The tour starts with around three hours of bus travel from Florence to San Marino depending on traffic. The San Marino portion was well-organized, with a guided tour that takes about one hour and then 90 minutes of free time. The guided tour went a bit slow due to the guide explaining everything in both English and Spanish so there were two groups combined on one tour. The trip from San Marino from Bologna took about 90 minutes. Bologna did not have a guided tour but the guide provided a map so that you could find the main sites on your own. We only had about an hour free time there as the first leg to San Marino was slower than planned. The trip back to Florence took about 90 minutes. The tour is worth it if you are fit enough to quickly climb to all three towers in San Marino and independent enough to find the main sites in Bologna on your own, but be warned that you will spend as much time on the bus as you will in the two destinations.

As an Italophile, I just could not miss the opportunity to visit San Marino and finally! Bologna. I visited in early March, so there was still snow on the ground in the mountains around Le Marche, and on that beautiful clear day we could see the shores of the Adriatic and Rimini off in the distance. The small coach we had was perfect for the 6 people on the tour that day and the scenery was STUNNING. I live in CA even with our beautiful view I am still amazed at the scenery Italia has to offer. The only drawback to this tour is the limited time in Bologna about 45 minutes. Long enough to see the Basilica and decide you want to come back again really soon, but not long enough to really get a feel for Bologna. Our driver, and I can not remember his name maybe Stefano was outstanding and gave us history along the way. There is quite a bit of travel time with this tour, but if you want to see a stunning, less touristic area of Italia, this is the tour to take. Bring your camera :-

I was disappointed by this tour, and would likely tell someone to choose a different tour. This was the second time I went with this tour company and would not go with them again. The tour says it is an 11 hour day. Unfortunately, we only spent 2 hours in San Marino Republic and 1 hour in Bologna. The remaining time was spent travelling which ended up being 9 hours due to traffic so we didnt arrive in Florence until 9:30pm. Given the traffic was very busy being the last day of summer and everone returning home from their holidays. But our tour leader said the traffic is usually that bad normally as it is always busy on a Saturday. On a positive note, the tour leader was very good and informative.

Very very good, especially local guide Luca done a excellent tour throughout and very helpful for the arrangement of another second tour to Cinque Terre afterward.