Milan Private Walking Tour

The tour began badly as there was no one with the City Tours sign outside the coffee shop meeting point at the start time. I called the 888 number and, after a lot of menu selections, finally reached a real person. Just at that time, we saw a woman holding a sign with our name on it so we made the connection with our guide, Lucia, just a few minutes late. Unfortunately, when she reviewed the tour plan, it did not include entry to La Scala Theater, only walk by. However, one of the two reasons we booked this particular tour was to go into La Scala. Lucia called the company and I did as well. After some waiting, my ‘help’ representative told me she could not resolve the lack of La Scala entry tickets even though she acknowledged the entry was supposed to be included per the tour description. She suggested I try to get a partial refund—not helpful at this point. So we headed off to our first stop which was to go up to the Duomo Cathedral’s terraces. While waiting (Skip the Line tickets didn’t work!!) Lucia decided she would just buy the La Scala tickets herself and hope to get reimbursed (please do that TourGuy!). When we reached the terraces, Lucia hit her stride! She had so many fascinating stories and details to share. If you don’t go to the terraces, you can’t get a proper perspective on this incredible church. Knowing we had already visited several of this tour’s planned stops during a previous tour, Lucia too us instead to a small church near the Duomo. Besides Lucia’s wonderful stories about the church, seeing the use of perspective was awe inspiring. From the back, the altar appears to recede 15-20 feet but coming close you see the depth is but a few feet and the columns and paintings were made smaller and smaller toward the rear to give a perception of great depth—fascinating. From the Mrs it was off to La Scala where Lucia did purchase the tickets. Once inside Lucia passed on so much incredible history, not just of the building but of the people who performed or managed there. After taking in the main hall, Lucia took us through the museum where she shared more stories about the people as well as the artifacts there. Again, this tour started on the wrong foot but the tour turned out very wonderfully thanks to our tour guide, Lucia— she was a amazing source of knowledge and wit, and truly made the trip the highlight of our Italian vacation —5 stars ***** for Lucia!!

I cannot say enough good things about our guide David! We were all so impressed with his knowledge that he shared on our tour. The tour was just the right length for us and we never expected to learn so much! Very happy, thanks!

Excellent, knowledgeable tour guide.