psyfi

Thanks so much for all your thoughts!  Good to know to watch for icebergs in the sea day between Iceland and Greenland.

21 hours ago, crewsgirl said:

Hello there, I am really interested in San Gimignano and the smaller towns in Tuscany while we are in Livorno. Did you find enough to do there? Any chance he would have taken you to a winery if you had asked? I love the idea of stopping at local markets. How many people were in the vehicle and do you mind sharing how much you paid for that tour? 

Keeping in mind this was not the tour we were supposed to do, and we changed our day on the fly to avoid rain in Cinque Terre.  No one wanted to go to a winery. San Gimignano was lovely but it really is just a few streets with stores, we ate lunch, had some gelato from a couple places and that was it.  Beautiful views all around as it is the top of a hill.  We quite enjoyed our time, particularly as I like to take photos, but how much there is to “do” depends on if you want to shop, eat, wander around.  I think we were there 90 minutes?  Certado was a place to see but again, just quickly.  There were no stores even open there, but we were there in November. One thing that was really interesting were how different these villages were from Eze in France from a similar time frame. A lot of the drive was pretty as well.  And Pisa was more interesting than I would have thought although we were there too early to go inside.  We had 8 people in the van and the tour was €99 or possibly 109 per person.

We used ItalyTours.eu in Livorno in Nov 2022 on our Transatlantic.  We were initially booked to go to Cinque Terre but our blue haired tour guide Stefano (who was channeling Hades from Hercules) said it was going to pour rain there so gave us the option to re-route, which we all agreed would be better than being in the rain in November.  He took us to Pisa, San Gimignano, and a tiny town called Certaldo in Tuscany instead. He stopped at scenic spots so we could take photos and gave us so much information.  He even made a stop at a local grocery store so people could get limoncello for €4 instead of €24 in the tourist area.  We had a fabulous day!

Thanks! I saw something about a place near Naples that does a buffalo mozzarella making class that I thought might be cool. I was hoping for Parmasean but I'd have to give up my day in Florence to pull it off, or extend my trip and add on Parm/Genoa so I think that is out.

I was hoping to get to an olive oil farm/factory in Greece. Does anyone have one they can recommend from Herkalion or Olympia? I thought if I could combine that with some ruins that would make a nice day. Maybe somewhere I could get to with a reasonable taxi fare? Thanks in advance?

Thanks. I browsed through but hadn't seen anything yet. Maybe someone else will know.

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We are doing a cruise and will have several days in Rome, we also port in Livorno, Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia. Would any of these be good spots for a cheese factory tour?

Thanks, anyone else have experience with it? It would be neat to be able to communicate by text instead of leaving sticky notes on the ,iron in the cabin, but then again, not sure I want to carry my phone with me...

I downloaded the iConcierge app. I understand it will let me do things like make dining reservations, check my account etc... Is there a fee to activate it? I thought I read something about being able to text other people thru the app, if this is the case is the activation fee per cabin or per device? For anyone who has used it, how we'll does it work? Was it worth it? Just 5 more sleeps until we leave! Thanks in advance!

So sorry tiki! Stupid spellcheck! Monoi oil and Tamanu oil! The Same place you get the vanilla makes small batches of both oils and they are wonderful. Great for treating sunburn and the Tamanu has anti-bacterial qualities - heals cuts fast, stops bug bites from itching, etc... We did not buy any of the mass produced versions of monoi but I might have to do that when this stuff runs out.

I have to second the pineapple vanilla jam from the agricultural school. I am rationing out the last little bit and wishing I had bought more!

I bought vanilla on Moorea from the place Tiki talked about (also bought monoi and tetanus oil there too, which I am also rationing!) and from a farm on Tahaa. Personally, I can't tell the difference. Both make amazing vanilla sugar to put on fruit (fantastic on pineapple) and in baking, and vanilla syrup.

Loving Ben's review! Curious George, who travels with us would like to meet Ben!

Thanks so much for all the amazing photos and all the details! I just spent about 6 hours reading it, so I can only imagine how long it took to do it. Know that it was very appreciated! I loved seeing all the breakaway souvenirs in the gift shop. Thief rules on jewellery on the water slides seems a bit ridiculous but I will be sure to take all of it off before riding. I also appreciate you posting all the dailies so I can plan exactly what I want to do. Can anyone who has been on later tell me if they got a free tote bag and if they gave out lanyards?

Glad you enjoyed yourself!

I just got back from the Ocean Princess with a 4 day land trip pre-cruise. If I were to do it again, I would do a land trip. Probably to Moorea and Taha'a. I found the islands to be similar enough that if I had missed one of them it would not impact my experience that much. We were so busy on the cruise that we were tired and went to sleep early so nightlife didn't matter.

Just got back and Patrick on Tahiti was a fantastic tour.

I'll be seeing him on Wednesday and will remind him to check his email!

Let me just be clear, none of the glass blowers were talking about their commission work. I approached the one blower as she made very cool fish and I simply asked if there was any way to get one. And I am thrilled with my piece. So you can ask if you like someone's style, but they may or may not oblige and may or may not offer a piece in your price range.

We love the Hot Glass show. I believe the number of pieces raffled have to do with how many people are at the show. On our cruise, sometimes they did the raffle in the middle because when people hear about the raffles, they just show up at the end and don't really watch the show. Sometimes they raffled several pieces, sometimes no pieces. Go to see the show and learn about the art form. I was really hoping for a piece in the raffle but ours also went for $500-800 and that was outside my price range. However, I did get a business card for one of the artists and after she got off the ship, I commissioned her to make me a fish, so it's sort of like a souvenir from the cruise!

We are booked with him for the 1/2 day tour next month (eek! That is so cool to say, finally!). I will do a review once I return but I booked it based on other reviews here and on TripAdvisor.

Can you provide a link to find Patrick?

http://papeete.com/patrick/index.html

But be forewarned, he is not as speedy about returning emails as you may be used to. I think he usually got back to me within a week.

I always love your reviews thanks!

If he previously had a full open water certification, then he does not necessarily need to re-cert, just needs refresher dives. If he just did a resprt course, that's different. We are diving with Topdive out of the IC, but have not been yet, so I can't offer a recommendation.

Try this: http://papeete.com/patrick/index.html

The original poster asked about Tahiti not Bora Bora, this is a different Patrick, who offers a 4x4 island tour.

Thanks for the great directions, I book marked it for next fall!