North End Market Tour

My husband and I throughly enjoed the tour. We learned so much in such a short period of time from the history of the northend, cooking ingrediants and cooking in general. My husband loves to cook and learned alot. We went back to a few of the stores and bakeries the next day and bought things to bring home back to Maine. We highly recommend this tour to our family and friends. Our tour guide Beth was the best and very knowledgable.

Would like to go on the Chinatown tour when in Boston next.... even Itaty, maybe!

Jim is a great tour guide! Loved this just as much this year as I did last year. Brought my boyfriend along this time. Will recommend it to anyone visiting Boston. Plan on writing a blog post for my blog Thanks again for this great tour!!!

Even though Boston was experiencing a heatwave, we had a wonderful time. The walks between shops were very manageable, and our guide, Jim, was very knowledgeable and entertaining. We learned alot of cooking and buying tips. As a result, we are considering Michele Topor's Italy tour in the future.

My friends and I regularly go to Boston for day excursions and have been to the North End to eat a number of times. This tour gave us a fresh perspective on Boston's "Little Italy." The tour was led by a former chef (Jim) who is very knowledgeable about North End history and Italian food, geography, and culture. We did get small food samples at the 6 shops we visited, but it wasn't about eating. We learned about the food, where it comes from and what to look for in traditional Italian food ingredients. We all thought it was one of the best Boston excursions that we've ever done. I don't live in Boston, but boy if I did, I can see how easy it would be to buy and prepare extremely delicious Italian food. For instance at the produce stop, we were offered slices of oranges, fresh fennel and figs. Delicious! I highly recommend this tour to anyone, even Boston residents. I guarantee you will learn something you didn't know about the North End.

We had an unbelievable GREAT time with you this passed Saturday. I thought I went to Italy ( I didn't want to come back). You made this tour so wonderful for us. The people that told me about the tour said it was great, but I did not expect what we got. You are so knowledgeable and you have a wonderful personality. It was a pleasure meeting you. Thank you so much and can't wait to go shopping in all the shops. (Thank god I work right around the corner from the North End.)

great insight even for locals

Just loved this tour from start to finish. I grew up in an Italian family with ties to the North End. My father's family owed a funeral parlor business there up until the 1960's. This tour was so informative and answered so many questions that I never asked my parents. Little things such as why my dad always added sugar to his"gravy" and why we ate salad after our meal. Our tour guide was awesome. The owners of the establishments that we visited always greeted us with a smile. The sampling of various foods was yummy. We highly recommend and plan on taking the China Town tour next.

Beth was our tour guide and I truly appreciated her deep knowledge of the establishments we visited, her delivery of the history of the area, and her ability to be flexible with her commentary and her timing -- we arrived late (thanks to not entering the zip code into the GPS) and she accommodated our tardiness w/ cell phone communication so we could hook up w/ the group after the tour had commenced. I'd never been to the North End of Boston, and I honestly feel like I visited Europe with her guidance. Great tour in all respects: samples, personages, route, architecture, pace. Highly recommended.

The culinary tour of the North End was extremely informative and insightful. It offers a detailed look into the community's history and the local culinary treasures like the authentic Italian pastry shop and the coffee and dry goods store. At each stop, our friendly and extremely knowledgeable guide shared extensive details about the shop's history and of course about the shop's food specialties that are important to Italian cooking. The tastings were a definite highlight, and the information sheets about the foods and restaurants are invaluable. My friend and I thoroughly enjoyed this tour; it is most certainly worthwhile if you are a foodie! I look forward to joining the culinary tour of Chinatown the next time I visit Boston and the Tuscany culinary tour when it becomes available again.