Random Info for those who haven't gone yet

I just got back from my first Contiki tour. It really was amazing! I still can't believe how much of Italy we saw in 12 days. You are constantly on the go, so if you think you're getting any rest you're wrong. Just wanted to give a heads up on somethings. The dinners that are included in the package are not very good. The pasta is always good, but the meat that's offered usually was pretty bad. A lot of our group had had it with the food. The optional dinners we did were very good, except our farewell dinner. Also, the hotels are not completely guarenteed. Our hotel for Milan changed and we had to travel 2 hours outside of the city to stay at some random hotel. At least the hotel was nice but we wanted to try and go to the Soccer game and we couldn't. They tried to make it up to us when we came back to Rome. Said our farewell dinner was included to everyong and our hotel upgrade. The hotel was awesome! However, me and 5 other people had to stay in different hotel the 2nd to last night b/c supposidly our upgraded hotel lost power in some of the rooms. It ended up being a 10 minute drive or so away from everyone else. So instead of being able to hang out in the hotel with our new friends we had to go to this other hotel. It was terrible!!! Our last night the rooms were fixed and we were able to stay there. Usually all the optional dinners included bottles of red and white wine. Our farewell dinner only included 1 bottle of red wine and anything else we had to pay for. If you don't like wine or like to drink, it shouldn't be problem. But splitting 2 bottles between 10 people and not getting anymore was a little insane. Our tour manager was awesome and so was our driver. It wasn't their fault this stuff happened. Despite those things I wouldn't have done it any other way to see all of Italy. We met some great people, who I hope to keep in touch with. Just a reminder, none of the museums are included in the price. If you want to see the Vatican you might want to book a tour a head of time so you don't have to wait in the line. You could luck out and be able to get pretty fast though. We did that our last day instead of doing the tour with the group. Our 1st day their we got in early so we bought a Roma Pass and saw the Colesseium, Palitine Hill, the Roman Forum and a ton more. It all depends what you want to do. With that being said, I hope you have a great trip and have a lot of great people on your trip!...
One more thing, we all sort of got sick. You are in a bus for a long time with 50 or so people. If you can, bring some cold medicine just in case!