Speaker 1: 0:01

Hi and welcome to the new and improved the Michelson Travel Podcast. I will be speaking with more guests and more travelers and will bring you great insights and, I hope, to inspire your sense of curiosity. As you may or may not know, my concierge of podcast travel has retired, or so he thinks. Jay Lawrence has decided to actively travel more, so he will be one of my many guests as we explore this great world we live in, along with rediscovering America.

Speaker 2: 0:34

This is Zee Martelson here. I am sitting here on a lovely, lovely little chilly day with Diana from Celtic Tours and you know, considering it's chilly, we'd like to think about some warm weather. And a lot of people are under the misconception that Celtic Tours only does Ireland and Scotland.

Speaker 3: 0:53

But that's a misconception, Huge misconception we started 52 years ago. We started in Ireland, hence the name Celtic Tours, and our wonderful owner, Mr Murphy, who is originally from Dublin, you know, started in Ireland, but over the last 15, two years we've expanded all over Europe and one of my favorite places is Italy.

Speaker 2: 1:19

So Italy has something great going on this year, which is the Jubilee. Yes, so what's Celtic Tours doing for that?

Speaker 3: 1:30

Well, let me tell you a little bit about the Jubilee. It is actually a Catholic celebration and it is only done in Italy, and this year it's the Jubilee of Hope that's the name of this year's festival and it is a Christian celebration where they go to the Vatican and actually all over Rome, and they go to these doors, these five doors that have been opened by the Pope. They are typically sealed with concrete and these doors are the holy doors and they represent the passage to salvation and the path of new and eternal life. So this Catholic celebration is a very, very large celebration all over it, Obviously the Vatican being the biggest Right, Right there in the middle of it.

Speaker 2: 2:27

Yep, right, yeah. So I mean, and because this is going on, I'm assuming there's going to be large crowds. Yes, and it's going to need reservations to get to these places, correct?

Speaker 3: 2:42

Correct, you need reservations. You're going to try and have to find hotel reservations and things like that. So that's kind of where we come in, right, because we have an amazing package. It's an eight night Jubilee Italian escorted tour for this year, so what? Does that include? Yeah, several, we have several dates throughout the year, so the Jubilee does end at the end December, at the end of this year Right the end of 2025.

Speaker 3: 3:05

Complete year. So it includes you get your transfers to and from Rome Airport, you get entrance into Santa Maria with the Holy Door. You get your accommodations virtual four-star accommodations. You have lunch, street food experiences. You get to hop on, hop off in Rome so you can get free time and go experience Rome on your own. Of course, st Peter's Square you get to attend one of the Pope's masses and you get to cross the holy door that's there at St Peter's Pilgrim Day in Rome, with visits to Abbey and the Three Fountains. You also get to explore Florence, venice, with local guides, and this is all in one package, yeah, one package. Plus you get to visit Siena, bologna and Breakfast Daily, also lunches in Pompeii, and yeah, that's. I mean, it's so much, so much packed into eight nights.

Speaker 2: 4:04

Right, because you're. Not only are you doing the jubilee, you're doing other tours as well, so they it sounds like you're seeing almost all of that part of Italy, correct, correct, yeah, we wanted to make sure that you know if you're going to go for this experience you also.

Speaker 3: 4:20

It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing. We want to make sure you're going to experience everything that Italy has to offer. So many years between door openings 25 years 25 years, so I don't know that I'll be around for the next one At least we won't be getting spry yeah.

Speaker 2: 4:39

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: 4:47

I'm going to say like now yes, absolutely, if they're interested in going, and we're one of the few companies that do have this experience. So, if they're interested in going, we do have the dates of the tours and the prices of the tours on the website, so you can check it out, okay, great.

Speaker 2: 5:09

And then, of course, they can call their travel advisor and say they heard about this, that Celtic Tours has this eight-night Jubilee Italy escorted tour. Correct, and I like the fact that it's escorted, you know, because sometimes people do have a language barrier there. Now, the escorts, the people that are guiding them on these tours, are they from, are they a local? They?

Speaker 3: 5:27

are. They're all local, so you'll actually have a tour manager and you'll actually have the driver, so they won't be the same person.

Speaker 1: 5:35

Right.

Speaker 3: 5:35

So you'll have the tour manager who will walk you through, tell you all that Italy has to offer, tell you all about the history, and then when you go to certain areas let's say, for example, you do a tour in Florence, a day tour in Florence they're going to pass you off to a local there in Florence who's going to guide you through Florence.

Speaker 2: 5:57

Nice, yeah, so that's very nice. And then, of course, they're working in conjunction with Celtic Tours, correct. So you know they are not getting them, you guys are getting them Correct, correct, they all work directly Work directly for you, correct? So that makes it a little bit more secure that you can actually be in safe hands when you're going through these places and knowing that your tour guide has got the best interest at heart for everybody going there. Yep, so you know, that's a lot shoved into eight nights.

Speaker 3: 6:25

It is, it really is, and it's just a I think it's just amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience. Yeah, that is something.

Speaker 2: 6:36

When do they actually start? So you have several dates available.

Speaker 3: 6:39

We have dates all throughout this year. So there's several dates Okay, starting from February only, and they actually started from December of last year, because that's when our that's when it really kicked in. Yeah, December to December. So it is.

Speaker 2: 6:50

So right there you know, celtic tours is not just Celtic. So now we're in Italy, so what else do you do?

Speaker 3: 7:00

So we also, for those who aren't interested in just the Jubilee, we also have a 10-night experience Rome to Rome. Of course, this one does include breakfast daily.

Speaker 2: 7:11

It does, it does, oh it does.

Speaker 1: 7:13

It does it includes breakfast daily.

Speaker 3: 7:15

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 all over Italy Capri, yeah, and then, of course, they include your transfers to and from the airport. You'll have your guide. Four-star accommodations we always give the best accommodations.

Speaker 2: 7:40

The hotel accommodations are included. Yeah, breakfast is included, yeah, breakfast.

Speaker 3: 7:45

You also go to the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel at St Peter's.

Speaker 2: 7:50

I was wondering if the Sistine Chapel was included. Yeah, it is.

Speaker 3: 7:53

It is in this particular one, not in the Jubilee.

Speaker 2: 7:57

Not in the Jubilee. One, yeah, correct. In this 10-day. One Correct.

Speaker 3: 8:01

And this is called the Italy Fantasy Tour, that is a fantasy tour.

Speaker 2: 8:10

All of that is amazing. Ten nights Rome to Rome all over Italy. All over Italy, going down to Capri, and a lot of people don't realize that when you're going into certain places like the Sistine Chapel, when you're with tour groups like this, they're getting the tickets in advance, correct.

Speaker 3: 8:28

So you guys can just kind of skip the line.

Speaker 1: 8:30

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: 8:39

Now can we do airfare included? Yes, so we can do an airfare package.

Speaker 3: 8:42

Absolutely, we can include airfare. If you want to do pre or post dates before your tour, we can do those for you as well. Italy is known for their rails as well. They're very, very popular and they're easy transportation all over the place. So if you wanted to do a rail tour, if you were interested in going to Italy on your own and doing a rail tour, we could put that together, along with accommodations and any of the other tours, any of the day tours that you might want.

Speaker 2: 9:11

Can add that in. So you can add it in. You can build around the tour that you're offering Correct, correct, which makes it even nicer because, some people say well, I'm only going to go to Europe once and I want to see everything. Yeah, and when they say things like that, you know they're going to go back anyway. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 9:26

Especially Italy.

Speaker 2: 9:28

Once you're in Italy, I don't know. Well, my daughter was just in Italy over the holiday season. Yeah, and she loves to ride the rails. Yeah, she thinks it's great, you know, she can sit back and relax and the scenery Just some of the countryside is absolutely beautiful.

Speaker 3: 9:41

Speaking of countryside, right.

Speaker 2: 9:43

I beautiful.

Speaker 3: 9:43

Speaking of countryside, I don't know if I told you about our Tuscan package.

Speaker 2: 9:47

No no.

Speaker 3: 9:48

What about the Tuscan package? We have an amazing package in Tuscany. It is in the heart of Tuscany, right, and beautiful, beautiful villa that we use, so you stay in one location instead of hopping from place to place to place.

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 called Villa Casa Grande. It has 70 villas, 70 different rooms inside the villa. Okay, they do cooking classes there so you can actually cook with Mama Anna, an Italian chef there. She does pizza making, she does full meals, so you can actually join one of her cooking classes. And the villa is right outside of the L'Invadernato, which is a small little town in the heart of Tuscany, and the train station is only a five-minute walk from there.

Speaker 3: 10:43

So you can actually stay in the villa and then take the train station and even go to Pisa, Siena, San Giamano, Florence. You'll fly in and out of Florence, 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 go to Rome. You can do Rome. It's about two and a half hours on the train. Yeah, it's about two and a half hours on the train. So you know, just think about that. But you can get an early start, go to Rome for the day and turn around and come back and stay in the same location.

Speaker 2: 11:18

What a lot of people don't realize is train travel overseas is quite different from train travel here in the United States, much, much different. I mean it's a little bit more luxurious over there. Yeah, and you know my daughter totally like getting her meals and it being delicious, and, you know, being able to relax and asking questions and sometimes, depending on the train they're on, they'll get stories about the areas they're going through. So something like that would be fabulous for somebody who says I don't want to keep going, I want to stay in one place and then pop here, pop there, almost like 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 package that's already put together. It is a five-night package and again, the package itself would go ahead and give them a cooking class and would give them a tour into Chianti.

Speaker 2: 12:08

It does give them a tour? I was just about to ask about the 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 do the tour, they could do that as well. It's already put together for them. Then if they wanted to stay a little longer, because I don't think five nights is enough, no so if they wanted to stay longer, they could stay in the location longer and then do the rails to other locations that they haven't been, including Cinque Terre, which is absolutely beautiful. They can actually go to Cinque Terre from there as well.

Speaker 2: 12:40

It's a little further north from there. Now, what I do like to tell people is, when they are going to these locations in Italy, and if they are smaller towns in Italy, they need to be aware that 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 to relax, yep, and soak in. You're right, we have an I Love Lucy episode, soaking in the local color, but you want to do that when you go on vacation, yeah. You want to enjoy what you're doing? Yeah, and it sounds like Celtic Tours allows you that opportunity. So, whether you want to do just five days or you want to extend those five days to 10 days, you can 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 for your clients. So anything that they want to do. If they want to specialize their entire vacation and do Rome and they want to do Venice and they want to do Milan or go further south, we can customize all of that for them.

Speaker 2: 13:46

Now you have groups of opportunity available. If somebody says well, I want to take my whole family. You know we're doing a family, get together. You can put together a group for them?

Speaker 3: 13:57

Yep, absolutely, and what I would recommend, especially if you're going to do a family, is a private chauffeur, where your chauffeur driver will go ahead and customize the entire package and your chauffeur driver will take you everywhere. And it is a local chauffeur driver, so they know the areas, they know you know they can give you 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 on it. You would be on a sprinter like a sprinter van. Oh, okay, it would fit and hold everybody'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 times where little little ones are not necessarily enjoying themselves when they're like two years old. I mean, I have a nephew who's two years old that has already been to Portugal. Yeah, but he has fun on the beaches and things like that. But what age would you recommend for something like 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 I was a little girl, right? I think I was two years old when I first came. You know, got on my first plane ride as well. But in order for you to enjoy it, in order for your child to enjoy it, I would probably say you know a little bit older, 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 old their 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 the holidays, but no time like the present to book a holiday. Well, the holidays, yeah, the holidays are very, very popular.

Speaker 3: 15:46

Obviously, being Christian, being a Christian country, you know Catholic. They're very, very popular and Italy is a very popular place to go during the holidays. So if you're interested in going during the Christmas time period, I would definitely recommend booking that now, because they will be booked up Right Now. I can tell you there are a lot of holiday time here. Things will be closed because Christmas Day things will be closed. They close early on Christmas Eve, things like that. So you'll have to expect the values, but to be able to actually go to the Vatican to see 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 to realize there is a crowd there?

Speaker 3: 16:36

Oh, absolutely Absolutely, but again a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience.

Speaker 2: 16:43

Okay, so Celtic Tours has a bunch of different opportunities. You have the eight-night jubilee, you have 10-night escorted tour and you have more opportunities.

Speaker 3: 16:53

We do have one more that. I wanted to talk about, and that is Rome to Salerno. It is a seven-day tour, again first-class accommodations. You'll go to Rome, you'll see the Colosseum, the Vatican Museum. You'll go to Pompeii. I don't know if a lot of people know about Pompeii. Really, pompeii was actually covered by a volcano and they have artifacts of things that happened in that volcano.

Speaker 2: 17:22

My daughter sent me pictures. It's surreal to see the shots. Yeah, gives you goosebumps right. Yeah, yeah, and I think to be there would give you real goosebumps Right. Exactly, it is amazing and you go 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 whispering technology, you know so. You get the little earphones. You know the whisper, you know so when you're walking around, because you do a lot, this Whisper, 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 Right Because it's all city tours.

Speaker 2: 18:05

Yeah, I know Pompeii is very, it's very walkable. The headsets have you tour guide talking to you. Correct In English.

Speaker 3: 18:13

In English. They're in Rome, but they're English.

Speaker 2: 18:16

So that's a big thing. A lot of people don't realize that, yes, you can get there, and if you don't speak the language because we are with a true company you're going to know what you're going to see. Yeah, absolutely Give us an example of what a breakfast would be.

Speaker 3: 18:32

Oh, in Italy. Yeah Well, you know, a breakfast in Italy, it's actually not much different from here except there's a lot of pastries. You get a lot of pastries. I like that. I like that. It's quite different all over Europe, but there's a lot of pastries. Coffee, of course, the coffee over there is much smaller than their coffee here. So if you ask, for a large coffee 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 and everybody's kind of hanging together and enjoying each other's company and learning about the different cultures and learning about the food Now, I know that you've given me several different ones. Can somebody say well, I want to do an exploration of all the 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 a client is looking for. So if they want to do just all of the vineyards all over Italy, we can put that together for them. They can either do it by driving 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 about Celtic Tours is that we are one of the few companies that can actually customize almost anything for your plane.

Speaker 2: 19:55

That makes it nicer, yeah, yeah, it makes it nicer because they can actually get what they want, because a lot of people say, well, I don't want to go here, but I want to go here, and then you can incorporate 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 to get on board with this, it's CelticTourscom. Contact your travel advisor. This it's CelticTourscom. Contact your travel advisor. Tell them I want to go to the Jubilee.

Speaker 3: 20:27

I want to get this going, because time is now yeah. Time is now yeah to do it, and you won't see it again for another 25 years.

Speaker 2: 20:31

Another 25 years. Well, Diana, thank you very much for talking with me today. And again, remember it's CelticTourscom, 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 travel experiences. If any of these adventures excite you, feel free to contact me. Z at zmichelsontravelcom. You can check out my website, zmichelsontravelcom, or you can call your local travel advisor and just say you heard it on Z Michelson Travels podcast. Remember. Travel really opens up the world to you with food, culture, exploration and excitement, and we find out we truly are all the same. Travel safe and shoot for the stars and if you only get to the moon, at least you made the trip. This is Zee Michelson. Remember. All my podcasts can be heard on any of your preferred podcast providers. And don't forget, zee is spelt Z-E-E. Thanks for tuning in and have a great day.