TRAVEL REVIEWS

Good morning,
I just wanted to say thank you for making my girls trip to Italy a memorable experience. The itinerary planned was awesome and they experienced quite a bit in a short timeframe. You and your team provided exceptional customer service and ensured every detail was covered from start to finish. The girls are safely enroute back to NYC.

We will definitely recommend your company with our friends and family who want to experience Italy, as well as come back to you when the girls plan their trip to the Amalfi Coast in 2020.

Warm regards,

The Allen family

Buongiorno Tommaso,

Our trip was amazing! You are your team did a terrific job with preparing the itinerary and getting us ready for our journey. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to provide feedback. Overall, we found our itinerary to be planned well with enough time to do things that were not pre-planned. The guidebook was great, especially the restaurant lists. We had very few problems and the one time we needed to reach out to your team for help, Giulia was very responsive.

Attached is a detailed summary of our feedback. We hope it helps with planning future trips.

100% Positive Review:
1. Trastevere Food walking tour – In one word, spectacular. The guide was terrific and the places we visited were so authentic. Based on this tour, we will request 3-4 walking dinner tours on our next visit.
2. Private guide tours in general – Super personal attention; feel like the guides were able to open up and be more relaxed and humorous than with bigger groups. This is a must.
3. Florence – loved the City and the history hidden within the City.
4. Restaurants you Recommended – we ate at 75% of the restaurants you recommended and all positive reviews.
5. Day trip from Siena to Florence stopping in the Brunello region for a wine tasting – our guide was a AAA+ and the vineyard (family run) was beautiful.
6. Galleria Borghese – this turned out to be one of our favorites and we loved the huge park surrounding the Galleria.
7. Pompei – breathtaking – a must to visit. Guide was an AAA+.
8. Path of the Gods Trek - breathtaking – guide was an AAA+. Our trek took approx. 2.5 hrs. It was so pretty that we would have loved a 4-6-hour trek.
9. Capri Boat Excursion – another must and perfect at the end of our trip since very relaxing. The captain and his mate were terrific.
10. Our Travels from North to South – starting in the historic inner city of Siena, to the hidden treasures of Florence, to Rome and its historic sites, to Pompei and finally to the coast was the perfect progression and the right order of seeing the cities we planned.
11. Statue of David – a must! It was by far the most breathtaking and thought-provoking statue we saw.
12. Your Guide & Ticket Books – perfect for planning and information.
13. Having 80% of our Trip Pre-Planned w/Guides/Tours – a must.
14. Train rides from one city to another – the best way to travel. Easy to locate and relaxing (and as a plus, the cars we were in were not crowded).

Tweaks in the Planning:1. Vintage Fiat 500 Tour – took a bit for all to get registered (unproductive time) in order to drive, bike, etc. Driving a 50-year old small auto with a just as old transmission was more fun on paper than reality. Would have preferred to take a small group bus to more than one (1) vineyard for the excursion. In the time it took to register, park, ensure we were all together, etc., we could have visited three (3) vineyards. We would not recommend this Fiat excursion as a way to see Tuscany.
2. Florence Food Tour – based on the 10a start, this tour took up most of our morning and afternoon. After the Trastevere evening tour, our preference would be a similar dinner Florence tour so we would have the entire day to explore other activities – the guide for the tour was AAA+.
3. In Rome, we would have preferred to be in a hotel located closer to the Colosseum. The location of the Palazzo Navona Hotel felt remote from the points of interest we wanted to see (other than the Vatican).
4. Colosseum and Forum Tour – scheduling this tour late in the afternoon (upon arrival) was not great. This was high on our list of “must sees” and we didn’t get to spend any time on our own exploring the Forum area. We spent 2 of the 3 hours at the Colosseum and the Forum was closing 15 minutes after we were done with the tour. Would recommend a morning tour to allow for time to exploring after. The tour itself was breathtaking and the guide was an AAA+.
5. Scheduling the Colosseum/Forum upon arrival in Rome followed by an early start for the Vatican the next day was rough. We crashed after the Vatican tour. We were in Rome for 4 nights – this could have been scheduled better.
6. Layover in Newark – if possible, a five (5) hour layover in Newark would not be our preference after a nine (9) hour flight. We realize this could have been caused by the Air France cancellation.

On a side note, while the Vatican was must, it was not our favorite visit. It was a bit overwhelming and per the time allotted for the tour, an extremely fast paced tour. While we can say that we saw the Vatican, we really didn’t see the Vatican. No question that the number of people visiting makes it a challenging tour.

Thanks again for making our first trip to Italy so memorable. We are already looking forward to our next visit and will definitely reach out to you when we are ready to start planning.

Grazie mille,

Carole & George

Emily,

First off, thank you, thank you, thank you. The trip was fabulous. All the plans were set up perfectly, everything went off like clockwork. We really appreciated the special service we received everywhere we went. (Walking out to the canal, when we were leaving Venice and having the water taxi drive up at exactly the scheduled time was perfect. The topper was when he called out, are you Michael, just made us feel like we were special.)

Our favorite tour of all was the food and wine tour in Rome. The tour guide really knew her stuff and the places she took us were so interesting. The food was authentic and locals were unique and memorable.

The cooking class in Florence was fabulous. By luck only 8 people were signed up, so we had a small fun group experience. The chefs were entertaining and really made the cooking a joyful learning experience.

Our least favorite tour was the food and wine tour in Venice. It lacked excitement and the choices of locals she took us to were less than stelar. While this was our first tour, the rest of the trip more than made up for one mediocre experience.

Each hotel location was excellent. The staff was helpful, cheerful and really took care of us well. We asked a lot of them to recommend where they would eat to keep us away from the obvious tourist eateries. We were not disappointed. In fact, we ate really, really well. (Do you have an after trip diet program?) We know that the Agriturismo that we went to was a new location for you, so we wanted to let you know how excellent it was. This was our favorite spot of all and it was truly difficult to leave. Next time, I’d plan more time to just enjoy the countryside and pool. (Oh by the way, make sure you tell people to pack a swimsuit. I didn’t and that was my only disappointment).

We would not hesitate to recommend your services to anyone. You were professional and your attention to detail was amazingly helpful. It took our worries away and made our experiences that much more enjoyable.

We would be remiss in not telling you our one huge complaint…The trip was too short and we had to come back to reality.

Thank you for everything.

Ciao

Robin and Michael

Hello Tommaso, this is Susan B., You guys have put together our wonderful trip to Sicily.

I want to thank you for all of your hard work and wonderful planning. We enjoyed every aspect of our trip to Sicily. The informational booklet you provided was suburb! The best I have ever seen. It gave us a great overview of each city. Thank you for that!

We loved the beautiful hotels and grounds! The people were friendly and helpful. And each breakfast was delicious.

Salvatore, our driver was excellent! He went out of his way to help us in Alia to find information about my grandfather. He went beyond our expectations. We also enjoyed each of our tour guides. They love their cities and made us appreciate and love their cities as well.

We loved the tour to Mt. Etna. We felt like we were in a National Geographic movie with the car ride up the mountain. Fabulous!

There were so many Sicilian lunches that were provided and we loved them all! Each city was so beautiful and interesting. We learned so much about our Sicilian heritage and I want to thank you for that!

Tommaso, thank you once again for a fabulous trip to Sicily! Because of you we had a wonderful experience and memories to last a lifetime.

Susan B.

Dear Emily:

I want to thank you for planning such an amazing trip for me and my family. All went as planned, and we experienced no issues - very stress free.

-- the coaching session with Tomaso was very beneficial and prepared us for the unknown;
-- hotels were beautiful and centrally located;
-- the tour guides were knowledgeable, professional and friendly and very passionate about their work; and
-- the drivers were on time, energetic and extremely helpful.
-- We especially appreciated the private tours as each tour guide personalized their presentations. After seeing the large tourist groups following a guide while listening via headphone, I truly appreciated our personal tours.

Thank you so much for taking care of our needs.

Chris Everett

Tommaso,

Wanted to tell you a BIG thank you for our tours.....we had a wonderful time and loved every minute of all 3 tours!

Naples was great....just a very hot day and with being in the sun so much early in the day we wore out earlier! Driver and car were great quality and very nice.....tour guide as good and we had a wonderful time and learned a lot too!

Rome- both drivers and vehicles were good! Our guide was really great and we loved all the information and we were able to experience lots of Rome and to enjoyed every minute of it! We were able to get to St Peters and even waited in line and were able to get inside to experience all the glory and splendor there!!! I know that all my guest really enjoyed having the personal service and by having the car be able to take a couple of our guest who couldn't do all the walking....that was perfect!

Florence- car and driver were great quality here! Our guide was REALLY good and very knowledgeable.....I have been to see the David twice before and he taught me things I had never known before and he even used light humor to keep the everyone entertained too! We LOVED the winery and meal.....I would highly recommend going back to this and we even had 36 bottles of wine shipped back! Gabriella who did our tour was amazing and very friendly....she was a delight to all of us!

I will certainly recommend your services to my staff for our clients and hope that I can send business your way and keep our clients taken care of!!! Private tours are SO much better than the ones the cruise line offers. Thank you again for taking care of all of us and I am home today and back to working!

Bambi Eskew
President/General Manager
Allen Samuels House of Travel

Subject: Our wonderful trip!

Hello Emily, we cannot thank you enough for planning this trip. The hotel in Agrigento had breathtaking views and of course, Gary and I ( below) enjoyed a lovely glass of wine at the bar.
We have just arrived at the Belmond in Taormina and can’t believe the rooms and views here also. It is reminiscent of Sorrento .... great choice!
Hope all is well with you in Houston, hugs, Alice

Thanks Tommaso. We had a fabulous trip.

Thanks for helping plan a great and very memorable trip!

Brandi K.

Emily

I was just finishing up my email to you. By now you know that I am not shy and will share our comments.

Christine D. and I have returned from Italy and wanted to thank you for planning one of our best trips.
The hotels were terrific, but best of all the number of days in each town were perfect.
The guides went out of their way to make sure we saw everything and added their personal anecdotes to make our trip come alive.
The guide in Cinque Terre actually reserved a small boat for us instead of dealing with the large crowds on the ferry - it was wonderful.

We thought we would pass along some comments which may help you when you are planning future clients' trips to this area. These are not criticisms, just comments.

Perugia

Loved this area of Italy - so much to see and learn - would tell people not to skip it.
#1 Hotel San Gallo Palazzo

The staff couldn't have been nicer - helping us with our questions (and we had many!), providing maps, bringing us coffee when we sat on their large veranda reviewing our full day of sightseeing, etc.
Breakfast was outstanding!
Probably the best of the 3 hotels

This hotel was so convenient to the sites that we had no issues walking all over town on our free days and in the evening.
Note: The San Gallo hotel restaurant was not included on your recommended list, but was probably one of the best dinners we ate. You may want to consider adding it to your list.

Siena

#2 Hotel Palazzo Ravizza - we weren't sure if the driver was dropping us off at the correct location because the sign on the building read "Pensione" not Hotel; but we were so happy once inside the building. This mansion's rooms were all redone to provide a different style for most guests. Updated bathrooms, coffee pots in each room, even an iron and ironing board!!!
Since our rooms over looked the garden (thanks to you) we had the most incredible views watching the sun rise through our large bedroom windows. We took a tour of the building which still houses a grand piano, antiques and furniture from the original owner.
The wife of the owner of the NY Frick museum typically stayed here when in Italy.

Breakfast was different than the previous hotel. The salami and cheese was delicious and plentiful. Coffee was magnifique (once we learned to use the machine)!

We had such fun at the cooking school learning how to make pasta and sauces. Of course, we ate too much and have fond memories of the people we met and the Chef who used much more salt and wine than Americans.
ViVace Pizza & Grigila was also not on your recommended restaurant list, but was excellent with a beautiful back terrace overlooking the city lights. This is located right around the corner from the hotel.

Santa Margherita
#3 The Mediterranneo Emotional Hotel was also very nice, located close to everything so we were able to walk to sites and restaurants. Of course, the building was newly renovated.

How can we ever thank you enough for working so hard on each and every detail of our trip. We couldn't stop saying this is the most beautiful site, until we moved to the next one.

So looking forward to our next grand trip. By the way, do you provide trips to other countries in addition to Italy?

Your Very Happy Clients,

Wendy and Christine

Emily,

We had a good time and appreciate all the hard work you put into the planning. Pre plan discussion helped a lot along with the documents you provided us. Lots to share but I will try to give a quick perspective--

Alitalia really needs to update itself, the plane interiors are beaten up and the staff is not really that friendly. I travel internationally and I would put them really at the bottom of choice especially for long hauls. We understand it is the direct route airline but it would be great if there was competition to force better service.

Taxi services- Rome Airport to Hotel leaves a bit to be desired. The driver was late, didn't speak english and he tried but we felt like we were just a package to pick up and deposit. Florence to Airport was ok but felt badly for driver. The driver was doing a favor for a colleague as the colleague was sick. The driver parked down the street vs being in front of the hotel. We were fine to carry our stuff to the car but didn't seem the best. She also had a tour right after dropping us off and was concerned about timing. She was nice and conversant on Florence sites as we went to the airport. We are sympathetic to the circumstances but my sense is the Taxi company needs to handle all these situations to ensure we are not caught up in the juggle. Not fair to drivers. We are easy travelers and these situations were not major issues it just made us think about service.

Rail travel was great in Italy. High-speed service Rome to Florence and Florence to/from Venice was easy and great ride. Train stations are nice, information is easy and there are helpful folks always around to ask questions.

Hotel in Rome was ok. Staff was very nice and the garden area for drinks and breakfast was nice. Location was fine as we were able to access various areas of our interests in Rome. It definitely has the decor of an older era hotel which brings some original character to it. Rooms are a nice size and very tall ceilings. We had a room in the backside of the hotel with a very limited view- the window was in the back corner of the room and looked out into sidewall of an adjacent building. It would have been better to have a window in the center or in a way that provided more look to the outside. We requested a change but they couldn't accommodate. Since we were out and about all the time it ended up not being an issue. We like both kinds of hotels- old ones with history and newer modern ones- but being in a historical city the older hotel is preferable. One aspect that needs fixing is their breakfast. Good spread but hot food especially the eggs were cold and slightly undercooked. Also, some of the staff was not able to communicate very well which resulted in incorrect orders. Outside garden service in the evening was a bit slow.

Hotel in Florence was great. Rooms and reception areas were small but it didn't matter as we thought they did nice job of leveraging the space, the staff was great, very welcoming and always helpful. Breakfast was perfect and the afternoon tea was a really nice touch. Location was fine. We were able to walk to it from the train station and get to all areas of Florence that we wanted to get to. We would recommend Rapallo to anybody.

Rome- when we arrived we wandered around the city during the afternoon- walking past Giardini del Quirinale to Fontana di Trevi, exploring other areas then to P. Venizea, went to the top to see good 360 views of Rome, etc... Next day- the Coliseum/Forum/Pantheon tour was great, the tour guide was good and would really recommend it to anybody. Learned a lot. Glad we had the small group tour. Have to say the big tours were obnoxious as they just would bowl you over as they came thru. Amazing that tours can be so large. Vatican city tour was great and informative.
We got lucky as we were the only ones on the tour. Rome is an amazing city and the history is fascinating.

Florence- walking tour was great but I think given the history and all that resides in Florence I might recommend an additional tour or two to cover some of the other topics. The Tuscany Countryside tour was great. We lucked out to have Pierre as a tour guide. Highly recommend that group. Rebecca and Pierre have a great set up and very nice. We saw three vineyards, had a great lunch with additional tastings from the restaurantor as he and his two brothers produce wine for the restaurant only, and we also made a stop in Greve.

Uffizi and Accademia were great to see. Amazing history and significance. We also went to the Leonardi Da Vinci museum and Santa Croce along with the leather school. We ventured up to the P Michaelangelo and got great views of Florence. If we had time we would have gone at sunset as we can imagine watching the sunset over Florence would be amazing. We walked down and looked at the waterfalls then walked to Ponte Vecchio. Restaurants- where do we start? lots of good times having lunch and dinners.

Trattoria Za Za and Osteria Pastella in Florence hit the top of the list. We will have to look at our list to send along but we had good meals, wine, and enjoyed going out to the restaurants.

Overall, the trip was excellent and have lots of pictures to sort thru. Will send along some.

Stuart

Hello Tommaso,

We had the most wonderful trip to Italy with Mary and Martin C. and we wanted to thank you personally for putting together such a fabulous itinerary. Too many favorite things to list! Such a beautiful place and we want to go back in a few years and hit Rome and the Amalfi Coast. When the time comes, we will make sure and contact you!

Many, many thanks to you again Tommaso!

Sincerely,
Mary and Greg C.

Emily,

I was just bragging about you and ho easy you made everything for us.
The book you sent us was so helpful and it made it so easy for us.

We fell in love with Venice and how nice people are there we didn’t want to come back! We actually went to see a listing for a beautiful house in Tuscany, but they said it was not possible as we were from here.

Tours: Amazing!!

Loved the skip the line, that we were able to choose our preferred language.
They were scheduled perfect and with enough time to do our own exploring.

Transfer services: you made it so easy for us, it was perfect! Everything was so convenient.

Hotels : loved every single one of them!
The location of every hotel was beyond perfect!
Very convenient and accessible to transportation and every tourist spot.
The breakfast included was a huge plus!
Love that they all had hair dryers.

I was super excited to have found a Laundromat literary around the corner from both the hotel in Florence and Venice! (I have ocd so knowing that I had dirty laundry in my luggage was really bothering me lol)

Flights : No complaints.
Personally prefer flights with no layovers. Had a slight issue in Paris , We got to our assigned area and waited patiently no sign of our flight on the boards – I finally asked at 1:10 was told was moved last minute literally to the other side of the airport!
I had purchased some items while we were waiting and that was an issue once we had to go back through security, luckily I had decided to hold on to my receipts and after going back and forth I was able o keep the stuff I had just purchased.

Overall: The perfect dream vacation!

Thank you Emily and everyone at Trips2Italy!!!

Sandra and Luciano D.