Paraskevas Politis

My husband and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary with a trip to Italy. The trip was arranged through Kimkim with Paraskevas as our travel specialist. It was a wonderful experience with stays in Bologna, Siena and Greve in Chianti. We flew into and out of Rome. Our accommodations along the way were very nice and located will so we could travel on foot to see many local sites. Casa Bertagni in Bologna was a wonderful B&B - very classy place to stay with attention paid to details. The breakfast was wonderful as well. The Residenza d'Epoca Palazzo Borghesi provided a wonderful view of Siena as well as breakfast on our balcony served by very kind staff. Our last 2 days were at Peitra del Cabreo. This was an amazing place to stay at the end of our visit. The location was beautiful, peaceful and had wonderful staff. We had a cooking class with Lucca and then were able to have our class food served to us for dinner. It was an amazing way to end our stay in Italy.
Since my husband and I did not wish to drive, Paraskevas made arrangements for several train rides and limo services. Our itinerary was carefully detailed with locations, times, driver names and train tickets attached when needed. The limo drivers who assisted us were always professional and very helpful. They made every transfer go smoothly.
Our days were busy with local guide tours, food tours and day trips to wineries, beautiful Tuscany towns, and a Parma tour that included Parmigiano, prosciutto and balsamico. Every day had a fun adventure.
We also appreciated having the Traveler Care Team available. It was reassuring to know there was a team to assist us if needed.
It was a wonderful way to celebrate our anniversary! We have wonderful memories and pictures of our trip. Our thanks to Paraskevas and the team to helped to make our trip happen.

Hotel Reviews

Hilton Rome Airport Hotel

Fiumicino

great location due to connection to the Rome airport.

Authenticity & Character

rooms were set up well.

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Restaurant was very busy. long time to get a table. Breakfast very nice.

Pietra del Cabreo

Greve

Beautiful place to stay and experience. Wonderful way to end a trip.

Authenticity & Character

beautiful views from room windows and restaurant when eating meals. nice walking paths around the hotel.

Location

Staff

staff were so very helpful and nice.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Rooms were awesome, wonderful bathroom products, robes, towels, etc.

Residenza d'Epoca Palazzo Borghesi

Siena

I rated a 4 due to no small refrigerator in the room to use. Also bathroom products (soap, lotion etc) were limited and the hair dryer was difficult to use due it being a very cheap model.

Authenticity & Character

Location

the location was great. just a short walk to the Piazza del Campo

Staff

Staff were so very nice and helpful

Cleanliness & Comfort

see my earlier comments

Casa Bertagni

The hotel was so very nice. Great attention to detail, products for guests to use and location was great. Breakfast was wonderful. .

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Le Clarisse al Pantheon

Rome

Staff were so very helpful. A wonderful breakfast was included. Loved the location near the Pantheon, Trevi fountain and Navona Piazza.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Private Siena Walking Tour

Italy

I always enjoying taking a tour when visiting a new city. Our guide, Giulia, made our tour interesting and fun. She shared information about the Palio di Siena as we walked around Siena. We had the opportunity to learn more about Siena but also about this historic race. This made our tour quite a bit of fun and it felt like we had insider information about the race.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Evening Food & Wine Tour

Bologna

A wonderful tasty and fun evening. Valentina was a great guide. She shared many locations in Bologna with interesting information and good food and wine. This is a tour to definitely go on.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Cooking Class in Chianti

Italy

My husband and I really enjoyed this class. Luca was the chef who led the class. He did a great job explaining the meal preparation and how to's of making pasta. The meal we prepared was later served to us in the restaurant and was delicious.

Brunello di Montalcino Wine Tour

Siena

A very fun day. Our driver was knowledgeable about the wine region, wine and the wineries we visited. The lunch served at our second was awesome. We enjoyed all of the wineries.

Tuscany Day Trip from Siena

Siena

We enjoyed driving through the Tuscany countryside. Beautiful views and towns. I would have liked to have spent a little more time in the towns to walk around. The farm lunch was wonderful. So nice to meet the farmer and his wife. An excellent meal was served to us. Directly following the meal, we went to a town and had a wine tasting. It would have been nice to have the wine tasting a bit later as it was too soon after just finishing a meal with wine.

Parma Tour With Parmigiano, Prosciutto & Balsamico

Italy

Very interesting tour. My husband and I enjoyed it. Our guide Thomas was knowledgeable and wanted to be sure we enjoyed the tour. Our farm lunch was awesome.

Bologna Unveiled: Private Walking Tour of Culture, Cinema & Culinary Traditions

Bologna

Our guide from Bespoke Emila was very knowledgeable and made the time go by quickly. I am so sorry but I do not recall name. He was very interesting and made sharing his information fun. We had a very nice lunch together at the end of our tour.

This was the first time using KimKim and generally, the experience was very good. The initial questionnaire was very thorough and the planner (Ina) obviously used the answers to customize our trip including specific hotels and private tours that met our requirements. I don't think we could have put together an equivalent vacation ourselves, which made the higher price we spent that much more worthwhile. The 30+ page schedule they put together included suggested restaurants, most train tickets and most suggested private day excursions. However, there were several items missing from the schedule that we felt were an oversight. Several days were free and gave a link to suggested walking tours - but when it came time to see the link it was empty. We were also missing a couple of train tickets. Luckily, their 24/7 support is excellent and provided the information when requested. But it added a level of pressure during our trip that was unnecessary. Would we use KimKim again - absolutely. It was a great vacation.