Via Del Vino Tours — Local services in Perugia

Skiing in Italy is always an adventure. And this Ski Safari had them all. Starting with the global pandemic which threatened to shut us all down. I WOULD DO IT AGAIN IN A HEART BEAT! Before I acknowledge the ski leader of our epic journey, I would like to say a few words about Italy and its people. Upon arriving we were immediately welcomed with warmth and kindness. The Italians take pride in their country and it shows. Every turn, transit, meal and mountain was hassle free and loaded with fun. We stayed in Refugios that reminded me of Hansel and Gretel except we were rewarded with soups, stews, pastas and wine. The accommodations were lovely and comfortable. We awoke each morning to falling snow enthused because our first tracks were warm mouthfuls of coffee away. Our polyglot ski guides were experts in the terrain and guided us through the maze of the Dolomite Super. A few of us were top of the line skiers and were rewarded with deep powder and off the track shoots. Everybody had fun. Onto Sue Guerra; owner of Via del Vino Tours. She put together the best ski trip of my life. Knowledgeable, energetic, enthusiastic, informative, resourceful, organized, gregarious, just to name a few of her attributes. Her love of the craft, people and Italy shinned throughout our trip. Our group dinners quickly evolved into lovely friendships, all facilitated by Sue. At the time of this posting, I'm still communicating with my new friends. In summary, Via del Vino Tours is a company I highly recommend for its trustworthiness, value, and quality. And I will do it...

I went on the Puglia Tour with Susan Guerra. The tour was well conceived and well executed. The tour groups are small, permitting entry to places the larger tours rarely, if ever go. Susan provides a personal touch and is attentive to every detail. We had wine with every lunch and dinner, and the wines were spectacular. The cities we visited – Bari, Lecce, Matera, among others were beautiful and interesting, and each local guide was on the top of his/her game. Among the highlights was a cooking class we did. We actually visited the small shop – butcher, fish store, fresh vegetables – and selected what we wanted to make with the pasta. The head chef was a delight. We made pasta from scratch. I have done other cooking classes. This one surpassed all of them. What was a lot of fun – we later did some touring and passed a group of women who make pasta on the street. Our efforts paled in comparison to the speed and precision of theirs. It was lovely to see how the experts manage. We visited several craftspersons/artisans – ceramics, paper mache, vineyard, olive production farm. All very interesting. I loved seeing craftspersons at the top of their game show how they accomplished their work. Highlight of the tour by far – we entered a 13th C chapel of the Knights Templar. It had been buried for 900 years and discovered when the land owner did some excavation. (Photos below are of a paper mache angel and a part of the Knights Templar Chapel) So, bottom line. I very much recommend the tour, and I very much recommend the...

While this tour was advertised as a food and wine tour, these were definitely not the focus of the tour. We enjoyed the history lessons about Perugia from Richard, but we felt there should have been more information given about the food and wine of the area, as advertised. Our tour started off at a lovely cafe with a cappuccino and HALF a cornetto! We were certainly expecting more than sharing a cornetto between the two of us. An hour later we received our second food tasting and again were disappointed to receive a very small thin slice of bread with only two samples of cheese and a couple slices of prosciutto. The lunch consisted of a slice of bread with a limited olive oil sampling and a small plate of pasta and a couple small glasses of wine. Although we were given information of the important wines of the region, we were disappointed to only have a sample of two basic wines. Then later we headed to a spice and chocolate store for a couple of samplings of chocolate and a very small tasting of one type of balsamic vinegar. The tour ended with gelato, which was a generous portion. This tour was too long with the history and touring part and very short on the food and wine part. It was definitely not worth the 85 euros each we paid. As a comparison, we had an similar experience in Spello and the cost was only 25 euros each and we received generous samplings of the region’s olive oil,...