Tour 'Rome is always beautiful!'

Tour "Rome is always beautiful!". The group leader is Lilia Zhalivtsiv.

It was the second, but hopefully the last bus tour with the Accord.

Let me explain why I came to this conclusion.

1) The tour is designed for 11 days, this is a rather long period during which we were able to really see only one city - ROME. The rest of the cities: Florence, Venice are galloping across Europe. A maximum of 1.5 hours of sightseeing and 1.5 hours of free time is just nothing, it’s normal to see 1-2 sights. In general, you need to go to these cities again.

Ljubljana, San Marino - of course you can see them within the time allotted by the program, another question would we come specially to see them. I don't know, hardly...

Budapest is a city in which we were the second time, and managed to finish what we did not have time on the first trip, since it was a whole day.

2) Hotels are different (both relatively good and bad), they have already been mentioned in previous reviews. All tourists leave their reviews about hotels in Accord questionnaires at the end of the tour, in the hope that I will listen to their opinion, but BAD hotels still remain along the tour route.

In Rome, the IDEA Nomentana hotel. Located in a shabby area. 1-1.5 hours drive first by bus (341 or 350) to the metro, and from the metro to the center. There are no breakfasts in this hotel: coffee and a biscuit, but they say this is the case in all hotels in Italy ...

3) Sightseeing tour of Rome. I’ll make a reservation right away that we took optional excursions along the route only to Venice and to the baths (I’ll explain why later).

On the bus on the first day of the start of the tour, Lilia distributed the tour program to everyone and asked the people (“Dear”, as she called us), decide on optional excursions, since, according to her, she needs to know the exact number of people in advance in order to book these excursions. The “dear ones” decided, they got excursions on the first day in Rome to the Vatican and then to the Colosseum. In this regard, Lilia said that the review of Rome would not be in the morning, but after the Vatican Museums. Okay. I approached Lilia the day before and asked where and when to approach those who are not going to the Vatican (we had pre-purchased tickets on the Vatican website for another day and another time). But Lilia said that she would tell everything in the morning. In the morning, our group leader took us by bus to the metro, and from there we all had to go to the Vatican in an organized crowd. We approached Lily again and said that we were not going to go to the Vatican, to waste precious time, so let her appoint a place and time for a meeting for a review, to which Lily said that we would not be able to find a meeting place on our own. And we, in our stupidity, went to the Vatican with everyone. Further, our group leader, who was supposed (according to her, even on the first day) to book tickets to the Vatican Museums in advance, led the entire crowd of his tourists (both those who go to the Vatican and those who do not go) to the general line at the Vatican box office, which stretched for 400 meters. Having once again told Lila that we did not intend to stand in line with everyone, they demanded to be taken to this “secret” meeting place. And then Lilia asks the guide, who came to conduct the faculty. an excursion where they meet, after an optional, and the guide offers to meet us at the stele of St. Peter's Cathedral, to which Lilia does not agree, but agrees on another place, apparently one that is so difficult to find and yet leads us there. This place turns out to be a sidewalk in front of souvenir shops on the square on the left in front of St. Peter's Cathedral. A lot of tour groups gather and disperse here, right there, by some coincidence, there is also a souvenir shop where all the guides bring their tourists .... Well, God bless them!

It was already 10 o'clock. We agreed that we should come to the survey at 12.20. We decided not to waste time and went to Castel Sant'Angelo, which was not far away. We bought without any queues (although Lilya told us that it’s better not to go, we won’t have time, there are queues) tickets, audio guides and calmly looked at the castle.

They arrived at the appointed time. Sunshine, open space. We waited 40 minutes for our group. (even when they came, they were also taken to buy souvenirs). And at the same time, Lily did not shout, why are you late, and even take time for shopping. And we in Eger Liley were expressed so much indignation about being late for 2 MIN!!!

Then we went to take bus number 40 to get to the center, but it was lunch time, the transport drivers had a snack at that time and we waited another 15-20 minutes for the bus, then they took us to the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, they gave us free time to have a bite pizza and led to the Colosseum, because at 15.00 people had an elective "Coliseum".

To say that it was a sightseeing tour of ROME is an understatement. Guide Elena is too far from the concept of a “guide”, it was just a person who has been living in Italy for a long time, something, somewhere someone told her about Rome, and now she leads a crowd of people and tells them different stories (about girlfriends, about cafes). In general, the person (Elena), who said that tickets were sold to the Colosseum during the Roman Empire (inf. “The spectators of the Colosseum were seated at the performances in accordance with their status. Tickets (tesserae) were free, but a strict hierarchy was observed,” led the crowd further on an excursion to the Colosseum ... And we were advised by a cafe nearby “Luccia.” We do not recommend, unsanitary conditions, the food is terrible!!!

Bottom line: They did a BIG stupid thing that they spent half a day in Rome taking part in the extras for the reality show "Accord Tourists in Rome." To lead adults like a flock of sheep, there were simply no words ....

And I can’t imagine what ours looked at in the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Cathedral in less than 3 hours (if half of this time they had to queue at the Vatican ticket office, and then to the Cathedral (check on a metal detector). We have to the Vatican and the Cathedral it took 2.5 hours for each object.

By the way, all sightseeing tours in Italy are carried out only with headphones, for which you need to pay 2 euros.

4) The tour program is somewhat different from the declared one, and I could not understand where Venice comes from in the previous reviews if it is not in the program. It turns out that day 9 will not be the same as in the program on the site. On the evening before you will be brought to a hotel in Slovenia on the border with Italy. And the next day you will have a choice of 2 electives: Venice (60 euros) or Isola - Piran - Portorož (30 euros), or guard the border ... I wonder why this "old" innovation has not yet appeared in the program on the site? !

5) Another unpleasant deception was waiting for us in the baths. We were brought there and Lilia said that we have 2 hours in the baths, that this is supposedly the limited time for which we paid) and we meet at the bus in 3 hours (although it was not clear what to do there for 1 hour). Everything is natural, we tried for 2 hours to swim and take a shower, and dry our hair, and change clothes (that is, everything is galloping again). And again - those who were a little late were not forced to pay extra for extra. time. And it turns out at the stand at the box office there are types of tickets to the baths: for 3 hours and for the whole day. Those. most likely we had tickets for 3 hours, but for some reason we had to be deceived and driven an hour earlier.

6) The people “thump” (sorry for my not “literary” language, but this is exactly the word) right on the bus, starting with wine and ending with cognac. And in our tour it was some kind of continuous process ...

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