The 10 Tastings of Verona With Locals: Private Food Tour

Cristina and Italian food and wine – perfect together!

Our guide Cristina made our rather large group feel like part of her extended family. We navigated the crowded streets together, visiting local eateries who made room for us to sit and enjoy their delicious food and local wines. Appetizers and wine; then pizza and wine; and finally homemade ravioli and wine; ending our tour with a delicious cup of gelato! Nothing like Italian wine, nothing beats homemade ravioli, and of course gelato is the perfect way to end the evening. Cristina was marvelous! Highly recommended!

via Tripadvisor

A walking tour with food stops

The accurate things about this trip are it lasted 3 hours. It was a private tour, just the 2 of us and the guide. The guide was local and was able to answer any questions about Verona and the food. The disappointing aspect was the tastings which were as follows: venue 1 - Affogato (ice cream and coffee) = 1 tasting (we were first offered pizza) we skipped the offer of macaroon as just had dessert! venue 2 - Bruschetta (3 x half bruschetta + one drink) = 4 tastings venue 3 - Small plates (2 x bread with topping, 1 meatball, + one drink) = 4 tastings venue 4 - Coffee = 1 tasting We learned a lot about Verona but its billing as a food tour is a stretch.

Response from the operator: Dear guest, Thank you for taking the time to share such a detailed account of your experience. We are glad the private setting worked well and that your guide was knowledgeable about Verona and its food culture. Your feedback on the tastings breakdown is something we take seriously. Our Verona food tour is presented as 10 tastings, and we understand how frustrating it can be when the experience does not clearly match that expectation. The way individual items were counted in your description is helpful context for us, and we will be reviewing this with the guide and our local team to ensure the tasting count and substance align with what guests are led to expect. We appreciate you sharing this — it is exactly the kind of detail that helps us improve. All the best, The Withlocals Team

via Tripadvisor

Be warned this is not a 10 Tastes of Verona Food Tour

We were very excited about this tour and were incredibly disappointed. We understood this was a tasting tour but we were given 3 small crostini’s each at the beginning of the tour and they were three of our tastes! After a very small beer at the same establishment we went to sample two small cakes each two of which were the same flavour and that was it for the food. Our guide may have been new he gave us a few pieces of information about food and local history we didn’t do much walking around the area we were in let alone the rest of the city centre. The guide kept asking us what we would like to do. We are visiting he is the ‘local expert’ given some options we were taken by car out of town to the village of Soave for the white wine tasting, this turned out to be a huge mistake due diligence by our guide would have known there was a festival at the village got there and there was no parking so drove back an hour round trip to a hill top vineyard/restaurant it all seemed closed on arrival, our guide frantically trying to phone someone. At this point we were so upset we stopped the tour and asked to be taken back to Verona. Incredibly upset at the complete waste of money and our limited time in this beautiful city. This tour is not what is advertised do not waste your time and money. I will be getting in touch with all parties involved. Shameful misrepresentation.

Response from the operator: Dear Jackie, Thank you for taking the time to share this in such detail. We are truly sorry that your Verona experience fell so far short of what was promised. What you described, from the limited tastings to the unplanned detour, is not the tour you booked and we completely understand why you felt let down. A 10 tasting tour should deliver exactly that, and a local expert should come prepared with the knowledge and contingency planning that a private tour demands. Your feedback points to real gaps and we are taking this very seriously. We are reviewing what happened with this guide and will be addressing each of the issues you raised. This is not the Withlocals standard and we want to make sure it stays an exception, not a pattern. Verona deserved better as a backdrop for your visit, and so did you. We sincerely hope you were still able to soak in some of its beauty, and we would welcome the chance to show you what a Withlocals experience is truly meant to be. Kind Regards, The Withlocals Team

via Viator

Alessandro was an amazing...

Alessandro was an amazing host. We learnt so much, he gave great suggestions for future dinners and the food tastings were wonderful.

via Viator

Interesting Tour, Poor food quantity and poor value

The tour around the city was extensive, covering most landmarks and around 12,000 steps. However the 10 tastings title is misleading. Apparently the tastings include for example 3 bits of pizza at first stop (Encouraged to have 4 or 5, but we didn't want to fill up on pizza, expecting more substantial dishes to follow - little did we know). In the event, we had 3 bits of pizza, a drink each, followed by an arancini and a glass of wine then a cannoli - All for £105 each. We then called it a night with the guide and (still hingry) went for some pasta and wine ourselves. I dont know if the guide tries to minimise spend so more ends up at their end but compare this to a food tour we did in September with 3 proper restaurant stops with full dishes and wine to accompany, with gelato to finish - that was only £96 (Do Eat Better FYI). Tour definetly not worth the money - far better options available

Response from the operator: Dear guest, Thank you for taking the time to share such a detailed review. We’re glad to hear that you enjoyed the walk through Verona and the opportunity to explore many of the city’s landmarks with your guide. Discovering the city itself is an important part of these experiences. At the same time, we understand your disappointment regarding the food portions and overall value. Our tastings tours are designed around sampling different local specialties rather than serving full restaurant meals, but the experience should still feel satisfying and balanced. We can see how finishing the tour still feeling hungry would make the evening feel underwhelming. We hope you’ll consider giving Withlocals another chance in the future so you can experience the warmth, care, and authentic local insight that our tours are meant to offer. Kind regards, The Withlocals Team

via Tripadvisor