I just read from a fellow traveler on this site that in Florence some thugs robbed it and took the luggage off the bus! It was the tour directors bag! Does anyone know about this happening! I thought our luggage was safe with the company! Do we load our own luggage on the bus? SHould we be guarding it while everyone is getting their luggage loaded? Do they not lock the bus? DOes the driver and tour dirctoer not take care in watching our belonging? Does ANYONE have any info on this?

The luggage IS safe on the coach. This was just an opportunist theft, only the TD's tour notes were taken. Regarding the loading of luggage, this is done by the driver into the hold of the coach, delivered to the coach by the hotel porter. There is absolutely no need to worry about a thing.

it's vacation! just be cautious as you would the same at home.

No need to worry about the bags at the hotel, either the tour director or porter will have them in sight at all times while they are being loaded.
As for bags on the bus, we always left our belongings on the bus during the day. However, in certain places our tour director advised us to put them out of sight, either in the locker or beneath the seat. Worth considering, removes temptation for thieves that way.

On our tours, the luggage is usually collected and loaded by the Tour Director and driver and hotel porter. The TD is standing there checking the luggage off against his list. All this is happening while I'm eating breakfast, so I don't have the opportunity to check it out. And once it is loaded, I'd be a bloody nuisance if I ran around insisting that I had to SEE that my luggage was on the bus. And I'm not going to skip breakfast.

Now think about this. Our TD said that he tried very hard to look like one of the group. He frequently carries a large amout of cash as a part of his business, to buy tickets etc. He said he had been robbed at least three times. (This accompanied a request not to walk up to him in public, pull out $500 and pay him for the optional trips.)

So, if you were a thief casing out the tour would you want the TD's bag that might have some valuables in it, or some tourist's underwear and souvenier collection?

I've been on 4 tours and no one lost any luggage. Correction, 4 people had to buy clothes and underwear on the fly because the AIRLINES lost the luggage.

Walt