"Beautiful, Romantic, Delicious Italy " a Italy Travel Page by no1birdlady

A girlfriend and I took a 14 day tour to Italy in April of 2004. This was an excellent tour of this beautiful land. It covered a lot of Italy from the north lake country to the south as far south as the Isle of Capri. We traveled on a large bus but could see very well out of the windows as we traveled. In fact this photo of the Tuscany countryside with a storm brewing was taken through the window of the moving bus. I think tours are an excellent way to see and also learn about a country. The weather in April was a bit unpredictable. We had warm days, rainy days, and very cool days. Most of the trees were just beginning to leaf out when we were there so it was early spring.

Guides are important to a tour. Our main guide who was with us the entire trip was Lino. He was so lovable and took great care of us. He had a ready smile and a joke for every occasion. He not only told us information and stories about places we were visiting but also had music to play to fit the location. That was a nice touch. On our Tuscan Evening, he even sang for us. He used an umbrella with dollar bills on it to help us find him. When we were given free time, we had to meet back up with him at a certain time. He would hold his umbrella high and that way we could find him even in a crowd.

Italy is filled with beautiful art in almost every city. Of course there are the masters that everyone has heard of such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and even Botticelli but we saw so many beautiful paintings, sculpture and architecture that it was almost overwhelming. It's so beautiful. And the Italians have done such a great job of perserving it. As I said, Lino was our main guide but in some places we had a special guide who was an expert in a certain area such as at Pompeii, in Venice and Florence and at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. This added even more to the tour. I took a note pad with me everywhere and took lots of notes to be able to remember things. When I got home, I put all of these notes in a journal along with the photos that I took. It's a fun way to relive the trip.