I plan vacation itineraries for a living. When I want a REAL vacation, I love giving the reins to someone else. Especially if that someone else is Adventures by Disney. While all of the ABD itineraries look incredible, we decided on the Italy trip because it hit a lot of sites that we all could get excited about with Rome, Florence / Tuscany and Venice.
This is the first in a series trip report. Day One: Rome
I ALWAYS advise arriving in-destination at least one day prior to the start of your itinerary, whether it's a cruise, river cruise or group tour. This gives you a chance to recover from your flight and the jet lag. PLUS, you can explore your surroundings and, perhaps, add on a site that isn't included in your official itinerary.
We arrived early in Rome and checked into our hotel, the beautiful 5 star Gran Melia Villa Agripinna , which is located adjacent to Vatican City and near trendy Trastevere. Once we checked into our hotel, we took off on foot through the city. Walking offers a wonderful way to get to know a new place. We found some gelato and ate dinner on the terrace of a lovely little trattoria. The next day, we had scheduled a tour of the catacombs. While the tour was interesting, it's worth noting that we had some challenges with it. It was hard to know where to meet our guides and our bus was late.
Once we joined our Adventures by Disney Guides - POOF - no more late buses and no more confusion over where to meet!
Back at the Villa Agripinna, we met our wonderful ABD Guides, Ken and Marcello. They were super friendly, of course, and welcomed us to the group, gave us some overview of the itinerary and what to expect.
Our itinerary began late afternoon with a tour of the iconic Colosseum. Our Rome expert guide, Simone, joined us for the tour and he would be with us through our entire time in Rome. Though it was crowded with tourists, we skipped all the lines and made our way directly to the floor of the Colosseum. Here, Simone brought the history to life for us, pointing out detail that I never would have noticed otherwise. He engaged the children in our group with a reenactment of the 'entertainment' that crowds would have seen at the site.
Our guides efficiently brought us back to Villa Agripinna and it was time for our group welcome dinner. Your group becomes like a little family that you get to know through the trip. After all, you are sharing these once-in-a-lifetime experiences with your group. The children on our trip, (called 'Junior Adventurers') became friends quickly, even starting that day.
That evening, our Adventure Guides gave us our schedule for the following day. We had a starting time of 5:00am!! But, we were promised coffee and a light breakfast. Ken and Marcello promised that this would be 100% worth the early wake up.
Stay tuned for Day Two!
Mary Graham / Trips by Mary has been professionally planning travel for over seven years. I have personally been on two Adventures by Disney, and planned many more for my clients.
To start planning your trip, please visit my Calendly and schedule a Discover Call: https://calendly.com/trips-by-mary/discoverymeeting
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