This was our first time booking a package deal like this one and I'm pretty sure we won't do it again, but it was still perhaps our best travel experience ever--because of Italy.
We had some pre-trip issues because we had flight changes that Gate 1 didn't communicate until a month after the fact, then our hotel was changed the day before we left because of a plumbing problem in the original hotel. I don't feel that Gate 1 handled any of this particularly well, even though none of it was their fault. It just isn't that hard to press "send" on an e-mail, and their phone service was borderline rude.
That being said, when we got into Milan the car rental company upgraded us at no cost to a Peugeot 208 diesel (which was great because it was fast and fun and fuel is very expensive). The trip down was pretty smooth once we were out of the airport and was a great introduction to driving in Italy--which I loved, but might not be for everyone.
You should spend a lot of time researching driving, ZTLs, Italian road signs, and routes before your trip. We didn't have a GPS but were able to precheck our routes on our phones via hotel wifi and bought a really detailed map once we were there. It's probably a good idea to just get moving and get down there as quickly as possible rather than making a bunch of stops, given that you've just spent a million hours in a plane.
The Hotel Terme Pellegrini, our substitute hotel, was full of older Germans on a package tour who spent a lot of their time going down to the basement "treatment room" in bathrobes, which was a complete hoot. It was a little tired but in a fantastic location, right on the Piazza del Popolo, a short walk to everything.
Montecatini Terme doesn't warrant more than a day of your trip, but it's a good spot for getting to places like Florence, Lucca, and Siena fairly easily--right off the autostrada and on the main train line heading west from Florence. We spent one day when my husband was a little under the weather walking up to the funicolare and wandering around Montecatini Alto, which was really wonderful. Aside from that we basically left after breakfast and came back for dinner every day. I can recommend Don Chisciotte on the square for absolutely fabulous food...other people seemed to have issues with the service, but we thought it was fine. The Pasticceria Giovannini just down the way was a great stop for a pastry.
Our days were:
1. Top speed to Montecatini Terme, took a long time finding the hotel and a place to park, unpacked, nap, and superlative dinner.
2. Train to Florence, lunch at the market, wandering around the city in a big circle, heading back. Be sure to check the train schedule; they end fairly early, so you might want to have lunch there and head back for dinner.
3. Montecatini Alto by funicolare, charming and great views.
4. Siena. We took the incredibly scenic SR222 through Chianti to get there. It's very hard to figure out the outskirts of Siena and you have to be careful about the ZTLs, but it's so absolutely worth it once you're there.
5. Lucca. We went by car but the train is easy, too. It was rainy while we were there so we didn't rent bicycles, but it was a completely magical city that's well worth a day.
6. We didn't mean to go to Pisa but missed an exit so we just went with it and spent about 45 minutes at the Piazza dei Miracoli. Our main thing for this day was heading into the mountains of Lunigiana, where my family is from.
The Milan hotel was a little difficult to find. The dinner was not great and it's not in a good spot to walk to anything else, but the breakfast buffet was way above average. It was good to be able to get to the airport in the morning without much driving.
So, great trip! We're going to go back to Italy as soon as possible, but we'll book everything ourselves. It's just the way we roll.
Feel free to ask questions!
Edited: 8 years ago