to each other more I agree what does that make sense that’s good David yeah no nothing to add completely agree yeah always get to the place to learn yep last question gentlemen um you did
Not reveal where you went as a child we’re looking for we’re looking for off the beaten path places so the question is for you is what town did you go to at the beach when you were a kid and Rick are there any upand cominging places in
Italy that you want to share with us okay David I’ll give you should I go first Rick or you please go first yeah so the town that we we went for many years when we were kids is called montalto D Castro montalto Marina which is the closest town as the crow flies
From my town or an hour drive and you’re at the beach but there’s also beautiful towns north of there there into Southern Tuscany which are called capalbio and anonia beautiful beaches great restaurants and then the taskan coastline is beautiful and it has it all so anywhere on the to on the tuskan
Coastline and south of it is perfect thank David my take away from David’s answer is it’s a reminder that if you’re complaining about the crowds in Italy you’re going to all the places that the Americans go and uh the Italians are not going to go there and stand in line and
Pay triple for their gelato they’re going to go to those kind of places that David just mentioned and it’s a reminder there’s huge depth in what we can see and experience in any country and of course we want to see the Leaning Tower and the Eiffel Tower and big Ben but
There’s so much more and you can take away the most crowded places all across Europe and still have plenty of wonderful places to go on your vacation if you’d rather see locals and spend half the money than to hang out with other Americans and spend double uh so
It’s it’s just a positive kind of approach to to crowds hey uh my my answer to your question Lisa what’s what am I thinking in the future what are hot new opening UPS or something like that I’m really pretty satisfied with our itineraries we have more than 40
Itineraries I love where we go I am more committed to making sure we can do these itineraries in the smartest way for our Travelers for me the challenge is to be sure we have good bus drivers great hotels great restaurants great connections with The Artisans and most
Importantly we take good care of our guides and our guides take good care of our Travelers um to take 30,000 people around Europe every year on 40 different itineraries with 150 guides 1,200 departures to do that in a way that’s a good value and we can pay our staff well
And our guides well and we can still be profitable It’s a Wonderful Challenge from an entrepreneurial point of view and we’re loving it and we’re determined to um offer Americans the best value going if it comes to taking a boutique tour around Europe and we hope you can
Join our guides like David Tori hey David thank you so much for getting up in the middle of your night and having some coffee correcto one more drink to you my friend and I hope you can get back to sleep with your graa so you’re done with the coffee now
You’re under the graa no the coffee is gone the coffee now I’m after the Grappa is called the coffee killer you know you have coffee and then you kill it with the graa and you try go to bed well I think you’ll manag fine I want to thank
Gabe and Keith who are in the trenches answering all the questions behind the scenes and Lisa for moderating this evening and all of you for joining us and David once again thanks a lot happy travels to everybody and thanks for being here we’ll see you soon I
Hope thank you so much everybody for joining us this evening we love feedback so there’s a survey at the end of this if you’d like to join us we appreciate it have a good evening thank you so Much B David B Rick thank you so much thank you everybody chiao Rick chiao David thank you great job David see you down the Road
3 Comments
1st
Rick, my husband and I have been watching your videos for years on TV. We enjoy them so much! Thank you.
My daughter and I now have the opportunity to visit Italy when I pick her up from the university of Saarland, in Germany where she is studying abroad. However it will be at the end of Feb. so it will be cold. Would you still suggest doing the Cinque Terre? We will have about 10-12 days and will do Rome, Florence and Venice, but not sure what is best when it's cold. I don't see you talk much about going in the colder months 🙁 What is your must see list for last week of Feb and first 2 weeks of March?
Stephanie
Great information TY