I went on the tour of Italy and France in May 2004. Our tour guide was excellent. We stayed in 5 hotels and only one was not great (Venice). We traveled from Rome to Venice to Florence to Nice and finally to Paris in 12 days. Thus, we spent a lot of time (and I mean a lot of time) in a bus. This wasn't so terrible though. We saw a lot of great sites and the city-specific tour guides in each city were great. We signed up for this tour because it covered the main sites and left you time to do your own site-seeing. What they don't tell you is that your hotel is a 30 minute cab ride (or more) from any of the sites. So, if you don't spend hundreds of dollars extra to go to the "extra tours" then you spend a lot of time in your hotel room.
Also, the included food was not great. If you don't like veal, don't go on this tour. The few nights we selected our own restaurant the food was amazing. We were sorry to have missed out on great dinners in every city.
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