Shore Excursion - San Gimignano & Volterra

We are due to sail on Equinox on 25th July and are starting to look at shore excursions for the ports. Me and my darling wife fancy doing the Tuscan Countryside - San Gimignano & Volterra shore excursion that Celebrity offer as figured Florence and Pisa will be where everyone is heading. However, there is very little info on the tours on Celebrity website which makes it hard to decide whether it is worth it.

Can anyone who has been on this tour, provide some info on it e.g. what sights do you see; do you get any free time to explore; what is the lunch like etc

Thanks

We are due to sail on Equinox on 25th July and are starting to look at shore excursions for the ports. Me and my darling wife fancy doing the Tuscan Countryside - San Gimignano & Volterra shore excursion that Celebrity offer as figured Florence and Pisa will be where everyone is heading. However, there is very little info on the tours on Celebrity website which makes it hard to decide whether it is worth it.

 

Can anyone who has been on this tour, provide some info on it e.g. what sights do you see; do you get any free time to explore; what is the lunch like etc

 

Thanks

Very nice tour, but you can do most of it on your own at a lower price. Check your roll call. You spend most of the time on your own. The best thing for me was the lunch at the old farm and the beautiful scenery along the way.

We are due to sail on Equinox on 25th July and are starting to look at shore excursions for the ports. Me and my darling wife fancy doing the Tuscan Countryside - San Gimignano & Volterra shore excursion that Celebrity offer as figured Florence and Pisa will be where everyone is heading. However, there is very little info on the tours on Celebrity website which makes it hard to decide whether it is worth it.

 

Can anyone who has been on this tour, provide some info on it e.g. what sights do you see; do you get any free time to explore; what is the lunch like etc

 

Thanks

First ,I would check out your roll call to see if anyone is planning private tours to these towns. Find your roll call at top of page, plug in your ship and sailing date and you will be linked to your roll call.

San Gimignano and Volterra are walled towns, not as far as Florence but a long drive through some beautiful countryside when you get off the freeway.

San Gimignano is noted for it towers. It will be full of tourists during the day, with one shop after another. But they have the best white wine in all of Italy: Vernaccia. Produced from local grapes.

Volterra was a Etruscan ancient town. It has a wonderful museum, lots of artist shops ,again a walled town great for exploring. It is noted for alabaster.

I would pick one of these places to explore with a wonderful lunch. Do try the pecorino Tuscan cheese and cured meats wherever you eat.:)

Very nice tour, but you can do most of it on your own at a lower price. Check your roll call. You spend most of the time on your own. The best thing for me was the lunch at the old farm and the beautiful scenery along the way.

Agree that lunch was great. Walking through both towns does not really need a guide, so free time to wander on our own was appreciated. I hate the herd mentality of many tours where you follow a guide holding an umbrella or some other silly prop.

We have been to San Gimignano twice and loved it very much. On our last cruise we did a private tour organized on the roll call and visited Volterra and San G. It was delightful. San G has a shop that advertises the best Gelato in the world. It was very good. Loved sitting at a sidewalk cafe people watching and enjoying a great lunch there also.

We did a tour with our roll call last year to these two towns. It was combined with Torciano Winery tour which served a delicious lunch and paired with tasting of about 15 different wines. It was a great day and we loved San Gimignano. Not to be missed.

For us, this was the best tour of our whole cruise - and that's saying something, especially as we have been to Italy a fair few times. We loved the changing scenery, and really appreciated the guided tour part of the villages where the history was clearly explained. Plenty of free time to wander and shop. Views to die for. And don't get me started on the farmhouse lunch - simply sublime ( and that's from someone who has taught Food for over 40 years!). If you do go for a DIY trip, then I would strongly recommend that you incorporate a guided tour into it, in order to get the most out of your visit to these amazing villages.

San G has a shop that advertises the best Gelato in the world. It was very good. L.

Yes and almost right next to it is another Gelato shop that says the same thing. lol

Make sure that if you do include San G that you are able to walk steep inclines both up and down.

We did a private van with other role call members that allowed about 1.5 hours to roam San G before traveling to a winery. We saved a lot of money from the cruise excursion.

Yes and almost right next to it is another Gelato shop that says the same thing. lol

 

Make sure that if you do include San G that you are able to walk steep inclines both up and down.

 

We did a private van with other role call members that allowed about 1.5 hours to roam San G before traveling to a winery. We saved a lot of money from the cruise excursion.

It's pretty close, but not right next to it, it's across the narrow street! We saw it too and asked the guy in our shop which was the real best in the world. He showed us a certificate they had. Maybe it was a fake but we believed him!!

thanks for the advice guys

We have done private tours to both towns. Voterra seemed less crowded. We had ample time on our own to browse both places before continuing on to lunch and a visit to a winery.

Private tours are the way to go.

Dave