Your Custom Journey

We loved Rome and Sicily the best.
Itinerary and all connections were great.

No serious issues

Guides were outstanding

Thanks for a lifetime memorable experience.

The city tour of Genoa with our guide Laura gave us so much insight to the history and age of the city! We’re glad we did not miss out of that!

Our Guide, Falu, drove us to Pontinvrea and provided us with all the translations with the local municipality to discover the address where my grandfather was born!!
It was so exciting and delightful to see the engagement of everyone helping us find my familial roots!! A true highlight.

Next, Gabby took us on the wonderful and exhilarating hike to Vernazza! She was a complete pleasure to spend the day with.

All the drivers were professional and punctual. We appreciate all of them as well!

Lastly, we’d like to express our appreciation for Catrina. She made the process of creating our trip to Italy seamless. Thank you for pulling this wonderful trip together for us. We enjoyed every bit of it.

Grazie,
Tom and Linda

I had a hard time deciding on how many stars to rate the service we received through Valeria (per Kimkim). On one hand, Valeria was at all times professional, responsive, friendly and thorough. She helped us plan a trip to Rome and Tuscany. And, for the most part she delivered on what we asked for. However she made one very big mistake - our rental in Tuscany. We asked for a house that was walking distance to town, as we would not have a rental car. We like to bike and said we’d be happy biking into town as well. Valeria booked us into the Villa Monica which is only 2K from Greve (the nearest town). She said it was walkable and we could ride the bikes at the villa. However, the road to town is a main highway with cars going very fast and no sidewalk or walking path. No one walks on it as it is too dangerous. She also assured us there was taxi service in Greve but that is not true. There was no taxi service and no Uber, Lyft or other rideshare. This made going into town almost an impossibility. There is a bus but the schedule is unreliable. For example, one evening my daughters took the bus to pick up food only to find there was no return bus so they had to walk along the dangerous road carrying all the food. My husband tried riding one of the bikes into town but, again, the roads were very dangerous with blind turns and the bike was in terrible condition with the brakes barely working. So, with a dangerous road, no rental car and a town without taxis we were unable to go into town to have dinner or coffee etc. and grocery shopping was a huge challenge. The other problem with Villa Monica is that the photos Valeria sent did not match the reality of the home. The main floor rooms are dark with old, shabby, uncomfortable furniture and the house has a very moldy, musty smell. Luckily it was sunny enough to keep the doors open so we could air out the top two floors but the lower floors were impossible to be in due to the awful smell. The best rooms were the kitchen and sunroom. As to the bedrooms, the photos showed a room with bunk beds which we were expecting but there were only single beds so our guests had to share, 2 to a bed. Another disappointment was that the house was not well supplied so we had to buy toilet paper, paper towels, tissues, dishwashing soap and detergent for the dishwasher. That is not something I expect in a luxury rental. The gardens outside were beautiful and we enjoyed being outside. The pool was nice but the photo of the tennis court does not match the reality. It looks new in the photo but in fact it is quite old with big cracks in the concrete and clearly has not been maintained well. In sum, Villa Monica was not the luxury Tuscan villa we had expected, very inconvenient for vacationers without a rental car.

Valeria is based in Rome and it was clear she knows the accommodations there. She booked us in the Fortyseven Hotel which is centrally located, very comfortable with excellent service. We enjoyed our time there very much. Also, all the tours she arranged were excellent and we loved our guides: Marco on the golf cart, Claudia at the Vatican and Alicia on the bike trip. We learned so much and had a great time. The tours in Tuscany were fabulous. Leonardo led us on an amazing bike tour, we loved having lunch at La Piaggia as well as the farm tour and cheese tasting at Il Podele. Eleanora was our guide for truffle hunting and the cooking class and it was so interesting to talk with her about Tuscany and her love of languages. Guissepe was an amazing truffle hunter with his dog Bibi who we all loved. And the cooking class with Andrea and Eliza was incredible as well as the tour of Sandro’s vineyards and wine making operation.

Also all our transfers worked out perfectly. All drivers were punctual, professional and friendly and we are grateful for their service. We especially loved Manuel who drove us 3 times and helped us immensely.

So, Valeria did many things wonderfully well however it was offset by the poor advice on Tuscan lodging. We use travel agents specifically to avoid situations like that so it was quite a disappointment when we realized she was not familiar with Greve transportation, with the state of the villa or with anticipating how difficult it would be for - 7 people with no reliable transportation to buy food or go to restaurants, sight see in town, etc.

Hotel Reviews

Hilton Rome Airport Hotel

Fiumicino

Great hotel services: pool, gym, restaurant - comfortable, clean rooms - good vibes

Authenticity & Character

Location

Easy walk to airport terminal

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

47 Boutique Hotel

Rome

Excellent location near the Forum, very comfortable with top rate service

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Villa Monica

Greve in Chianti

Do not rent this unless you have a rental car! We asked for a house that was walking distance to town, as we would not have a rental car. We like to bike and said we’d be happy biking into town as well. Villa Monica is only 2K from Greve however, the road to town is a main highway with cars going very fast and no sidewalk or walking path. No one walks on it as it is too dangerous. Also there is no taxi service in Greve and no Uber, Lyft or other rideshare. This made going into town almost an impossibility. There is a bus but the schedule is unreliable. For example, one evening my daughters took the bus to pick up food only to find there was no return bus so they had to walk along the dangerous road carrying all the food. My husband tried riding one of the bikes into town but, again, the roads were very dangerous with blind turns and the bike was in terrible condition with the brakes barely working. So, with a dangerous road, no rental car and a town without taxis we were unable to go into town to have dinner or coffee etc. and grocery shopping was a huge challenge. The other problem with Villa Monica is that the photos do not match the reality of the home. The main floor rooms are dark with old, shabby, uncomfortable furniture and the house has a very moldy, musty smell. Luckily it was sunny enough to keep the doors open so we could air out the top two floors but the lower floors were impossible to be in due to the awful smell. The best rooms were the kitchen and sunroom. As to the bedrooms, the photos showed a room with bunk beds which we were expecting but there were only single beds so our guests had to share, 2 to a bed. Another disappointment was that the house was not well supplied so we had to buy toilet paper, paper towels, tissues, dishwashing soap and detergent for the dishwasher. That is not something I expect in a luxury rental. The gardens outside were beautiful and we enjoyed being outside. The pool was nice but the photo of the tennis court does not match the reality. It looks new in the photo but in fact it is quite old with big cracks in the concrete and clearly has not been maintained well. In sum, Villa Monica was not the luxury Tuscan villa we had expected, very inconvenient for vacationers without a rental car.

Authenticity & Character

Purchase newer more comfortable furniture in the common rooms

Location

Need a car to get into town

Cleanliness & Comfort

Get rid of the moldy smell

Activity Review

Day visit to Siena and San Gimignano - guide in Siena included

Italy

The day visit to Siena and San Gimignano was just okay. Our guide in Siena, unfortunately, spent too much time inside a church despite the tour being advertised as mostly outdoors. We were eager to explore on our own, and this slowed the experience down.

Caterina did a great job with the planning of our trip. I had to make many changes along the way due to constantly changing family schedules, etc, and she was very flexible. all of our drivers for our excursions and transfers were great and communicated really well with us. This is our 4th time using Kimkim and we have referred many friends to your company who have in turn been happy with their trips. We will definitely use Kimkim again for our future travel!