Italy Packages 2007-2008

Quite a number of press releases for Italy package tours have come across our desks in recent days. Here are a few highlights:

To celebrate the publishing of the Wimco Villas Vendome Guide to Italy, Wimco Villas is offering a “complimentary first night in-villa provisioning” (i.e., a free meal) for customers booking villas directly through Wimco by December 31, 2007, for travel by September 2008. Most interesting is Wimco’s new guide, which features villas in Tuscany, Umbria, Capri, and the Amalfi Coast. More info: www.wimco.com.

Euro-Bike and Walking Tours is offering $50 off of their 2008 packages if you book before December 14, 2007. Some of the upcoming tours include a biking tour of the Tuscan Coast and Elba, and walking tours of the Italian Lakes, Cinque Terre, and the Amalfi Coast. Information about all of their tours is available at www.eurobike.com.

Your Friend in Italy, a relatively new travel consulting company, will create customized tours of Italy, including to the regions of Campania, Liguria, Tuscany, Lombardy, and the Veneto. We hear that a new tour to Abruzzo is in the works, so stay tuned. For more info, see www.yourfriendinitaly.com.

The San Francisco Sentinel tipped us off to Tour de Forks, an NY-based tour company that provides culinary tours to Italy, including to Sicily and Puglia, and to Australia (which has some great Italian food, thanks to the large Italian expat community). The company’s 2007 tours appear to be over, but you can stay informed of their plans for 2008 on their website at www.tourdeforks.com or on their blog at www.tourdeforks.blogspot.com.

And, long-time group tour provider Perillo Tours has just announced its roster of Italy tours for 2008. They include “Italy Off the Beaten Path,” which includes some stops in L’Aquila, Abruzzo, and villages in Tuscany and Umbria, and “Deluxe Italy-by-Rail,” which includes Venice, Florence, Rome, and Capri. For more info, see www.perillotours.com.