shore excursion livorno

[dimebeerman]

anyone hired private tour to San gimignano/siena? Doesn't appear to be excursion to San Gimignano from ship. Anyone interested in sharing driver. On Journey 5/16.

[greeneg]

Post in error

[Aussieflyer]

Check your roll call group - there are usually people wanting to share tours.

[emcee207]

Last year we did a San Gimignano/Tuscany tour with "Tuscany Taste Tour" owned and operated by a handsome young gentleman named Maurizio Mancini.

He was excellent, spoke perfect english and was knowledgeable. We did a wine tasting at a vineyard and then drove to Florence. A very nice day. We did not do Sienna but Maurizio will tailor your tour to your needs.

His website is www.tuscanytastetour.com

 

This was one of the few private tours we booked on our own, with just the two of us. As others have said, get on your roll call and solicit some of the others to join you or you join them to help defray costs as private tours are expensive.

 

One word of caution in this area however; I will never again join a tour that someone else has booked or set up. On a 14 day cruise around Italy last year we had two private tours with problems. These were arranged by others, not myself.

I am a perfectionist when it comes to these things and from now on I want to be in control of my own destiny. I am not saying that a tour I book couldn't have a problem; I'm just saying I always do a lot of "due diligence" before booking to lessen the probablity of problems. The "Ports of Call" boards on here are an excellent place to start.

[denims]

Claudio Caponera

http://www.limoinrome.com/index.php

 

He was wonderful!

[dimebeerman]

Last year we did a San Gimignano/Tuscany tour with "Tuscany Taste Tour" owned and operated by a handsome young gentleman named Maurizio Mancini.

He was excellent, spoke perfect english and was knowledgeable. We did a wine tasting at a vineyard and then drove to Florence. A very nice day. We did not do Sienna but Maurizio will tailor your tour to your needs.

His website is www.tuscanytastetour.com

 

This was one of the few private tours we booked on our own, with just the two of us. As others have said, get on your roll call and solicit some of the others to join you or you join them to help defray costs as private tours are expensive.

 

One word of caution in this area however; I will never again join a tour that someone else has booked or set up. On a 14 day cruise around Italy last year we had two private tours with problems. These were arranged by others, not myself.

I am a perfectionist when it comes to these things and from now on I want to be in control of my own destiny. I am not saying that a tour I book couldn't have a problem; I'm just saying I always do a lot of "due diligence" before booking to lessen the probablity of problems. The "Ports of Call" boards on here are an excellent place to start.

 

 

Your advice is well-taken. Well-run tours are great....poorly run tours can be a nightmare. I also enjoy knowing everything I can about a trip....before I go on that trip. That's why I spend as much time as I do on these boards and other travel websites. It makes the trip that much more interesting. The tuscanytastetour that you suggested is what I'm looking for....and with your recommendation I feel more confident about it. Two years ago we drove through Tuscany and stayed in a small town in southern Tuscany Sinalunga. It was wonderful. You got a real feel of "Tuscany". Unfortunately a day trip off a cruise ship is difficult to recreate that Under the Tuscan Sun feeling. But we'll try. I was thinking of renting my own car for a day...but it doesn't appear the car rental in Livorno is near the port...and I would probably waste too much time in the car rental. The tuscanytastetour sounds like it might fit the bill. Loved Lucca, Siena, Pisa, Florence, the outlets and the Chianti region in past trips. But haven't been to San Gimignano and want to get there this trip.

[Jade13]

anyone hired private tour to San gimignano/siena? Doesn't appear to be excursion to San Gimignano from ship. Anyone interested in sharing driver. On Journey 5/16.

 

We used Guido from Tuscany in My Pocket two years ago and he was fantastic. He was a big hit with our group. Let me know if you cannot find his web site.

 

Btw, we went to Liverno and we did the Siena/San G. trip from Rome pre-cruise last year.

[emcee207]

Dimebeerman,

 

LOL, I love that name. I"m sure we'd get along just fine.

 

Over the years I've discovered traveling, especially cruising, is something you really have to do a lot of research for. It is very expensive and our time is limited so it really is a downer if you don't plan well or get hooked up with a lousy tour. Most time on a cruise you are there for just the one day. And some places are a once in a lifetime visit.

 

Ok, one war story from our stop in Taormina Sicily last spring. We joined up with a small group from our roll call for a tour. At this stop you had to tender in to the port where you would then hook up with your tour guide. The woman who had arranged the tour said to get the first tender off this ship in the morning and we'd meet in port where they drop you off.

I think there were 8 people in the tour.

That morning on the way down to the tenders we decided to stop for a quick coffee at the Cova coffee bar as we hadn't yet heard the announcement for the tenders starting to board. We ran into another couple from the roll call who were also on this tour. We sat there for about 15 mins waiting to hear the announcement. After about twenty mins or so I went to guest relations to ask what the delay was and was informed the tenders had been available for almost 20-30 mins and we must have missed the announcement. So, we quickly proceeded down and made our way into port. Upon arrival and after getting off the tender we looked all over for the woman who arranged the tour and the rest of the group.

After 20 minutes of looking I saw someone from the tour guide group; I knew the name and he had on a name badge. I asked him if he knew where our group was. He made a couple of calls and returned to inform us the woman from our group had gotten tired of waiting and left without us!!

He called the tour guide on his cell phone and put the woman of the phone.

 

She said she had grown tired of waiting for us and had found another two couples in port who said they'd "take our place":mad:

Well of course the four of us were extremely angry and now faced the prospect of having no tour, no plan, no nothing.

The tour guide that helped us spoke pretty good english and in about 15 mins he helped us find a taxi that was willing to do almost the same tour for the same price.

When we arrived at the second stop, lo and behold don't we run into the group that left us, and more importantly, the woman who "got tired of waiting" and had left us.

I am a gentleman and used strong, but ok language to tell her my thoughts. However, LOL, my wife and the other woman who we were with, weren't so kind.

Let's just say it was an icy rest of the cruise whenever we ran into her on the ship.

Sorry this is so longwinded but this is one of the reasons I book my OWN tours.

There are rude and strange people everywhere, even on cruise ships!!

 

We had an overnight in Livorno so Tuscany Taste Tour Maurizio picked us up at the ship first thing in the morning. Brand new Mercedes Van. Drove to Tuscany with several scenic stops on the way. Arrived in San G where he gave us two hours to explore. It is a lovely town with some great views.

We then left and stopped at a lovely small vineyard for lunch and a wine tasting. "Tenuta Torciano", the propritor's name was luigi so he and I hit it off.

We then left for Florence and toured that beautiful city.

As we had an overnight, we decided to stay in Florence so Maurizio dropped us off at our hotel. We had made prior arrangments with him to pick us up at noon the next day for transport back to the ship. It was expensive to do it this way but didn't want to risk the train.

Over all a great stay in Livorno/ Florence.

 

Ciao and enjoy,

Luigi

ps again, sorry for the longwinded war story but it's theurapeutic to let it out now and then.

[Jade13]

Dimebeerman,

 

 

Ok, one war story from our stop in Taormina Sicily last spring. We joined up with a small group from our roll call for a tour. At this stop you had to tender in to the port where you would then hook up with your tour guide. The woman who had arranged the tour said to get the first tender off this ship in the morning and we'd meet in port where they drop you off.

I think there were 8 people in the tour.

That morning on the way down to the tenders we decided to stop for a quick coffee at the Cova coffee bar as we hadn't yet heard the announcement for the tenders starting to board. We ran into another couple from the roll call who were also on this tour. We sat there for about 15 mins waiting to hear the announcement. After about twenty mins or so I went to guest relations to ask what the delay was and was informed the tenders had been available for almost 20-30 mins and we must have missed the announcement. So, we quickly proceeded down and made our way into port. Upon arrival and after getting off the tender we looked all over for the woman who arranged the tour and the rest of the group.

After 20 minutes of looking I saw someone from the tour guide group; I knew the name and he had on a name badge. I asked him if he knew where our group was. He made a couple of calls and returned to inform us the woman from our group had gotten tired of waiting and left without us!!

He called the tour guide on his cell phone and put the woman of the phone.

 

She said she had grown tired of waiting for us and had found another two couples in port who said they'd "take our place":mad:

Well of course the four of us were extremely angry and now faced the prospect of having no tour, no plan, no nothing.

The tour guide that helped us spoke pretty good english and in about 15 mins he helped us find a taxi that was willing to do almost the same tour for the same price.

When we arrived at the second stop, lo and behold don't we run into the group that left us, and more importantly, the woman who "got tired of waiting" and had left us.

I am a gentleman and used strong, but ok language to tell her my thoughts. However, LOL, my wife and the other woman who we were with, weren't so kind.

Let's just say it was an icy rest of the cruise whenever we ran into her on the ship.

Sorry this is so longwinded but this is one of the reasons I book my OWN tours.

There are rude and strange people everywhere, even on cruise ships!!

 

 

.

 

I always organize the tours myself, but I am very organized, have a typed itinerary with all contact info that I email as an enclosure to those joining us. I have put together many tours and so far have not had a problem. Of course, I also take the risk of others not showing up and my being responsible for the entire costs if others do not show up and those who do would not want to chip in to make up the difference. I always carry enough cash to pay for the entire tour. In Liverno the risk was about 900 EUR (We had a 12 seat minivan that was licensed to go into Florence). Everyone always has seemed please with what I have put together and in that case we had paid confirmations in Pisa to climb the tower, and in Florence the Piti Palace, Synagogue, Acadamia, and more. Those who wanted to skip diff museums walked around and met back at the van at assigned times, etc.

 

One recommendation to others regarding your situation is to always have the cell number of the person who organized the tour/or others in the group, so in your case once you found out you missed the first tender you could phone and tell them you were on the way. We also always have a specific meet time with the guide and mine is at least 15 minutes before we are actually scheduled to leave. I always touch base with everyone the day before so I know everyone is coming but I have also heard stories of those who only post on CC, never followed up on the ship and then just hope weeks later those people were still planning to join the tour.

 

This women does not sound like she did the right thing but playing devils advocate I don't know how late you were from the scheduled meet time. The tour I had for example in Monaco involved 13 people. We had a packed day and were going to St Paul de Vence, Nice and more. If an hour goes by and one couple does not show up there would be a point when we would have had to leave.

 

The lesson I have learned from your story is to touch base the day before and get cell phone numbers.

 

But I understand that the fact that this women found others at the port (so there was no way you could take a taxi to catch up) would have pissed me off too. But her first concern were the costs.

 

Btw, a tender situation takes special planning. In Santorini we told the other couple (who rented the car) to get on the first tender (7:00am), but car pick-up was not until 9:00am. The two women had prearranged to go into the museum at about 8:00am to see the mosaics from Akroteri while the men went to get the car/make sure it wasn't given to anyone else. But we had an approx 2 hour buffer for the start of our day with the car.

[emcee207]

Excellent point about the cell phone, not sure if she had one. Many don't in Europe. I always do and in the future will make sure I give my number out even if someone else doesn't have a phone. Can borrow in a situation like this.

 

We were about a half hour late.

 

The ship had only 684 passengers, was not a hectic chaotic scene at the tender dock.

 

We had touched base with her the day before to confirm time and approx location to meet.

 

There were , I am pretty sure, only 8 on the tour; we were half of the tour!

The other couple had heard the couple or two that took our place ask her the previous day is she had room for more, she said no. You figure it out; yeah, she was more interested in making sure she didn't lose 10 cents as opposed to be concerned that other friends from the roll call had not shown up.

 

What she did was wrong, rude and inexcusable. The fact we caught up to her at the second stop proves we were not very late.

 

This was kind of a lazy site seeing tour, very much like a day in Rome, Venice, etc where you only have 6-8 hrs to see as much as you can. I know the difference and in a situation like that I am always one of the first to be at the designated spot. We had several tours like that on a 14 day Best Of Italy cruise. Beleive me, this was not that kind of tour.!!

[emcee207]

sorry, meant to say "very much UNLIKE a day in Rome, Venice, etc"

[RANTHEMAN]

Hey Louis(aka Luigi),

Just nosing around after getting out of the pool. See you have been on another cruise since we last met. Given the market the last year, the only cruise I can see in our near future is in a rowboat!!

 

As far as this woman relayforlife....What she did is inexcusable.....I repeat I spoke to her the day before and confirmed WE woild be there.

 

Oh well,some people are so self-centered that they could care less how they impact others.

 

Cheers,

Randy and the Champagne Lady

[ClaudiaF]

Claudio Caponera

http://www.limoinrome.com/index.php

 

He was wonderful!

 

The best!!!!!:D