Medieval Tour in Monteriggioni and Val d'Orcia from Florence

I joined this tour for my first solo trip abroad, as I can't speak English at all. Before the tour, I was quite anxious because I was looking forward to the tour content, but there were no Japanese reviews and I barely understood English. However, in the three towns we visited, they always showed the meeting time with numbers on a handwritten board, which was very clear, and that alone relieved my anxiety, allowing me to enjoy the entire time. On this trip, I visited Venice, Florence, and Rome, and I was able to enjoy scenery and town atmospheres that were very different from the city centers. The purpose of participating in the tour was originally because I really wanted to go to Pienza, but actually going, I felt that Montalcino's townscape had an atmosphere like something from a Ghibli anime movie, and the view from the city walls was beautiful, so I'm glad I went! (Pienza also had a nice view, and although the time was short, I had a great time!) I felt that Monteriggioni was actually a bit too time-consuming, but it was a charming town that I could enjoy thoroughly by walking through all the alleys, including the city walls. Here are some notes, but first, the meeting place is just where the time is indicated on the board, but since you might get lost while walking through town, it is recommended to map it on Google Maps or similar so you won't get lost and the time to the meeting place will be easy to read. Let's make sure to arrive at least five minutes before the meeting time. (I set an alarm for ten minutes beforehand.) For Pienza, there is only a little over an hour from arrival to the meeting time, and time passes surprisingly quickly if you stop to look at the scenery. I also went inside the Piccolo Mini Palace, which is a major tourist attraction, but this is a tour-only facility, and it takes about 30 minutes for the wait until the tour starts and the tour itself. I didn't realize it was a tour-style event and participated, and I was very anxious because I would have been late for the meeting time if I had stayed until the end, but the staff were very kind, showed me the view from the main attraction, the terrace, a little quickly, and after seeing the terrace, they allowed me to leave early, so everything turned out fine. However, since it is fundamentally an act that disrupts the tour, I think it was not good, and since I don't know if the staff will always respond in the same way, I think those participating in this bus tour should refrain from entering the Piccolo Mini Palace (and not buy tickets). And finally, I participated in late September, and it was very hot and I walked quite a bit. Therefore, for those attending during the same period or in the hotter summer months, we strongly recommend taking heat precautions and wearing comfortable walking shoes. I think if you keep these things in mind, you'll enjoy it more, and although there were no Japanese people in the session I participated in, I felt it was an attractive tour that I really want Japanese people to join.

Lovely trip with a very pleasant pace. Enough time in each city to explore and enjoy on your own. Wine tasting in Montalcino is a very lovely touch, set in the walls of a medieval fortress. Our guide - Lorenzo - was super chill, gave interesting facts about each city and important logistical details without being overbearing, he even provided some nice recommendations for places to visit that are outside of a basic tourist itinerary. Great experience overall!

It was a great experience and everything was done 100%. No delays occurred and the guide Andrea very friendly and attentive. We were very happy with the tour

We had to walk 5-10 minutes from the meetup point to the bus which is just useful to know. This would’ve been a lot better of an experience had it not been for the heat so take this review with a grain of salt when it comes to that. Our bus overheated halfway through the trip and it was hard to breathe which did hinder the experience significantly as we didn’t get relief from the heat between stops and had to continue walking up hills. Our tour guide’s name started with a V and she gave a lot of information on the tour, but it got to a point when she wouldn’t stop talking the entire bus ride as there were translations between English and Spanish. There were some points that the group wanted to nap between locations or just have a few quiet moments. At different stops, our tour guide did not give us adequate directions to different spots and we were all left feeling confused about where to go during free time. Additionally at our last stop during a wine tasting, the employee doing the wine tasting spoke in Italian to our tour guide asking if any of us spoke Italian. Our tour guide said she didn’t think so, but she didn’t know that I understand and speak Italian. The employee of the wine tasting proceeded to talk poorly about another person in our group and our tour guide engaged in that conversation which I relayed to our group and they were not happy. It was really disappointing to hear this and showed lack of professionalism from the tour guide. This incident alone significantly shaped my perspective of this experience. Overall, the views and experience of the small towns was enjoyable! We loved the scenery and the countryside.

All right only was not in Portuguese the translation