All of our transportation as well wine tours, and walking tour were arranged seamlessly. Our guides…read moreand drivers were punctual, friendly, and well informed. They often shared other tips for the rest of our stay. It made a wonderful vacation perfect!

We visited Cortona in late June of this year, and Do It In Tuscany was our "concierge" for the…read moretrip. Every aspect of the experience was excellent, including planning and communication, lodging, and tours. Check out wine-tasting in the Tuscan countryside and cooking classes with Chef Elena. The company has much to offer. We were not disappointed!

If going, I highly recommend Lucianna Umbria Tours. Ask for Lucianna or Roberta. Roberta was an…read moreexcellent guide and genuinely a nice person. And she knows everyone in Orvieto. 2day tour was fantastic with her.

The previous post was for st Patrick's well. Clearly not for the underground tour which is…read moresomething completely different and starts near the Duomo. Don't confuse the two or else you will miss seeing a few of the 1200 underground caves that date back to 2nd century BC. My husband and I really wanted to see the tour and I found out online that there was a 6 pm tour. Online it failed to mention that it as only in Italian. Not a deal breaker for me, even though I don't speak 2 words of Italian. Low and behold the tour guide spoke English and thankfully did the entire tour in both English and Italian. There was so many interesting tid bits that it was a good thing that she spoke English for us. My husband and I were very impressed and we would recommend the tour for sure. Even though it was dark outside, the caves are well lit.

We had never travelled to Europe before and were looking for a special way to celebrate 30 years of…read moremarriage. When we found the Wine & Cooking in the Heart of Chianti and Florence, Tuscany trip on the CDV website, it seemed like everything we were looking for. Now that we are home, we look back fondly on a perfect vacation, and know we can't wait another 30 years to do it again. From the initial planning, CDV was super responsive and helpful in answering all our questions, and they sent detailed information about what to expect. When we departed for our trip, we felt comfortable that we were in good hands. Then, from the moment we arrived at the Florence airport, our host Lorenzo took over led us on the trip of a lifetime. The entire week was very well planned and organized, and we went to so many fabulous places, but whenever we discuss our trip, the thing that stands out most is the people we got to meet and spend time with: Lorenzo is an amazing host - fun, passionate, patient and knowledgeable. He did a great job transforming our group from strangers to close friends by dinner on the first day. He is a great person and we feel so fortunate to have met him. We still keep in touch with Lorenzo on WhatsApp. Gianfranco was not just our bus driver. He is part of our CDV family. Yes he got us safely from point A to points B, C and D comfortably and safely every day, but he also cooked with us, dined with us, and had fun with us. Unfortunately for Gianfranco, his job did not allow him to drink wine with us. Simonetta - our amazing chef and cooking teacher. We had two cooking classes with Simonetta and she prepared two of our dinners. I could talk about Simonetta for hours, but for this review I will just say that we love her. The cooking classes were so much fun and she is very special. CDV has close relationships with all the people we visited, and we especially enjoyed our time with Mourizio at Piombia; Enrico at De Rici - what a fun guy he is; Patrizia our cooking teacher in the Cortona countryside; Piero at Poggerino; and especially Simone and Chris at Castellinuzza e Piuca - I don't remember having a more fun evening than our time with Simone and Chris. There are too many others to list them all here, but every host was gracious and engaging. Grazie Mille CDV for a trip we will never forget!

VACATION OF A LIFETIME - ABSOLUTELY AMAZING…read more My lifelong dream has always been to go to Tuscany. After considering all options, I chose the Culture Discovery "Wine and Cooking Under the Tuscan and Umbrian Sun" vacation. I wanted to see the countryside, the small towns, the history and how the people really live. CDV gave me exactly what I was hoping for, and so much more. Italy was everything I had ever imagined it would be - the people; the food; the ancient, interesting small, hill towns; the spectacular scenery. I cannot say enough about how friendly, warm and welcoming every single person was. They truly made us feel like we were one of the family - family I would love to visit often. The other guests on the tour were a wide range of ages and from all walks of life. They were interesting and fun and everyone came together to have and make the best possible experience they possibly could. The small group size also contributed to that feeling of family. Our accommodation was absolutely gorgeous and CDV had thought of every possible comfort and welcoming kindness. The sightseeing trips were wonderfully selected, the cooking classes were more interesting and fun than one could hope for and the food and drink were just plain amazing. I would never consider traveling with another company after the incredible time I had with CDV.

Our family of five adults booked a half day custom tour a few weeks in advance for the 2016 holiday…read moreseason (Christmas & New Year's Eve). Never one to put all my eggs in one basket, I also booked two other tours with competing tour guides in Florence. If I had the chance to do it all over again, I would 100% use Florence Custom Tours for everything: food tour, museums, artisan shops, etc.. Scheduling the tour via email was easy and they even helped me modify one of their classic tours so my family and I could explore the city on our own terms. Our guide (Chiara) met us near our rented apartment and within a few feet started teaching us about hidden gems in the neighborhood that we had walked past dozens of times unnoticed. She was extremely knowledgable, courteous, patient, and also a "foodie" (Chiara helped mix in some delicious eats between our visits to the Uffizi and Galleria dell'Accademia). I would highly recommend Florence Custom Tours to anyone visiting this wonderful city and I will definitely be using them again upon my return.

From the owner: Custom Florence Tours tailors private & small group tours in Florence & Tuscany. Our Florence…read moretours focus on unique & off the beaten path sites as well as all the must see. Our Tuscany tours focus on small Chianti & Brunello wineries that have been rated 90 or more on Wine Spectator.

The price tag is a big hefty, but a wine tour with Tuscany Private Tours is oh so worth it…read more I was staying in the Castellina area of Chianti and was having a lot of trouble finding a company that would provide a private transfer to and from the hotel. Most tours leave from the Florence / Siena area, or have you meet them right at the winery. My feeling was that if I was spending a few days in Tuscany I wanted at least one day of not having to worry about driving to and from wineries. Thankfully we found Tuscany Private Tours and all was good. It is an extra 40 euro to add pick up and drop off at the hotel. But if you are going to all the trouble to arrange a private tour it would be the worst to have to drive 15-20 minutes to actually get to the tour. So again, you can really alleviate all driving with this if you want to. We took the 'Safari Tour' -- basically like a regular wine tour, except you get to cruise around in a super cool land rover. Our guide Paolo was awesome. He was super friendly and knowledgeable of wine and the area, and was overall just a really cool person to spend the day with. You visit three different wineries, tastings included at each and also have an included homemade winery lunch at your last stop. I liked that all three wineries have very different vibes. Our guide also mentioned that he chooses to do this on purpose. First stop -- a big commercial winery. Very cool to tour their production facility and then compare that to a production facility at a much smaller winery. Second Stop -- more of an urban experience. We visited a tasting room on the main street in Castellina. Paolo explained that he purposely takes people to this winery because it is one of the oldest in the area. After visiting several wineries in the rolling hills it was cool to also check one out in more of an industrial setting. Third Stop -- by far the best! Paolo took us to a very small winery. So small, that you'd probably only be able to find them if you have a tour guide that is friends with their family (ahem, Paolo). The grounds were absolutely gorgeous -- insane views of the Tuscan hills and gorgeous plants and greenery everywhere. We enjoyed a fantastic multi-course lunch -- pasta (of course), assorted crostinis, cheeses, meats and dessert. Because it's lunch (and maybe because it's the last stop?) we also had way more wine than just a taste. I'm here for it. If you want to try all wines before deciding which bottle to buy, they have every bottle available at the Tuscany Private Tour office. Tips for the tastings are included, but tips for your guide aren't, so be sure to bring some cash. Long review, but in short -- if you are not staying in the city and want to wine tour without worrying about driving then just do this. It's pricey but worth it for an incredible day. We will truly remember it forever.

Awesome wine tour! We had the best tour guide/driver GAIA! She was so sweet and we had the best…read moretime at all 3 wineries. We tasted a good mix of Chianti, Rosé, White blends, vin Santo (dessert wine), and a new fav Vermentino wines which you definitely can't find in the states! Ended the tour at a family farm house/ winery. We had a delicious farm to table lunch with limoncello and tiramisu to top it off. At the end of the tour you can "make your own box" of wines from each winery and ship it right to your house! Overall, excellent experience with the best views of Toscana, would def recommend to anyone looking for a private wine tour!

We had a great time on our tour with Roberto from We Drive You Tuscany! We did the 8 hour San…read moreGimignano and Chianti Classico as well as the Pienza, Val d'Orcia, Montalcino wine and Pecorino cheese private tours with Roberto. This was my first trip to Italy, we enjoyed a comfortable ride throughout the countryside in the clean, air conditioned van! Roberto was so knowledgeable and made sure we knew all the best places to visit along with the history of the beautiful Tuscan countryside! He even gave us recommendations for our second leg of the trip to Rome. We will definitely use this service again!!

We had the pleasure of touring Tuscany with We Drive You Tuscany. Roberto was our driver and we…read morehad a beautiful Mercedes van that was new and comfortable. Bottled water was provided and he even stopped to get Fresh pizza for us. By the time we finished touring with Roberto for two days we felt that we knew so much about the area, history and culture of the region. Roberto's knowledge or art, history, food and culture was so impressive. The tour we did with Roberto was much more than him driving us from place to place. Each place we went was so carefully planned and curated. We visited wineries, vineyards and a sheep farm that makes cheese. With his help, we were able to visit every place we wanted to see as well as some smaller unknown, hidden gems. We saw so many beautiful landscapes and Roberto stopped frequently for us to take in the views! I cannot say enough wonderful things about Roberto. We hope to go back soon to tour Umbria and Florence with Roberto.