Discount travel italy

In February '99 I took' two bus tours in Italy with Cosmos (Littleton, CO; phone 800/221-0090).

Seventeen passengers from a half-dozen countries joined me in Rome on the first tour, "Southern Italy and Sicily," which cost $865, land only, for 14 days. I was delighted that the price included a Continental breakfast daily plus dinner almost every night.

As our group journeyed southward down the Italian peninsula we encountered snow, hail, rain and very cold temperatures. It snowed as we ascended Mount Vesuvius, which was, according to our tour director, a rare occurrence.

In the mountains the inclement weather caused our Mercedes bus to get stuck in the snow along with hundreds of other vehicles, some of which had snow chains on their tires. Eventually, our bus driver opted to follow the coast, where it was raining and chilly; that didn't prevent us from enjoying the beautiful island of Capri, however, which was the highlight of the tour for me.

After a week the weather improved and we enjoyed sunny skies over Sicily; an island replete with Roman and Greek ruins.

An overnight ferry brought us to Naples from where we journeyed northward to Rome.

Our bus driver was excellent, but the tour director was mediocre, as she provided us with little historical and cultural information on the areas we visited. Also, she often "disappeared" soon after our group arrived at the hotels where we stayed. On the other hand, she was well organized, so the tour proceeded quite smoothly.

Cosmos assigned me a roommate, but because he had purchased only the first week of the tour I had my own room during the second week of that trip at no extra charge.

The second bus tour, "The Splendors of Italy," cost $564 (including a $25 discount because it was my second Cosmos tour in '99).

My 38 fellow passengers and I left for a 9-day trip from Rome to Florence, Pisa and Venice, with visits to several small medieval towns along the way.

Our bus driver was excellent, but Silvia, our tour director, was superb -- the best I've encountered during my travels to over 65 countries. Silvia shared her knowledge and love of the areas we visited, and she attended to every whim of each passenger.

The weather in central and northern Italy was chilly; nevertheless, I enjoyed all the sights that our group visited. The big cities were replete with thousands of noisy motor scooters and hundreds of thousands of tiny cars, which were often double- and triple-parked and even on sidewalks. I preferred the smaller towns such as Orvieto, Siena, San Gimignano and Assisi because they were quiet, quaint and manageable.

Also, the local people in those little places were friendlier than many of the big-city dwellers, who seemed to merely tolerate tourists.

Unfortunately, my new roommate snored and the only alternative was to bed down in the bathroom or the hallway. I used the best earplugs that money could buy, but they were only 10% effective: Indeed, I wished I had paid, the single supplement of $200. Next time.