Caterina Belvedere

We had a wonderful time during our trip. The boutique hotels (and attached restaurants) were excellent. We particularly enjoyed our guides in Assisi (Ms. Cinzia) and Rome (Ms. Simona). Weather was perfect all week, except for one rainy afternoon in Gubbio. Italians were all very friendly during our trip. We enjoyed the food and wine during our trip. Your representatives were on-time and helpful.

We were disappointed in Arezzo as it was Sunday, as the shops were closed, and churches had morning mass. We did not make it to Cortona.

GPS was amazing, could not have driven the routes without it, although a few times, it directed us in one way city centers! It was also a little confusing on where to drop the car off at the Rome train station.

In retrospect, we should have stayed in Rome one additional day as there is so much to see.

Thank you again.

Activity Review

Private Colosseum, Forum Tour & Palatine hill

Rome

Excellent Guide.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Caterina created a “Masterpiece” of an Italy trip plan for us. Recognizing that everyone has different interests and ways to travel, my wife and I commented several times throughout our vacation that we were amazed how well Caterina understood our interests and likes/dislikes of tour types, hotels, etc. Each hotel that we stayed at had the perfect amenities, room design and location for each stage of our trip.

The details of the Trip Plan from length of stay at each location and the type/timing of our tours could not have hit the mark any better. The size of the tours (small groups or private) seemed as if she knew what would fit us better than even we would have done if we booked ourselves.

The local concierges and assistants that KimKim stitched together made intra-city and inter-city transport logistics run so smoothly it removed all stress in a usually stressful activity.

All the tour guides were top notch, especially our Rome guides for the Colosseum (Dennis) and Golf Cart (Valentina). Our private guide for Pompeii (sorry I lost her name) was a former Pompeii archaeologist and now a professor of archaeology was incredible. The winery tour and dinner was an experience of a lifetime!

Also, KimKim’s website platform is a breeze to plan and communicate with Travel Specialists. The format for tracking text communications and reviewing trip plan details was a valuable resource for us.

As stated at the start of the review, and in the spirit of all the amazing art we saw during our trip, Caterina created a Masterpiece of an Italy Trip Plan that fit us perfectly.

Thanks so much for an amazing experience,
Troy & Beth Jandrasitz

Hotel Reviews

47 Boutique Hotel

Rome

Great location, nice room. We enjoyed the roof top bar/restaurant for a drink and views.

Authenticity & Character

Location

It was centrally located for us to walk to key areas including Colosseum, Vatican City, and Trestavere. We like walking so while it wasn’t next to any of these areas, its location allowed for doable walks.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Villa Maria Pia

praiano

Nice hotel. They provided a balcony upgrade at no charge. Dock is nice, but stairs can be tricky to negotiate. The stairs going to street level are equally tricky. Breakfast area was very nice. Room was nice, if slightly small. The tub/shower access was a bit tricky as well - we were ok with it but some individuals with slight mobility issues would have a challenge.

Authenticity & Character

Can’t think of many hotels with a dock like theirs. Ceramic decor was beautiful.

Location

Bus stop right by hotel is a big plus.

Staff

Helpful with local transport. When my wife and I decided to have a picnic dinner on our balcony, the restaurant worked provided a wine bottle opener and glasses

Cleanliness & Comfort

Air handler mini split was difficult to get room temp correct. Awareness of the unit’s fan was slightly bothersome, but not a showstopper either.

Palazzo Castri 1874

Florence

Nice room and view of courtyard. Bed was comfortable. The overnight Front desk reception worker (Raniero) went out of his way yo assist me when a need some minor medical assistance - he was great!

Authenticity & Character

Nice room and bathroom. Very upscale feel to it. Breakfast was very good.

Location

Decent location (could have been a bit closer to town center), but the main issue was significant road construction currently occurring.

Staff

See comment on front desk worker (Raniero) above

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Splendid Venice - Starhotel

Venice

Concierge was helpful in changing our room when it was confirmed that the room A/C thermostat was not operating. A front desk worker first appeared to question our need to change rooms, but the concierge stopped it immediately and said we needed a room change, it was resolved with an impressive room upgrade.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Just seemed perfectly located for us.

Staff

See comment above

Cleanliness & Comfort

5 stars of the first room’s thermostat was operational

Activity Reviews

Small group tour of Colosseum with Arena access, Palatine Hill and Roman Forum

Rome

Dennis (tour guide) was very knowledgeable and entertaining. Timing of the tour = just right; size of group = just right

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

No transportion needed to get to Colosseum. It is a walking tour

Small group tour of Rome highlights by Golf Cart (6 people - 3 hours)

Rome

Valentina was great. She took us off the beaten path for a portion of the tour which was nice. Golf cart was comfortable. We are both very mobile but this tour would seem perfect for individuals with mobility issues. One thing that would have been nice is if we could have toured closer to bottom of Spanish Steps, The cart took us past the top of the steps, but that is not the classic view.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Golf cart was comfortable

Admission tickets - Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel - skip the line

Rome

We felt the museum and Sistine Chapel is overcrowded with people and the artwork just jammed onto any wall space. Flow seemed disorganized. The skip the line tickets worked fine and it is critical to get these to avoid long wait. Even the skip the line was a bit disorganized.

Quality of Experience

Not sure how to reduce crowds. Better signage of tour flow in the museum would help

Guides, Drivers and Staff

N/A

Transport

N/A

Train Rome/Naples with transfers and 2h guided tour in Pompeii

Italy

Transfer to train was a breeze. Pick up in Naples as well. Pompeii tour was unexpectedly incredible due to an amazing tour guide.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Small group tour of Capri by boat (7 hours - max 12-14 pp)

Italy

Tour around Capri was beautiful. Time spent on island was just right.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Expertise of boater was impressive with ability to back into various coves for close views.

Florence and Accademia City Tour

Italy

Amazing tour of art at the Accademia. We found this museum much better organized that Vatican Museum.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Tour guide was extremely knowledgeable about Renaissance Art and Architecture. General questions about more “touristy” things did not seem to interest her - when asked about locations of operating wine windows she said there weren’t any. Later we found out there was and actually enjoyed that unique experience.

Transport

N/A

Admission tickets - Uffizi Gallery - skip the line

Florence

Amazing museum!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

N/A

Transport

N/A

Best of Siena and San Gimignano tour from Florence with dinner

Italy

Winery tour made the trip. The winery property was beautiful and the dinner was a great experience. This tour was the best highlight of many highlights of the vacation

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Entrance fees to doge's palace and Saint Mark's basilica

Venice

The tickets for self guided tour was perfect timing for us as we were beginning to hit our limit on museums. So perfect timing to enjoy this an an abbreviated short tour time.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

N/A

Transport

N/A

"Bacari" local street food tour

Italy

Beatrice made this tour fun and interesting. She has excellent knowledge of Venice.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

N/A

Venice Gondola Ride

Venice

A must do. The gondolier however had no interaction with us at all.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

ACTV 1 day Transport VENEZIA DAILY PASS

Venice

Nice tour of the Grand Canal - worth the 45 mins to see the city from the Grand Canal

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Can be crowded as people use this to transport themselves to hotels, etc.

Throughout the trip our family kept looking at each other and saying - I'm so glad we booked this through KimKim. It's rare to take a family trip with a multi-generational, 6-person group and everyone feels like they had a relaxing time because everything was so well organized and taken care of. It would have been so hectic to have booked everything ourselves.

The process of tailoring our trip was seamless with our specialist Caterina. She made great suggestions along the way and we ended up with an itinerary that made sure we got to do everything we wanted. As we did the trip it was clear so many times how well she had understood our travel preferences and how right she was about the way she sequenced everything. The website's trip planning and itinerary process were so easy to use. We knew exactly what we were paying for in advance and what we would have to pay for when we got there so there were no surprises. The itinerary was handy for everyone in the group to know what was coming up.

Our concierge Beatrice was super responsive throughout the trip over whatsapp, clarifying any questions we had about when we should show up to helping arrange our request for a last-minute additional guide. She provided well-organized documents for all the activites when we arrived.

The Drivers were so professional and early every time. The vehicles were high-end, in excellent condition, and comfortable for our short and long drives.

Tour Guides were all engaging for the kids, knowledgeable, and had great personalities that brought all of the sights alive. They were very organized - with backup copies of all our tickets on hand. They also often made great recommendations for us for restaurants at each location. Special mention to Ms. Simona, Chef Max, Mr. Gianni, Ms. Martina, Ms. Giusy, Mr. Alessandro, Ms. Lucia, and our guides in Assisi and the Vatican.

For activities (golf cart tour, cooking class, etc.) very high quality vendors were selected for us and we had great experiences with everything Caterina at kimkim booked for us.

Caterina and her team were beyond amazing in helping make our trip to Italy amazing. Caterina helped with making our planned activities special and accommodated various changes until our itinerary was exactly as we wanted. She picked three amazing hotels for us, each not only located in prime areas of the city, but with welcoming staff and phenomenal rooms. Francesco, was our “on the ground” main contact who kept in touch with us daily to make sure we knew the plans for the following day along with the names and contact numbers of both the local guide we would be with and the drivers contact information. Any questions or concerns we had he responded to rapidly. He even helped us add a site to visit on our last full day in Bologna that was spectacular.

All the guides we had were knowledgeable, experienced, and friendly. Each guide was helpful and went above and beyond helping to make our stay in their city memorable . Allessia, our assistant in Venice, however, was truly spectacular. Her friendliness, clear joy in sharing her city and country with us, her going above and beyond with shuffling tour times around, helping us add a last minute tour (thanks also goes to Caterina and Francesco for that), and providing many food recommendations for Venice and Bologna made this trip one we will never forget. She even went so far as to send us a video clip she made for us on exactly how to get to a meet up point for the additional tour we added! I loved that she did not just help us get from one activity to another, but spent her time with us sharing both facts and history as well as personal anecdotes and ‘random’ cultural information like Italian gestures and their meanings.

If more stars were an option in reviewing our experience we would have given them. We look forward to a return visit to Italy so we can work with Catarina and her team again! I would not hesitate to also use KimKim for travel in other parts of the world given our experience in Italy.