Celtic Tours Italy

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi and welcome to the new and improved the Michelson
Travel Podcast.
I will be speaking with moreguests and more travelers and
will bring you great insightsand, I hope, to inspire your
sense of curiosity.
As you may or may not know, myconcierge of podcast travel has
retired, or so he thinks.

(00:22):
Jay Lawrence has decided toactively travel more, so he will
be one of my many guests as weexplore this great world we live
in, along with rediscoveringAmerica.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
This is Zee Martelson here.
I am sitting here on a lovely,lovely little chilly day with
Diana from Celtic Tours and youknow, considering it's chilly,
we'd like to think about somewarm weather.
And a lot of people are underthe misconception that Celtic
Tours only does Ireland andScotland.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
But that's a misconception, Huge
misconception we started 52years ago.
We started in Ireland, hencethe name Celtic Tours, and our
wonderful owner, Mr Murphy, whois originally from Dublin, you
know, started in Ireland, butover the last 15, two years
we've expanded all over Europeand one of my favorite places is

(01:18):
Italy.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
So Italy has something great going on this
year, which is the Jubilee.
Yes, so what's Celtic Toursdoing for that?

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Well, let me tell you a little bit about the Jubilee.
It is actually a Catholiccelebration and it is only done
in Italy, and this year it's theJubilee of Hope that's the name
of this year's festival and itis a Christian celebration where

(01:50):
they go to the Vatican andactually all over Rome, and they
go to these doors, these fivedoors that have been opened by
the Pope.
They are typically sealed withconcrete and these doors are the
holy doors and they representthe passage to salvation and the

(02:18):
path of new and eternal life.
So this Catholic celebration isa very, very large celebration
all over it, Obviously theVatican being the biggest Right,
Right there in the middle of it.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yep, right, yeah.
So I mean, and because this isgoing on, I'm assuming there's
going to be large crowds.
Yes, and it's going to needreservations to get to these
places, correct?

Speaker 3 (02:42):
Correct, you need reservations.
You're going to try and have tofind hotel reservations and
things like that.
So that's kind of where we comein, right, because we have an
amazing package.
It's an eight night JubileeItalian escorted tour for this
year, so what?
Does that include?
Yeah, several, we have severaldates throughout the year, so
the Jubilee does end at the endDecember, at the end of this

(03:04):
year Right the end of 2025.
Complete year.
So it includes you get yourtransfers to and from Rome
Airport, you get entrance intoSanta Maria with the Holy Door.
You get your accommodationsvirtual four-star accommodations
.
You have lunch, street foodexperiences.
You get to hop on, hop off inRome so you can get free time

(03:25):
and go experience Rome on yourown.
Of course, st Peter's Squareyou get to attend one of the
Pope's masses and you get tocross the holy door that's there
at St Peter's Pilgrim Day inRome, with visits to Abbey and
the Three Fountains.
You also get to exploreFlorence, venice, with local

(03:48):
guides, and this is all in onepackage, yeah, one package.
Plus you get to visit Siena,bologna and Breakfast Daily,
also lunches in Pompeii, andyeah, that's.
I mean, it's so much, so muchpacked into eight nights.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Right, because you're .
Not only are you doing thejubilee, you're doing other
tours as well, so they it soundslike you're seeing almost all
of that part of Italy, correct,correct, yeah, we wanted to make
sure that you know if you'regoing to go for this experience
you also.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing.
We want to make sure you'regoing to experience everything
that Italy has to offer.
So many years between dooropenings 25 years 25 years, so I
don't know that I'll be aroundfor the next one At least we
won't be getting spry yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
So every 25 years they do this, correct, and it's
this year, in 2025.
Correct, yeah, and you know,people are going to have to make
reservations for this.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
I'm going to say like now yes, absolutely, if they're
interested in going, and we'reone of the few companies that do
have this experience.
So, if they're interested ingoing, we do have the dates of
the tours and the prices of thetours on the website, so you can
check it out, okay, great.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
And then, of course, they can call their travel
advisor and say they heard aboutthis, that Celtic Tours has
this eight-night Jubilee Italyescorted tour.
Correct, and I like the factthat it's escorted, you know,
because sometimes people do havea language barrier there.
Now, the escorts, the peoplethat are guiding them on these
tours, are they from, are they alocal?
They?

Speaker 3 (05:27):
are.
They're all local, so you'llactually have a tour manager and
you'll actually have the driver, so they won't be the same
person.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Right.

Speaker 3 (05:35):
So you'll have the tour manager who will walk you
through, tell you all that Italyhas to offer, tell you all
about the history, and then whenyou go to certain areas let's
say, for example, you do a tourin Florence, a day tour in
Florence they're going to passyou off to a local there in
Florence who's going to guideyou through Florence.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Nice, yeah, so that's very nice.
And then, of course, they'reworking in conjunction with
Celtic Tours, correct.
So you know they are notgetting them, you guys are
getting them Correct, correct,they all work directly Work
directly for you, correct?
So that makes it a little bitmore secure that you can
actually be in safe hands whenyou're going through these
places and knowing that yourtour guide has got the best

(06:18):
interest at heart for everybodygoing there.
Yep, so you know, that's a lotshoved into eight nights.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
It is, it really is, and it's just a I think it's
just amazing once-in-a-lifetimeexperience.
Yeah, that is something.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
When do they actually start?
So you have several datesavailable.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
We have dates all throughout this year.
So there's several dates Okay,starting from February only, and
they actually started fromDecember of last year, because
that's when our that's when itreally kicked in.
Yeah, December to December.
So it is.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
So right there you know, celtic tours is not just
Celtic.
So now we're in Italy, so whatelse do you do?

Speaker 3 (07:00):
So we also, for those who aren't interested in just
the Jubilee, we also have a10-night experience Rome to Rome
.
Of course, this one doesinclude breakfast daily.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
It does, it does, oh it does.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
It does it includes breakfast daily.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
You'll go to Bologna, you'll have lunch in Venice.
You'll go to Pompeii.
You'll visit Assisa.
You'll also go to Capri,sardinia, so you go to all
different kinds of locations allover Italy Capri, yeah, and
then, of course, they includeyour transfers to and from the
airport.
You'll have your guide.

(07:36):
Four-star accommodations wealways give the best
accommodations.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
The hotel accommodations are included.
Yeah, breakfast is included,yeah, breakfast.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
You also go to the Vatican Museum, the Sistine
Chapel at St Peter's.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
I was wondering if the Sistine Chapel was included.
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
It is in this particular one, not in the
Jubilee.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
Not in the Jubilee.
One, yeah, correct.
In this 10-day.
One Correct.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
And this is called the Italy Fantasy Tour, that is
a fantasy tour.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
All of that is amazing.
Ten nights Rome to Rome allover Italy.
All over Italy, going down toCapri, and a lot of people don't
realize that when you're goinginto certain places like the
Sistine Chapel, when you're withtour groups like this, they're
getting the tickets in advance,correct.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
So you guys can just kind of skip the line.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
I just love skipping lines, yeah, when you see, that
big long line, that long queue,and you're going, hey, I get to
skip the line.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
Now can we do airfare included?
Yes, so we can do an airfarepackage.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
Absolutely, we can include airfare.
If you want to do pre or postdates before your tour, we can
do those for you as well.
Italy is known for their railsas well.
They're very, very popular andthey're easy transportation all
over the place.
So if you wanted to do a railtour, if you were interested in
going to Italy on your own anddoing a rail tour, we could put

(09:04):
that together, along withaccommodations and any of the
other tours, any of the daytours that you might want.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
Can add that in.
So you can add it in.
You can build around the tourthat you're offering Correct,
correct, which makes it evennicer because, some people say
well, I'm only going to go toEurope once and I want to see
everything.
Yeah, and when they say thingslike that, you know they're
going to go back anyway.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
Especially Italy.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Once you're in Italy, I don't know.
Well, my daughter was just inItaly over the holiday season.
Yeah, and she loves to ride therails.
Yeah, she thinks it's great,you know, she can sit back and
relax and the scenery Just someof the countryside is absolutely
beautiful.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
Speaking of countryside, right.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
I beautiful.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
Speaking of countryside, I don't know if I
told you about our Tuscanpackage.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
No no.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
What about the Tuscan package?
We have an amazing package inTuscany.
It is in the heart of Tuscany,right, and beautiful, beautiful
villa that we use, so you stayin one location instead of
hopping from place to place toplace.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
It's kind of nice for like holiday events, you know,
or a wedding.

Speaker 3 (10:07):
Yeah, wedding venue and they have beautiful.
It is a resort, so it's calledVilla Casa Grande.
It has 70 villas, 70 differentrooms inside the villa.
Okay, they do cooking classesthere so you can actually cook
with Mama Anna, an Italian chefthere.
She does pizza making, she doesfull meals, so you can actually

(10:29):
join one of her cooking classes.
And the villa is right outsideof the L'Invadernato, which is a
small little town in the heartof Tuscany, and the train
station is only a five-minutewalk from there.
So you can actually stay in thevilla and then take the train
station and even go to Pisa,Siena, San Giamano, Florence.

(10:52):
You'll fly in and out ofFlorence, which is only 16 miles
away.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
Now would Celtic Tours help you get train tickets
and all of that.
We'll help you with all of that.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
We will book all of your rails If you wanted to do
day tours, if you wanted to goto Rome.
You can do Rome.
It's about two and a half hourson the train.
Yeah, it's about two and a halfhours on the train.
So you know, just think aboutthat.
But you can get an early start,go to Rome for the day and turn
around and come back and stayin the same location.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
What a lot of people don't realize is train travel
overseas is quite different fromtrain travel here in the United
States, much, much different.
I mean it's a little bit moreluxurious over there.
Yeah, and you know my daughtertotally like getting her meals
and it being delicious, and, youknow, being able to relax and

(11:38):
asking questions and sometimes,depending on the train they're
on, they'll get stories aboutthe areas they're going through.
So something like that would befabulous for somebody who says
I don't want to keep going, Iwant to stay in one place and
then pop here, pop there, almostlike a spoke, and that would be
fabulous, and that's in Tuscany.

Speaker 3 (11:55):
That is in Tuscany.
Now we also have a packagethat's already put together.
It is a five-night package andagain, the package itself would
go ahead and give them a cookingclass and would give them a
tour into Chianti.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
It does give them a tour?
I was just about to ask aboutthe one.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
Siena and San Giamatto.
We actually have a package,five nights at that location,
where if they wanted to just dothe tour, they could do that as
well.
It's already put together forthem.
Then if they wanted to stay alittle longer, because I don't
think five nights is enough, noso if they wanted to stay longer
, they could stay in thelocation longer and then do the
rails to other locations thatthey haven't been, including

(12:32):
Cinque Terre, which isabsolutely beautiful.
They can actually go to CinqueTerre from there as well.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
It's a little further north from there.
Now, what I do like to tellpeople is, when they are going
to these locations in Italy, andif they are smaller towns in
Italy, they need to be awarethat Sunday is Sunday.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
Sunday is Sunday.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
And not everything is quite open, so be prepared for
that.
But it gives you the time torelax, yep, and soak in.
You're right, we have an I LoveLucy episode, soaking in the
local color, but you want to dothat when you go on vacation,
yeah.
You want to enjoy what you'redoing?
Yeah, and it sounds like CelticTours allows you that
opportunity.
So, whether you want to do justfive days or you want to extend

(13:15):
those five days to 10 days, youcan do that and Celtic Tours
will incorporate all of that.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
Yeah, one of the things that we're very, very
good at is customization.
We can customize anything foryour clients.
So anything that they want todo.
If they want to specializetheir entire vacation and do
Rome and they want to do Veniceand they want to do Milan or go

(13:41):
further south, we can customizeall of that for them.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
Now you have groups of opportunity available.
If somebody says well, I wantto take my whole family.
You know we're doing a family,get together.
You can put together a groupfor them?

Speaker 3 (13:57):
Yep, absolutely, and what I would recommend,
especially if you're going to doa family, is a private
chauffeur, where your chauffeurdriver will go ahead and
customize the entire package andyour chauffeur driver will take
you everywhere.
And it is a local chauffeurdriver, so they know the areas,
they know you know they can giveyou all kinds of stories as
well and tell you all about it.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
What size would you recommend on something like that
?
No more than 12 people.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
Oh, up to 12?
.

Speaker 3 (14:21):
Yeah, up to 12 people .
I was thinking more like six,but 12, wow.
You can do up to 12 people onit.
You would be on a sprinter likea sprinter van.
Oh, okay, it would fit and holdeverybody's luggage, and it's
very nice and comfortable.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
Now a lot of people say what about the kids?
I know there's a lot of timeswhere little little ones are not
necessarily enjoying themselveswhen they're like two years old
.
I mean, I have a nephew who'stwo years old that has already
been to Portugal.
Yeah, but he has fun on thebeaches and things like that.
But what age would yourecommend for something like

(14:56):
that?

Speaker 3 (14:56):
Well, you know I don't like to say that there's
an age limit, right?
I have been traveling since Iwas a little girl, right?
I think I was two years oldwhen I first came.
You know, got on my first planeride as well.
But in order for you to enjoyit, in order for your child to
enjoy it, I would probably sayyou know a little bit older,

(15:16):
between five and seven years old, right?

Speaker 2 (15:19):
Yeah, exactly, so they can get excited about.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
Then they can go to the beach, they can get involved
in the pizza making class.
So things like that.
Obviously, at two years oldtheir attention span isn't quite
you know where it needs to be,so I wouldn't recommend that.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
Now, do you do anything in Italy for the
holidays?
I mean, we just finished theholidays, but no time like the
present to book a holiday.
Well, the holidays, yeah, theholidays are very, very popular.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
Obviously, being Christian, being a Christian
country, you know Catholic.
They're very, very popular andItaly is a very popular place to
go during the holidays.
So if you're interested ingoing during the Christmas time
period, I would definitelyrecommend booking that now,
because they will be booked upRight Now.
I can tell you there are a lotof holiday time here.

(16:07):
Things will be closed becauseChristmas Day things will be
closed.
They close early on ChristmasEve, things like that.
So you'll have to expect thevalues, but to be able to
actually go to the Vatican tosee a map for Christmas would
just be absolutely amazing.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
I have a friend that went on Christmas to the Vatican
for Christmas Eve, math, yeah,and she showed the pictures.
It was amazing to see it.
But it is crowded.
Yeah, you know, people have torealize there is a crowd there?

Speaker 3 (16:36):
Oh, absolutely Absolutely, but again a
once-in-a-lifetime kind ofexperience.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
Okay, so Celtic Tours has a bunch of different
opportunities.
You have the eight-nightjubilee, you have 10-night
escorted tour and you have moreopportunities.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
We do have one more that.
I wanted to talk about, andthat is Rome to Salerno.
It is a seven-day tour, againfirst-class accommodations.
You'll go to Rome, you'll seethe Colosseum, the Vatican
Museum.
You'll go to Pompeii.
I don't know if a lot of peopleknow about Pompeii.
Really, pompeii was actuallycovered by a volcano and they

(17:16):
have artifacts of things thathappened in that volcano.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
My daughter sent me pictures.
It's surreal to see the shots.
Yeah, gives you goosebumpsright.
Yeah, yeah, and I think to bethere would give you real
goosebumps Right.
Exactly, it is amazing and yougo to Herculean as well.

Speaker 3 (17:36):
We do not go to Herculean on this particular
tour, but we can go to Herculean.

Speaker 1 (17:39):
But you can, yes, I'm not from.

Speaker 3 (17:39):
Hercules, I'm on this particular tour, but we can go,
but you can't.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yes, yes, not on this particular tour, so this one
goes from Rome to Salerno.
Correct, seven days.
Correct it includes hotel stays.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
Correct Breakfast daily.
Oh good, we call it whisperingtechnology, you know so.
You get the little earphones.
You know the whisper, you knowso when you're walking around,
because you do a lot, thisWhisper, you know.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
so when?

Speaker 3 (17:58):
you're walking around because you do a lot this
particular tour.
You do a lot of walking RightBecause it's all city tours.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
Yeah, I know Pompeii is very, it's very walkable.
The headsets have you tourguide talking to you.
Correct In English.

Speaker 3 (18:13):
In English.
They're in Rome, but they'reEnglish.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
So that's a big thing .
A lot of people don't realizethat, yes, you can get there,
and if you don't speak thelanguage because we are with a
true company you're going toknow what you're going to see.
Yeah, absolutely Give us anexample of what a breakfast
would be.

Speaker 3 (18:32):
Oh, in Italy.
Yeah Well, you know, abreakfast in Italy, it's
actually not much different fromhere except there's a lot of
pastries.
You get a lot of pastries.
I like that.
I like that.
It's quite different all overEurope, but there's a lot of
pastries.
Coffee, of course, the coffeeover there is much smaller than
their coffee here.

(18:52):
So if you ask, for a largecoffee expect it to be a little
larger espresso.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
It's a two-shot espresso.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
It's not a large cup of coffee like you get here at
one of your local coffee shops,but it's a lot of fun and if
you're with the tour group andeverybody's kind of hanging
together and enjoying eachother's company and learning
about the different cultures andlearning about the food Now, I
know that you've given meseveral different ones.
Can somebody say well, I wantto do an exploration of all the

(19:22):
vineyards in Italy.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
Can we do something like that.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yes, again, customization.
We can do anything that aclient is looking for.
So if they want to do just allof the vineyards all over Italy,
we can put that together forthem.
They can either do it bydriving by rail or we can go
ahead and do a private chauffeur.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
Private, chauffeur.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
I love that, yeah so again.

Speaker 3 (19:47):
That's.
One of the nicest things aboutCeltic Tours is that we are one
of the few companies that canactually customize almost
anything for your plane.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
That makes it nicer, yeah, yeah, it makes it nicer
because they can actually getwhat they want, because a lot of
people say, well, I don't wantto go here, but I want to go
here, and then you canincorporate something around
that which makes it fun, yeah,so again, you've given us a lot
to think about.
We're talking about Italy,we're talking about the Jubilee
and you know, if they want toget on board with this, it's

(20:17):
CelticTourscom.
Contact your travel advisor.
This it's CelticTourscom.
Contact your travel advisor.
Tell them I want to go to theJubilee.

Speaker 3 (20:27):
I want to get this going, because time is now yeah.
Time is now yeah to do it, andyou won't see it again for
another 25 years.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
Another 25 years.
Well, Diana, thank you verymuch for talking with me today.
And again, remember it'sCelticTourscom, and they're not
just Celtic.
We're going to Italy.

Speaker 3 (20:39):
Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
Buongiorno, I would like to thank my guests today
for sharing their travelexperiences.
If any of these adventuresexcite you, feel free to contact
me.
Z at zmichelsontravelcom.
You can check out my website,zmichelsontravelcom, or you can
call your local travel advisorand just say you heard it on Z

(21:04):
Michelson Travels podcast.
Remember.
Travel really opens up theworld to you with food, culture,
exploration and excitement, andwe find out we truly are all
the same.
Travel safe and shoot for thestars and if you only get to the
moon, at least you made thetrip.
This is Zee Michelson.

(21:24):
Remember.
All my podcasts can be heard onany of your preferred podcast
providers.
And don't forget, zee is speltZ-E-E.
Thanks for tuning in and have agreat day.