Kimkim Trip Reviews for Italy

We had a great trip to Northern Italy. The trip included 2 nights in Florence,Bologna,and Venice.
We traveled between these cities on rail. The transfers from train to our rooms were flawless.
The Tuscany day trip including wine tasting and meal, visit to Siena and San Gimignano were terrific and our tour guide Stephanie was remarkable and made the whole experience so memorable.
Our next stop in Bologna featured a whole day tour to Parma. Again, transfers were flawless and the tour to Parmigiano,Prosciutto, and Balsamic factories were informative and well hosted by very knowledgeable tour guide.
Last stop was Venice and featured a half day walking tour to many of the major sights but more interesting were the side trips thru the winding, narrow alleys of Venice . Our tour guide Rita was so knowledgeable and shared her own personal experiences of her hometown of Venice.

Barbara and Massimo truly went above and beyond what we expected. They were constantly in contact with us and resolved any questions or issues we had. I would highly recommend them in planning your next trip.

Activity Review

Lake Como Food experience

Italy

Valentina and her family were so warm and kind. It was really a unique experience to go into their home to cook. My only advice might be to improve on the menu selection a bit.

Barbara planned an amazing vacation for us across Italy and on short notice. It ended up including a gondola tour in Venice, riding a Vespa through wine country, and cruising along the Amalfi Coast. Barbara got us to four cities without a rental car. All pickups, whether it was by boat, train or car went seamlessly. The hotels she picked were clean, comfortable, and in walkable areas. During the trip, Barbara and her collegues were extremely responsive and helpful. Any last minute changes we needed, they took care of it. A wonderful experience!

Activity Reviews

Cooking class. Pizza and gelato making!

Rome

Fun, informative, and generous with the wine. But more people than we were expecting in what was called a small group (about a dozen people)

Wine tour by Vespa

Florence

This was just the best. A patient tour guide taught us to ride the Vespa and then guided us out of Florence and into wine country. It was fun, beautiful and the wineries were gorgeous.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Guided Tour and Accademia Visit (Michelangelo's David) - wine tasting

Florence

An extremely informative private tour

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Venice Gondola Ride

Venice

The gondola ride was pretty, but it felt like we were in a gondola traffic jam. Each boat just a few feet apart.

We were delighted with the trip that Jessica and her team planned for us. They suggested places that we hadn't considered, which proved to be great ideas. Their recommendations for hotels were spot on. The guides and drivers they found were reliable, informative and easy to communicate with. It was easy to communicate with Jessica and her team during the trip, and we appreciated the ability to track our plans using the app they provided. I love working with KimKim because their specialists are embedded in each country, giving them unique insights and connections.

Elena and Andrea made the trip to Italy so very easy. It was the first time I had travel to Europe so was a little nervous. But with both their help everything went fine. Andrea helped us out when the e-bike chain came off. They called the company and had them send out a different bike. Transfers to different site seeing places was made easier by having a driver already booked. Our vacation went smoothly and will definitely use Kimkim again

Hotel Review

Relais Osteria Dell'Orcia

Castiglione d'Orcia

Love this place, staff was exceptional. The only thing is out in the country so make sure you have a car or a driver to use.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

Market, Cook and Dine in Florence

Italy

Barbara was a fantastic teacher. Took us to the fresh market and then we went to her house to cook. She taught us how to roll the dough for gnocchi. My daughter and I both loved the market and the lesson

Fabulous experience with Moreno and his counterpart. Had an excellent time in Italy

Activity Reviews

Vatican & Sistine Chapel Tour

Rome

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Ravello, Amalfi & Positano

Sorrento

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Historical Rome walking tour and Colosseum guided Tour

Rome

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

3 Hours private tour Lake Como from Cernobbio

Lake Como

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Irene was fantastic. Was very easy to work out various details and modify the trip to our preferences with hotels, travel and different activities. The best part was the ease of travel as we visited various cities throughout Italy including Rome, Siena, Florence, Sorrento, Positano and Amalfi Coast. Between cities while we saw other folks trying to figure out how to get to hotels, waiting in line for taxi service we had private drivers already setup to take us from city to city. It not only made travel easy (but helped with the wife's luggage) :) !!
I know some people just plan the trip on their own, but it is nice to have a resource that knows the region you are traveling to and the worries are completely removed. I would absolutely recommend the travel service. We are already looking at where to go next year!
Ciao!!

Where to Begin? We had the trip of a Lifetime for our first visit to Italy! It was all because of our Travel Agent, Giulia! We worked with her over a few months to craft the best possible trip tailored to our requests and desires. Everything Giulia recommended and set up for our trip went off with out a hitch! We visited Rome, Venice and Lake Como! It was a great combination of wonderful places to sample some of the best sites, food, wine and excursions that Italy has to offer!
The tours, hotels and transportation while in country were all top notch--all thanks to Giulia!
Thanks Giulia!! We will be coming back soon!
Ciao!

My husband and I just returned home from our incredible 8 day trip to Italy. Andrea helped customize our travel arrangements perfectly and communicated with us along the way. He arranged all of our hotels along with private drivers to pick us up from the airport, train station and to take us to each hotel of our journey. He scheduled private tour guides to walk us through Rome, Naples and Pompeii. If you visit Pompeii you must schedule a private tour with Antonio. Best tour guide ever!! From Sorrento, Andrea arranged a small group boat tour to Capri where we spent the entire day swimming, shopping and enjoying our time relaxing on the boat. Our tour guides were fantastic! For our last night, Andrea scheduled a private cooking class in the home of Emanuela Maraolo. Just an amazing, one of a kind experience! Andrea checked in with us throughout the week to make sure we were enjoying our time in Italy. I would highly recommend working with KimKim and Andrea when planning your dream vacation to Italy. I will absolutely work with Andrea to plan my next trip to Italy- hopefully next year!

Activity Reviews

Day trip to Capri Island from Sorrento - small group

Italy

A day on a boat in Capri- best time ever! Our tour guides were wonderful.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Cooking class with dinner

Italy

We had a private cooking class in the home of Emanuela Maraolo. I highly recommend!!

Quality of Experience

Food

Pompeii ruin visit with a private guide

Italy

Antonio was our private tour guide. He was extremely knowledgeable and passionate about educating visitors about the history and importance of Pompeii. The best!

Quality of Experience

Antonio the tour guide was the best.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

We used Kimkim to plan our 30th wedding anniversary trip to Italy and they did not disappoint! Our travel specialist, Irene, did an excellent job selecting hotels, tours and experiences for us. In addition, all of the details like trains and transfers were booked for us. We received all the details about times, where to meet people and detailed itineraries prior to leaving for our trip and everything worked extremely well. When there were hiccups (only a couple over 3 weeks), the Kimkim team was right there to help. We were very well taken care of every step of the way.

One of the many highlights was arriving at in Venice to a private tour by water taxi to orient us. We arrived at our hotel, Corte di Gabriela, to a bottle of prosecco chilling in our room. The room was very comfortable, the staff was attentive and helpful, and the breakfasts were amazing. We had a wonderful walking tour of the city. Our guide from Liv Tours was very knowledgeable and we enjoyed learning about Venice's history and culture.

We chose to spend time in the Cinque Terre, which was very busy. Thankfully, Irene had recommended we stay in Levanto, a six-minute train ride from Monterroso. Levanto was much less crowded, but still full of history, beauty and things to do.

We loved Siena. The hotel, Residenza d'Epoca Palazzo Borghesi, was charming. We took two tours from there with Tuscan Escapes. Both were fantastic! We had an evening sunset tour of Tuscany, finishing with dinner at a winery. Danielo was an excellent guide, explaining the region and the wines. He was also a pleasure to talk with over dinner, as were the other guests. The next day we visited three Brunello di Montalcino wineries with Giorgia. We had lunch at one of the wineries, with all of the food made by the Mama--it was fantastic!

From there we went to Sorrento, which is lovely and a great jumping off point to visit Capri and the Amalfi coast. We hikes the Path of the Gods with Vincenzo. He was entertaining and very knowledgeable about the flora we encountered along the way. It was a joy to experience the passion he has for his work and to spend time with him.

We finished our trip with two days at the beach. It was the perfect end to a fabulous trip. We couldn't have done it all without Irene's help! We look forward to next time.

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Continental

Sorrento

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Residenza d'Epoca Palazzo Borghesi

Siena

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Palazzo Vannoni

Levanto

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Orto De' Medici

Florence

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Corte di Gabriela

Venice

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Aperitivo & Stroll around Sorrento

Sorrento

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Private Amalfi Coast Driving Tour

Italy

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Hiking the Path of Gods

Sorrento

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Brunello di Montalcino Wine Tour

Siena

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Tuscany Sunset Tour & Dinner

Siena

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Private Monterosso Wine Tasting & Lunch in the vineyards

Italy

There was a little miscommunication about what this would entail. When we arrived, the staff seemed surprised to see us. When we explained what we thought we had arranged, they told us what we would get instead. Despite this, we had a very nice time and the wines were good.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Afternoon Florence Highlights Walking Tour (Semi-private)

Florence

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Venice Highlights Walking Tour

Venice

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Grand Canal Private Orientation Tour

Italy

I feel the trip was amazingly planned out and left out a lot of the guess work that we would have had to go through which takes a lot of effort and makes the trip more difficult. We had amazing guides, drivers, excursions and accommodations. We had a wonderful trip and cannot wait to go back.

What I would suggest is:

Making sure the snorkeling trip is really a snorkeling trip It was a lovely boat ride but not what we were expecting. The two gentlemen who took us on this trip were great but there was no snorkeling.

Shower size. I'm small so I wasn't affected, but there are people much bigger than I that would find the smaller showers difficult to maneuver in.

Other than that, the trip was beyond our expectations.

Andrea could not have been any more professional, knowledgeable, thorough, or available to us throughout this entire experience. Our trip through Italy was made all the more special because of him. Thank you, KimKim and thank you, Andrea!

Amazing trip. Tours were great, private. Felt like we got to do/see everything we wanted to.

Cecilia made planning a trip to Italy so EASY. She was helpful with everything and SO patient with all my questions. The transfers, trains, tours and experiences were all planned so well and made traveling so nice to have things in place. The hotel we stayed in was exactly what we were looking for. Wonderfull cooking class in Florence. I hope when we are ready to plan our next trip we can have Cecilia!

The trip was great, and everything that Irene/KimKim prepared for us was absolutely amazing. I would recommend KimKim to anyone. Every detail of our trip was planned and executed without a problem. We will definitely be using KimKim on our next adventure.

I had written this review last week:

To Harris Bitsounis and his team - Thank you for a very good experience in Rome, Florence and Venice. An excellent learning experience. All of the transportation connections were spot on. The Travel 12 communication service was very helpful. Of the hotels: The hotel is Venice was very good, perfect location, amenities and a helpful, friendly staff. Room was small and without seating. The hotel in Florence had a helpful and friendly staff. Room was small and without seating. Location was distant and frightening to walk to in the darkness of night. The hotel in Rome had a helpful and friendly staff. The location was good. The room was clean. The presentation was poor. The entrance was dirty. All the cites were busy and crowded with tourists. The planned transportation connections made the entire trip work. The weather was perfect and there was no time wasted. Best regards, Doug and Connie Peden

Additionally, the tour guides for the Vatican, Colosseum and Roman Forum as well as the tour in Florence were excellent. The guides were professional and knowledgeable. The tour through Venice was adequate to gain an understanding of Venice.

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Olimpia

Venice

Excellent location, Excellent amenities. Friendly and helpful staff. Good breakfast. Small room.

Authenticity & Character

Full service hotel

Location

Near transportation

Staff

Full time, full service staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Full service hotel. Room was small with no seating within.

Alfieri9 Boutique Hotel

Florence

Friendly staff. Small, clean Room. Excellent breakfast.

Authenticity & Character

Dark and desolate place to walk to at night

Location

Dark and desolate place to walk to at night

Staff

Friendly and helpfull

Cleanliness & Comfort

Room was clean. 2nd floor entrance was presentable.

Aenea Superior Inn

Rome

Friendly, helpful staff. Good location. Clean Room. Poor presentation. Dirty entrance.

Authenticity & Character

Needs a lobby

Location

Centrally located

Staff

Helpful and friendly

Cleanliness & Comfort

No

Activity Review

Vatican Guided Tour

Rome

Amazing to see. Too much to see. Requires more time.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

knowledgeable , humorous

Transport

Helpful

The entire experience from start to finish was exceptional, from planning to the trip itself. Our tour guides and the tours themselves were excellent. This was our first trip to Europe and it could not have been better, despite the record number of visitors to Italy this time of year. Irene made this a wonderful experience and I plan to ask her assistance for future travel plans outside the U.S. I have recommended her and Kimkim to several friends already.

Moreno helped plan an amazing trip to Italy. The process was super easy and the trip went as smoothly as possible. Had experiences we would have never had if I had planned the trip on my own. Thank you!

Activity Review

Capri and the Amalfi coast boat tour with the Blu Grotto

Italy

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

My son and I had the most amazing experience in Italy. When I was lucky enough to get connected with Giulia I shared what I was looking for. She put together the perfect trip for us, blending private and small group tours, wine tours, museums and our specific hotel needs. She did it all and was very organized-everything she planned went off without a problem. When does that ever happen? I even marveled at the way she had scheduled our museum times for when the museums were least crowded. As an example we went to see Michelangelo's David at 8 pm the one night the museum was open late. It was not at all crowded.
I have traveled all over the world and I have to say this was one of my most memorable trips. KimKim and Giulia were fantastic. Don't hesitate to use them. I will be using them for my next trip!

This trip is something that I will never forget especially with meeting my Dad’s family. It was so beautiful. Each place we stayed at was outstanding. The tour guides were amazing, explaining everything so beautifully. I thank my cousins Jeanne & Danny & his family for inviting me. I am truly blessed. I can’t stop telling everyone about my trip & showing all the pictures. It takes my breath away how so beautiful everything is. Thank you Irene for a beautiful trip. 🇮🇹🇮🇹🥰🙏🏻