CICERONI Travel Traveller Reviews

This was a comprehensive week's tour of the sights, art galleries and churches of Milan, Cremona and Crema with visits to violin maker's and organ builder's workshops, plus private homes and collections, all enlivened by expert commentaries by Ciceroni Travel's founder, the art historian Tom Duncan. Choice accommodation and excellent meals. We have joined ten or so Ciceroni tours before and remain addicted.

Tom Duncan is an erudite and entertaining art historian and a delight to listen to.

wonderful weather! ideally situated hotel. great to have private viewing at the Prado. very good guides. well managed

first time, but 2 more booked!

We enjoyed our visits to Greek and Roman sites , the commentaries and the arrangements for the trips.

Very good service and arrangements

An excellent cultural tour to the ancient Roman sites in the bay of Naples. A very good hotel, excellent logistical planning,and a small congenial group of like minded people. Both James Hill and Christopher Smith were first class as guides. Christopher, having recently moved on from being the director of the British School in Rome, was bang up to date with the excavations, especially in Herculaneum, which the British School administers on behalf of the Packard interests. Our visit was marred by one of us ( both in our late 70s) being bumped off the British Airways flight home. Cicerone have been and are being most helpful in helping to get some compensation. We are appalled by British Airways service. So all travellers beware! Even on a group ticket you can be bumped. So be prepared with a back up plan, especially if one of a couple gets bumped. Make a back up plan for what you would do. Are you fully prepared to travel alone if you have to?

First class. I hope to do more of their tours

In the course of seven days we basked in wonderful weather and had a beautifully balanced experience of Europe's finest art gallery - the Prado - and three palaces, of which the Royal Palace of Aranjuez was the most spectacular. We had time to stroll in the gardens of this mini-Versailles with its alleys of sycamores, numerous fountains, and beds of deliciously pungent roses. That evening I sat by the open window of my opulent hotel room listening to a piano concert in the square below. On the evening of the second of our three early morning visits to the Prado we saw Hieronimus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights and we saw a modernisation of these pleasures in a production of Bizet's Carmen that evening. The hotel was the best I've ever stayed in and its cuisine was particularly sumptuous.

In all practical matters Tom Duncan and David Sketchley really did make us fell - as Ciceroni's motto suggests - brothers, not strangers. The local guides exhibited commendable pride in their country's art.

Covered all you could wish to see in the time

Well organised as ever with excellent local guide

As a group of around 25 visitors, plus 2 art historians, we explored the Prado, Thyssen and Reina Sofia art galleries in Madrid and also paid visits to 3 royal palaces, in and around Madrid. Excellent lecturing.

Ciceroni specialises in cultural tours, including visual art, music and gardens, in Europe, USA and now the safer parts of the Middle East. The groups are accompanied by specialist lecturers and the visits are well structured. The accommodation is always of a high standard and several convivial meals are included.

6 days in Madrid look at the Art of the Royal Collections and visiting three Royal palaces. Local guides were extensively relied upon 2 evening meals and 2 lunches were included

Ciceroni is a travel company specialising in small group tours. many details are given pre travel but personally I would prefer an daily itinerary as well so I could plan my free time in advance. The owner of the company travelled on this tour; he is an excellent lecturer and I would have appreciated more talks from him rather than local guides

Entry to the Prado before it opened to the public greatly enhanced the visit

Good itinerary

It was a trip to Madrid where we learned about the amazing art collection in the Prado museum, plus we visited Royal palaces etc. We ate together as a group most days, and so we were with like-minded people. As we went with friends we had a lot of fun too, and of course the sunshine was a bonus.

We have travelled with our tour operator Ciceroni for many years and always find everything organised of the highest quality - hotel, restaurants, visiting guides, support staff. Everything is done stylishly and efficiently.