I am interested in your experiences with either of these tour companies on a 14-day escorted tour of Italy. In particular, please let me know about the hotels, their locations re the "center" of the city, the food and the quality/knowledge of the tour guides. Any other information also would be appreciated.

I have travelled Perillo in the past and was quite satisfied with them. They have wonderful tourguides. We went on the 10 day trip of Italy in December a few years back. The only drawback was that the dinners were included and we were kind of disappointed in some of them. Perillo is great for the first time visitor.

Considering Gate1 or Perillo for March 2003 italy tour. What did you decide?

Melissa....... I am booked on Gate 1 for Sept. 23rd departure (12 Day Enchancting Italy)- so if you can wait - I'll give a report on them when I return. I did alot of research on alot of tour companies before I booked with Gate 1. Perillo did not seem to have as many satisfied customers as in years past. Lots of complaints about the food. There seemed to be more emphasis on a few dressy occasions they offered in the evening which I didn't care about......AND they were more expensive. I chose Gate 1 because I only found good comments about them - researching back a few years....and they offered 2/3 day stays in each city as well as a nice balance of free time and nights where we would buy our own dinner (which we like). IF I were going to spend the money to go Perillo, I would spend a little more and go Tauck...they are supposed to be fantastic...but out of my price range.<BR> 6 weeks to go - can't wait!!

Christine-Last night we narrowed it down to an 11 day Gate1 trip "Italy & Switzerland" and an 11 day Trafalgar trip "Real Italy".<BR><BR>Sounds like we were on the same page about Perillo. <BR><BR>Did you look into Trafalgar at all?<BR><BR>I'd love to hear about your trip in September.

Hi Melissa......<BR> I did also look into Trafalgar and found mostly positive comments. I think in the end, we discovered that Trafalga did not offer the exact choice of itinerary we wanted and seemd like a busier bus trip with less than 3 nites in each place. We were trying to minimize switching hotels every night.<BR>I also have friends who LOVED Globus but I had the same problem with some of their itineraries.<BR> I also know someone who went on an ALitalia package and ended up with a GAte 1 Tour guide and their group and she raved about the guide.<BR> I'll keep you posted on my thoughts after the trip....or email me privately if you have more questions. Thanks!

I'm unfamiliar with Gate 1. Do they have a website? (Couldn't find it when I went to a search on Yahoo.)

Gate 1's website: http://www.gate1travel.com/<BR><BR>(It was the first hit on my Yahoo search; not sure why you didn't get it.)

I am very interested in hearing others opinions. We are a young couple and are looking for a trip with limited group time, mostly go as you please. Gate-1's rail tour look good so far, as go Alitalia's.