I had been working with another touring agency for two weeks and was continually frustrated that I was getting no where in defining costs, which was important for our budget. They made an initial excellent recommendation about seeing Florence first, but that was it. After 2 weeks, I gave up and searched the web, finding your company among others. The description of your agency and the length of time in business was what made me send an initial inquiry. Within 24 hours, not only had you detailed an itinerary to work from, you had all the costs associated with it! The promptness and detail was what won me over immediately. Rachel was excellent and accommodating to work with. Not only were the initial planning emails detailed and the final reservations easy, your organization followed through wonderfully on every aspect. The drivers were courteous and careful, and dressed in suits and ties even in the hot Italian weather (we encouraged them to lose the coat and tie to be more comfortable). Our drive from Pisa to Rome was especially memorable due to the driver’s congeniality; we even invited him to eat with us. As an opera singer, he regaled us with some of his work and our young daughter reciprocated with her own version of Sunrise, Sunset.
The tour guide in Florence, Elisabetta, was energetic, extremely knowledgeable with a masters in Art History and who was also sensitive to our kid’s needs to stop for a drink or some gelato. Again, we asked her to join us for lunch where we could converse some more. Our stop at her favorite gelato shop resulted in us going there 3 more times before leaving Florence. If it wasn’t so hot, we could have gone on for several more hours.
Our tour guide in Rome, Linda, was great; with children of her own, she was sensitive to my son and daughter. She moved at a quicker pace, skipping over some things to get at areas or topics that would be more interesting for the kids.
The cost of the tour seemed expensive to us at first and is why we deleted some things from our original plan. However, after being with the quality of individuals assigned to us, we think that the value for the money is worth it. We will not hesitate to book with you again or to recommend you to friends planning trips to Italy.
Thank you for helping make our trip to Italy memorable and enjoyable. Please feel free to use this letter or any part of it as testimonial on your website.
