Hidden Beauty Tour of Rome, Venice, and Florence

This was a customized trip for my wife and me from April 6 to 20 at $16,000 per person.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable trip. We would give it four out of five stars.

The hotels were excellent, including their locations, as were the guides, cars, drivers, and restaurants for lunches.

Here is where we held back one star. This relates to the planning of customized local tours. In the itinerary, all local tours were labeled as “VIP In-Depth Customized Tours”.

With such an exclusive and expensive custom tour for just two persons, we would have expected more detailed input, care, and recommendations as to what could be seen, as well as more details about important sites/activities at each location, including info on cost adjustments, if any, if additional spots were to be covered. In effect, for us, the tour company was the local travel expert and I would have expected them to provide us with options and allow us to make decisions after adequate expert input and guidance. This aspect could have been handled better.

Of note:

We don't know what we don't know. We are not experts on what the interesting/key spots are in each area and thus we expect the local travel company, with this expertise, to guide us and then let us decide. For instance, if a trip was being arranged for NYC, I would expect the local company to give the client a comprehensive rundown of all key spots, whether Ground Zero, the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, the UN, China Town, Central Park, the Rockefeller Center, Times Square, etc, as well as its world-class museums, rather than arranging a "standard tour" the planner assumes should suffice for most.

We have visited Italy before with a larger group and have experienced "standard" local tours that typically last three to three-and-a-half hours. The impetus for this customized trip was not to repeat such tours, with the only difference being that this time it would be for just two people instead of a group, with the ability to add value and have the opportunity to customize per our preference. Yet our personalized local tours this time were again typically three to three-and-a-half hours. When we enquired as to why some key spots at specific locations were not discussed (please see some specific examples below), the answer typically was, "This is our standard trip for most".

We think that at most of these locations this would have been the only chance in our lifetime to visit some key places, and if we could not do so on a very expensive customized tour, when could we?

Some examples of possibilities and options that were not discussed during the planning stage or included in the understanding/arrangement with the local guide, but became evident only after we reached a particular location, were:

Pompeii: Herculaneum or the amphitheater.

Siena: Only the outside of the Duomo was included, not inside, including the Piccolomini Library (the guide kindly obliged our requests).

Florence: The possibility of visiting the Uffizi Gallery, Pitti Palace, or Santa Croce church, etc, was not even presented or discussed.

Milan: That we wanted to visit the Duomo rooftop was specifically discussed, but never conveyed to the guide and therefore not included in the tour.

Venice: The possibility of visiting the Duomo (including the world-famous four bronze horses) was neither discussed nor included in the set tour, but again, the guide kindly obliged after fervent requests.

Also, when we discovered that some key spots were not included and contacted the agency with a request to see if some of these could be added, they were reluctant to help. An example of this was when we contacted them from Florence regarding the Uffizi Gallery and Pitti Palace. So we ended up having to arrange private tours to these additional sites ourselves through other agencies, and all within the time/days allotted to us in Florence.

Looking back, if we had not done what we did to fill in these "gaps", some of which are mentioned above, it would have been a big loss/miss.

Another item: Communication from the vendor to the driver regarding lunch was lacking in spots like Pompeii, Tuscany, and Lucca.

Another item: There were several places where "free time to explore on your own" was allotted. It would have been helpful if some guidance, suggestions, and tips regarding how to spend such free time could have been given to make this time more meaningful. For example, in Capri, etc.

Overall, I had a wonderful time exploring Rome, Florence, and Venice.  Each of these cities have their own distinct personalities!!  This travel agency provided a fantastic job of coordinating my trip.  Kudos to my representative, who coordinated my personalized itinerary!  He truly took the time to answer my questions from planning my itinerary all the way to the end of my trip!!  Their respective tour guides were extremely knowledgeable and provided me an in-depth understanding of each destination's unique and historical past, present, and future.

This was truly the trip of a lifetime, and having everything taken care of by our agent made us feel like royalty!  Every detail was considered with our input, and it all went beautifully!  The drivers were prompt and courteous, the tourguides were personable, knowledgeable, and accommodating, and the hotels were all four-star.  We learned so much about all the places we went, and it was a lovely blend of well-known places, and hidden gems (like the beautiful 14th century castle outside Siena)!  There was adequate time to wander on our own, but also sufficient time with the guides to learn about the historical details of the area, as well as their impact on contemporary life.  I can't emphasize enough how well our agent coordinated the trip and all its details, and the guides, drivers, and innkeepers spoke so highly of him!  It really felt so individualized, I would always choose to have him as my planner and coordinator for travel!

We had a tremendous experience with this travel agency from beginning to end. We are two couples in our early 50's, celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary.  They were terrific through the Planning phase, very patient, as we asked for a number of different options and quotes. We also arranged a time to call and discuss our broader wishes and expectations of the trip when we were planning.  Working with a travel agent based in Italy made a very significant difference in our trip we believe. They were able to meet and exceed our expectations. They had access to wonderful hotels and very unique and private tours. They made terrific suggestions and recommendations for each stop in our trip. They have travel guides who work full time for them, and they were all unbelievable. What a privilege to be taken to major arts and cultural sights with just the four of us and a guide who in every instance was exceptionally knowledgeable and well qualified. Our guides on the private tours held doctorates in relevant fields. As someone who works at a University, the knowledge and engaging approach of the guides helped make our stops in each place terrific. Our travel agency also made all of our in-country travel whether it be train (first class was wonderful) or private drivers. All their drivers were very professional and came in Mercedes vehicles, so our driving experiences were luxurious and very pleasant. They were also very responsive to the few questions or requests that we had while we were on our trip. They made a very quick change in transportation at our request. We rented a vehicle while in Tuscany, and we were very pleased with our BMW. It met all our needs. Our accommodations were all very good, and they also provided a restaurant recommendation service each place we stayed which was based on staffs own experiences, which we also appreciated. Getting local recommendations was very helpful! In terms of concerns, they were almost nil. In Florence, our tour sheet indicated that we were to see the Aacademia, but as our tour was on a day when that museum was closed we could not see it. While initially disappointed, the tour we received was exceptionally good, and perhaps better than seeing David, so while it wasn't exactly as promised, it was still a wonderful and full day. One other tour we had booked for Castelli Hills in Rome indicated that there would be wine, olive oil and cheese tasting. Again, while we did not do those specific things, the tour we had was very good, and we enjoyed every minute, so please do not take either of these as complaints, just a suggestion that the tour details be verified with the tour guide. So overall, I still say this is and was a five star company. All the staff, the hotels, travel and tours were outstanding, and our trip to Italy couldn't have been any better...unless perhaps longer.  Thanks so much to our travel specialist and his hardworking staff at this agency. I won't hesitate recommending them to friends and family who are looking for a special experience in his home country Italy!!