Italy Travel Agents

The people and trips were simply amazing! We highly recommend food tours to get to know the cities and regions.

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Firenze

Venice

The staff were very polite and full of recommendations. They made us feel right at home.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Bigallo Florence

Florence

The room was very, very small. The staff were okay, but not warm and friendly.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Florida Residence

Positano

Wow! No words can describe the view! The staff were beyond amazing. So friendly and helpful!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

I can't say enough about how friendly and caring the staff treated us.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel del Mare

Sorrento

We weren't pleased with the view of our first room. It looked at a side of another building and there was a dead bird outside. I mentioned it to the front desk assistant. They worked hard to fix our concern by moving us to another room the next day. I can't thank them enough! Very friendly and helpful!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Great location! We were able to walk to the water and to the downtown.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Venice Bacari Food Tour

Venice

The guide was fantastic and authentic! Excellent way to meet people and become familiar with your surroundings!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Wine tasting & dinner in Chianti vineyard

Italy

This was our most memorable activity on our trip! Food and wine were incredible. We met so many new friends!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Tuscany Highlights: Siena, San Gimignano & Pisa with lunch & wine tasting

Florence

Fantastic guide and the towns were full of history! We particularly enjoyed the food and wine tastings!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Capri Cruise

Italy

This trip was canceled due to weather.

The guides on our trip were excellent. Federico, Luigi, Stephania, etc.

Hotel Reviews

Duodo Palace

Venice

Clean hotel, centrally located. Staff, breakfast were very good. Friendly staff.

Authenticity & Character

Traditional

Location

Staff

Ariel.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Minerva Sorrento

Sorrento

Magnificent location with breathtaking views of the Gulf of Naples. Words cannot describe this hotel location. The first night there was a private banquet in their dining room. Despite this, the dining room manager Giuseppe put up a special table for us in a very nice location and served us an excellent dinner. We had a picturesque view of the Gulf of Naples from our room and balcony. Breakfast everyday was on the top floor patio overlooking the Gulf. I would come back here in a heartbeat.

Authenticity & Character

Golf=geous big room with all amenities.

Location

Beautiful view of the Gulf of Naples.

Staff

Unbelievably friendly staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Clean

Hotel Berchielli

Florence

Nice clean hotel, nicely located. Walking distance from all must see sites. Safe.

Authenticity & Character

Traditionally decorated

Location

Centrally locates and safe.

Staff

Friendly

Cleanliness & Comfort

Clean

Al Manthia Hotel

Rome

Well located, safe.

Authenticity & Character

Was a two level room with bedroom upstairs. Steep stairs to go up.

Location

Centrally located and safe.

Staff

Staff was uptight, can be significantly improved

Cleanliness & Comfort

Clean hotel

Activity Reviews

Venice Private Bacari Tour

Venice

Very good tour. Would recommend. A must do.

Quality of Experience

Guide was nice

Essential Venice

Venice

Historic place visits.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Explore Pompeii - Private

Italy

Pompeii is a wonderful place to visit. Our guide was knowledgeable but was too descriptive.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Driver was great.

Tour of the Amalfi Coast

Italy

Ah, we were the only ones so it became a private tour. Excellent experience. Luigi our driver and guide was very good. Very knowledgeable and was a local person. Friendly and full of jokes and we had a lot of fun. Positano, Ravello, Amalfi were nice and the coast is just gorgeous. Along the way is Atrani where the movie “Equilizer 3” starring Denzel Washington was shot, just beautiful. If I have a choice to have a second home overseas or to retire overseas, this would be it.

Quality of Experience

Friendly driver.

Food

Food in Amalfi was tasty.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Luigi.

Transport

Clean car.

Walking tour of Florence (Private)

Florence

Saw all the historic sites.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Visit to Pisa, San Gimignano and Siena with lunch and wine tasting

Florence

Long day 7a to 7p. But must do and great trip. Winery in San Gimignano was nice. Siena is cultural and historic.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Tuscan cooking class with San Lorenzo food market

Florence

Magnificent experience. A small group. Roberta our chef was very very good. An absolute must do. Don’t miss it.

Quality of Experience

Food

Food tour among squares and fountains of Rome

Rome

We enjoyed this very much. Stephania was very very good and made our tour so enjoyable. She went above and beyond. Very pleasant and professional.

Quality of Experience

Excellent, excellent. An absolute must do.

Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel & St. Peter's Basilica

Rome

Breathtaking, overwhelming, wonderful experience.

Quality of Experience

Our guide Stephania was great.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Colosseum - Palatine Hill - Roman Forum

Rome

Very nice tour. Guide was wonderful.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

I knew that I needed help organizing my trip to Italy, because I had never been there before and I wanted to be able to relax while I was there with my college age daughter. I reached out to kimkim after seeing great reviews, to request trip planning for a 5-day trip to Varenna, on Lake Como, and Verona. The response to my request was super fast, which I appreciated because I contacted them just 6 weeks before my trip. Eleonora asked lots of questions, and then proposed a list of hotels and activities in each place. First, we had the most incredible view of Lake Como from our hotel balcony - it was magical. She recommended shopping in Bellagio (across the bay from Varenna), which was so adorable and had so many wonderful little shops and spots for aperativo. She signed us up for a tour of a beautiful historic villa, with a boat to drive us dock to dock. Then we drove to Verona to our next hotel, which was very centrally located in a beautiful historic district, just steps from the collosseum ruins. We had a food tour with Miriam - who was the highlight of Verona for us - who took us to taste local olive oil, wine, cheese, cured meat, candy, pizzetta rossa, and a traditional Veronese cake. I have limited mobility and so Eleonora went out of her way to research things that we could do that were within my ability, and our hotels were right in the center of everything in both Varenna and Verona, so we were just steps to delicious food. There was an issue with one of our hotel rooms, and her associate local Gabriele, solved it within 15 minutes. They made the trip easy, efficient, and enjoyable which was exactly what I wanted.

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Royal Victoria

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Milano & Spa

Verona

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Afternoon at leisure in Bellagio

Lake Como

Lake Como boat tour and guided visit of Villa del Balbianello

Italy

Private food tour of Verona

Italy

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Overall, our trip to Italy was wonderful! The information Marina gave us was for the most part very clear and timely and correct. We did experience a few glitches in communication which I will detail in a moment. But, again, overall, the drivers, guides, accommodations, and tours were really very good. The drivers were friendly and spoke English well enough for us to be able to communicate, and in many instances very well! The guides for the tours were well informed and passionate about what they were telling us. I am not good with names and was going to get back on the Trip Plans App to retrieve some of those names, but it won't let me. The Trip Plans App was also very helpful in keeping directions, train tickets, guide names etc all at our fingertips! I liked that very much!
Back to our drivers & guides: Coliseum tour: wonderful guide!! Very engaging! We saw her the next day at the Vatican and she came up to us and spoke for a while. Lovely woman! AnnaMarie may have been her name?
The food tour: Delightful young woman, who conveyed the different vibes of the different areas well!
The cooking class: This was a blast! The chef was a lot of fun even though he didn't speak English! He made himself known, and our translator was fun and engaging with the whole group! I may get a pasta maker because of this class!
Pompeii tour: She was so knowledgeable and interesting to talk with! She really knew the history, and conveyed it well to us. Again I'm so sorry I don't have any names!
Trip to Capri Island: She was wonderful as well! Knowledgeable and fun to chat with about life style and cultural things. I enjoyed her very much!
Florence tour with David: Very good as well. She was personable and informative. There was quite a bit of standing while she spoke and that was a little hard. She knew her stuff about Michelangelo and David though and that showed in the way she spoke about the statue!
Our driver and guide for the 3 Tuscan towns were good too. Friendly and informative! The driver was very accommodating. His name was Johnny! We were ready earlier and he was there and we just started out before the time and changed the order of the towns to be seen. It was a lovely day!
Wine tasting day! Fabulous! I think Matthew was our driver/guides name. Funny, informative, (a little opinionated, but that was ok! We understood where he was coming from even tho we may not have agreed on all his points!) He was a lot of fun and we learned A LOT from him!
Jacob was our driver/guide for what should have been our day to Cinque Terre. The rain kept us away from there which was a great disappointment for me as that was the place I was most looking forward to. We went instead to Lucca and Pisa. The day was sunny but I was sad about not being able to spend the day by the sea. Jacob was excellent as well. He was very knowledgeable about all kinds of things and funny too. Seeing the Marble mountains driving by Carrara was a treat we didn't expect. Very cool!
I think our guide in Venice was "Henry" or the Italian equivalent of Henry! He was delightful as well! Really knew the subject of St Marks Basilica and the Doges palace well. There again, we stood quite a bit and that made us tired. That wasn't his fault tho!
Accommodations were very nice! Capo d/Africa hotel: Lovely, friendly staff. Positano Art hotel: very nice! Concierge there was very helpful and personable! Olympia Hotel in Venice: Super friendly staff!! Very helpful! Mamo apartment was very nice as well. I did call for them to come and fix something in our closet, but they couldn't make that happen. We called for additional toilet paper & trash bags and someone decided that it would be good to deliver them at 22:30! We were all in bed! At first I thought it would be far from the Florence sites but the location grew on me! There were several good restaurants we enjoyed very close to the apartment! Good job! :)
Now the down side of the trip were the following: Communication while in Italy. For the most part it was fine but there were several times that the drivers or guides had my sister-in-law, Julie's number. Julie began the process of planning the trip but had to back out in April, so I took over planning. I don't think Marina communicated with Julie anytime past June, so her number should not have been part of the itinerary. When we booked and had to give all our final information I took Julie's name off the list so it wouldn't be confusing, but it was still in Marina's files. Julie ended up getting several calls from Italy (mainly in the middle of the night!). That was annoying for Julie and frustrating for me as I couldn't get to our guides in a timely fashion. This happened most notably on the Vatican tour. Our guide was late, I believe, to begin with, and didn't use a sign with our name on it. She looked up Julie on facebook to see what she looked like to be able to find us. That obviously didn't work. I don't look like my SIL! :)
The Vatican tour was disappointing too as I had requested going to the Rafael Rooms specifically, and that got overlooked.
The other disappointment was the final day in Rome. We didn't get to go on the Appian Way bike tour because of traffic to the airport hotel. And we didn't get any type of refund for this either.
I think this stemmed from the fact that I had no idea about drive times to and from places. I wish that Marina would have explained drive times to me better. It didn't affect too much of the trip, but this last day we may have changed things around had we know about how long it took to get from the train station to the airport and back to town to take the tour. All we did that day was travel, but it wore us out! Plus day light savings time had just ended so it was getting dark sooner than it had up until that point. That threw us off as well. If Marina had explained to us that, since we wanted to stay at the A/P hotel, that we may be taking on too much, we could have cancelled that activity and saved a little bit of money. We did have a nice relaxing evening together at the hotel on that last night!
Oh! One other suggestion! It would have been helpful to have the name of the tour companies for the tours we were on. We would have then been able to be proactive in finding our guides a little quicker. As it was we were completely dependent on them finding us. Just a thought!
So as you can see we had a "Fantastico" trip to Italy! There were some rough spots, but nothing that would dampen my memories of this trip! I have already recommended KimKim to others planning trips to Europe and Italy in particular! Thank you for listening to me!

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Capo d'Africa—Colosseo

Rome

Good location, friendly staff and the breakfasts included in the stay were very tasty!

Authenticity & Character

rooftop breakfast and bar in the evenings!

Location

walkable to historic attractions

Staff

Very friendly and helpful

Cleanliness & Comfort

No problems!

Art Hotel Pasitea

Positano

Lovely hotel! Concierge was super helpful in restaurant selection! He really seemed to enjoy seeing us when we'd come by the front desk!

Authenticity & Character

Fun artwork all over the place here!

Location

Beautiful views! Gorgeous

Staff

Very friendly staff and helpful. Spoke English well for us, which we appreciated!

Cleanliness & Comfort

Lovely rooms. Could have had a few more hooks, shelves & storage cabinets. A mini frig would have been nice too!

Mamo Florence Apartment

Firenze

Not as far from the Florence attractions as I initially thought but we did have to do a good bit of walking, which isn't bad! The staff was mostly accommodating to some of our needs. They couldn't come fix a closet issue, and brought us extra toilet paper and trash bags at 22:30! That was late for us Americans! We were in bed already! I would suggest having instructions for things like the coffee maker, washer/dryer & dishwasher. Letting us know what the checkout process was, and what to do with the trash would have been helpful too. Maybe having an information sheet with restaurants, markets, pharmacies etc would have been nice too. The lock for the door was something none of us had ever seen so that was a challenge initially but we got used to it! Overall a nice place to stay!

Authenticity & Character

City feel

Location

Good . Maybe could have been a little closer to town.

Staff

22:30 for delivery? not the best.

Cleanliness & Comfort

It was fine and clean and comfortable!

Activity Reviews

Colosseum & Roman Forum Visit: Arena Access, Gladiators Gate & Ancient City

Rome

Learned a lot! Lovely guide

Quality of Experience

learned a lot

Guides, Drivers and Staff

she was very engaging

Transport

we walked there!

La Dolce Vita: Private Golf Cart in Rome

Rome

Loads of fun! Guide was great and drove us all over the place! He was very knowledgeable and explained a lot of history & culture to us! He was losing his voice and we felt bad about that. a microphone would have help us and him out a bunch!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

so fun and a little scary on the streets of Rome! We had a lot of fun!

Day Excursion to Capri Island and Anacapri

Italy

Started out rainy but turned into a lovely sunny day! Really enjoyed the Funicular and the chair lift to the top of Anacapri!

Quality of Experience

Our guide was very personable and helpful

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Enjoyed our guide very much

Transport

I thought we would get to ride a hover craft out but we didn't get to That was the only downside. Funicular, Chairlift,ride over the MamaMia bridge! Very memorable

Day Excursion to Pompeii & Hercolanum

Italy

Fascinating to learn all the details of these ancient cities!

Quality of Experience

very informative.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Excellent! She knew her stuff and could convey it well to us!

Transport

Our driver to and from Pompeii/Positano was very conversational!

Guided Visit: Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel

Rome

Interesting place. Lots of people. Didn't find our guide for about half an hour. It was beautiful but felt herded like cattle through the Sistine Chapel. Didn't get to see the Rafael Room which was on my list.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

She was passionate about the artwork she was telling us about

Transport

The driver to the Vatican was fine.

Italian Cooking Class with a Local

Rome

So fun! Loved this event! Made pasta and an appetizer and were served plenty of wine in the process! Friendly Chef, translator and staff too!

Quality of Experience

Engaging staff! Wine! Yummy food! Fun Chef!

Food

Great food! So fun!

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Enthusiasm, outgoing personality!

Transport

the driver got us there! It was fine!

Guided Visit of Florence Including David and Duomo

Florence

Good tour. Lots of information. Lots of standing which is hard sometimes! We did walk a lot though too!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

We walked and met her at the designated point.

Chianti Wine Half-Day Experience

Florence

So fun! Really enjoyed the wine, luncheon an both wineries! The guide was very friendly and talkative as well (I talked about him in my overall review

Quality of Experience

Food

Delicious! Italian lunch and olive oil and wine! Who could ask for anything more!

Guides, Drivers and Staff

friendly funny knowledgeable

Transport

driver was our guide! Good!

Day Trip to Siena, San Gimignano & Monteriggioni

Florence

Fun day driving through the Tuscan countryside!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our driver was super friendly and helpful! He told all sorts of things about the area. Our guide in Sienna was good too! She enjoyed her town and liked telling people about it!

Transport

Driver was great!

Day Excursion to Cinque Terre

Florence

Did not go to Cinque Terre because of rain. Very disappointing to me! We did go to Lucca and Pisa. It was sunny but didn't make up for not being able to see the sea!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our driver Jacob made the best of a bad situation. He was super friendly and explained a lot of things to us driving down the highways to our destinations!

Transport

Driver was excellent!

We had a wonderful time on our trip to Italy. Melanie did a great job planning a “Comfortable Trip” for my mom. My mom can walk but not long distances so we needed an electric wheelchair for this trip. Melanie was able to find one for us to rent and had it waiting for us at the hotel. After talking w/ friends from the USA and reading reviews online, I was led to believe that Italy was not a wheelchair friendly place and we were going to have difficulty using it. Fortunately that was not the case. Yes, there were some narrow streets and steep hills but we were able to work around the obstacles and my mom did not have to miss out on any of our Italy experiences. Very happy that Melanie listened to our requests and planned the trip accordingly. She was also very accessible on what’s app during the trip and checked in with us regularly. Highly recommend her company. The only negative was that I had to postpone the trip a year and the price ended up increasing by about $1k a person. Not sure if that was because of inflation or because there was originally going to be 5 of us and it only ended up being 4.

Activity Reviews

Chianti Wine & Olive Oil Tour and Village of Siena

Italy

Food and wine were great - the gnocchi was AMAZING! Family was very friendly. The only negative is that if u place an order it takes about 30 days to receive it which is fine because they tell you that upfront. However, I live in Atlanta and was having the wine shipped to San Diego for a party that I am attending Nov 9. The some said that he would ship the Monday after our tour. Unfortunately, totally dropped the ball on this and as of Nov 4th the order still hasn’t shipped. Had I know. That they weren’t going to follow through, then I would have just had it sent to Atlanta. I spent a lot of money on wine, olive oil, and vinegar that I won’t be able to enjoy.

Quality of Experience

Wish a tour of the vineyard was part of the experience. Maybe it wasn’t because the grapes had already been picked for the season??

Food

Gnocchi and tomato’s were so yummy!

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Rey friendly but son didn’t follow through on shipping my order in a timely manner

Transport

The driver was very friendly

Pizza Cooking Class in Sorrento

Sorrento

So much fun. The chef was so funny. We really had a great time and the pizza was yummy. We met another group from the US on this experience. When we left, someone from the group forgot something at the restaurant and the chef chased us down on his motorcycle to return it to him.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Capri and the Amalfi coast boat tour with the Blu Grotto

Italy

Really fun day. The driver was very friendly.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Explore Pompeii Walking Tour

Italy

Loved Pompeii. Our guide was very knowledgeable and it was very interesting hearing the history of the city.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Andrew was very knowledgeable and nice. He made the tour interesting. Only thing is that he often walked far ahead of us and was on his phone a lot. There was one time when he took my mom by elevator and we took the stairs and met him. He said do t worry, I will stay with her. When we met up with them he was walking far ahead of her.

Transport

Driver was nice but not a very good driver. His van was a lot older than the other vans we had taken. He drove fast and passed other cars in traffic. This was the only day that my niece got car sick during any of our tours.