歴史的なイタリカ：セビリアからの半日ガイド付きツアー

The real drawback of this tour is the time spent waiting: for the bus, which arrived blocks away 20 minutes after the scheduled tour departure; the time spent driving through Seville to pick up tour participants at other meeting places; on arrival at Italica, herding and then separating the 50+ people into groups of Spanish and English speakers, only to have to wait for others who were straggling in to join the tour at the entrance; and finally, waiting in long lines for another 30 minutes to enter the site. I’ll never sign up for a tour like this again. Maybe it’s the norm with these large tours and I didn’t realize that so much of the 4-hour tour was collecting, organizing and waiting. HOWEVER, the guide we had - Alba - was fantastic. She was very knowledgeable, friendly, willing to thoughtfully answer all questions, funny and helpful. I’d love to book her for private tours of other sites, but I didn’t get her last name! So, a mixed review but I’d give the Andalusia Tour guide five stars; the operation itself maybe two. They did get us there safely and we did see Italica.

A very interesting visit, with Inés, who was very attentive to the group at all times, and who helped us learn a little more about this important city of Hispania.

Experience was wonderful! Emilio did a great job explaining details and sharing truthfully what is reconstructed and what is authentic. Italica tile work was detailed and the amphitheater was amazing! We’ve been to Rome and still this amazed us. The surprise stop at the Monasterio de San Isidro was wonderful to see the artwork and hear the story. Overall great and worthwhile time spent.

+5

Too chaotic, three groups put together and the main guide was frazzled and bossy. We waited long for other passenger who wasn’t even on the tour, waited again for bus pick up and monastery was rushed. The Italica guide was informative and nice but the main female guide treated us like school children. I would not do this tour again with this group but look for smaller group, may be more expensive but likely worth it.

Our guide Catherine was absolutely mental but in the very best way, she kept laughing at her own jokes in both English and French. I thought she was absolutely fantastic and very knowledgeable. Italica is very close to Seville (about a 30 minute drive) so 4 hours should be fine. The problem was someone decided to shoehorn a trip to a monastery into the itinerary so we had to cut the tour of Italica short and miss several of the exhibits to go see some run down church that was of no interest - I wanted to see an ancient Roman town and ruins, and missed valuable time here travelling to a monastery to hear about a bunch of Monks I have precisely zero interest in and look at a row of orange trees (admittedly more interesting than the monks). Also there were no monks left - even they knew the place was a waste of time. I reckon they went to the Roman ruins as well for a good time. In summary you should be able to do a really good tour of Italica in the time provided but the monastery takes about an hour out of the itinerary which would have been much better spent staying at the ruins which were the whole point of the trip.

The guide was very kind, approachable, and friendly.

The Roman ruins and the monastery are definitely worth a visit. The tour was exceptional because our guide, Emilio, is truly extraordinary. If you have the opportunity, make sure to take the tour with him. I was amazed by the depth of his knowledge, his critical thinking, and his ability to communicate a large amount of important concepts in a concise and super effective way. His preparation covers everything from history and urban planning to architecture, philosophy, and the history of religions and peoples. He has an absolutely brilliant mind. He was perfect in everything: very well-prepared, punctual, and very organized; he even took us to see the theater. Furthermore, he was very charismatic and dynamic, making the group feel comfortable contributing their own knowledge and experiences. It was simply extraordinary. I have taken other tours with the same company and, although the organization is always efficient, the quality of the guides varies a lot. Emilio, without a doubt, makes the difference. Totally recommended!

My friend and I visited Itallica on the last day of our time in Seville. We went with Naturanda and our guide was Pia, from Chile. She led a party of 15, to the historic site of Itallica. Her energy and passion was consistent through out the 90 mins as she told the history of the emperors, their wealth, and their homes. We marveled at the beautiful mosiac floors, that were a, sign of status in roman times. The weather that day was sweltering. But Pia, managed to maintain the intetest of the group as we toured the site which concluded with a visit to the amphitheatre where gladiators once fought. We then took a short ride to a monastery to view some historical paintings and artifacts. It was a good tour with a lot of factual content from Pia, and a lot of history was brought to life by her. I would highly reccommend this tour, even if history is not your thing. You will be intetested by the history of Italica.

Nice trip! Lots of info. Our guide Pia was very good and very nice!

+4

Pia is the best guide. I loved the experience.