Sense of Italy Reviews 31

I travel a decent amount and have had some memorable trips but this 12 day vacation may have been unmatched. From beginning to end Giuliani and Sense of Italy put together a spectacular trip for me and my family. The white glove service her team provided took all the stress away and allowed us to focus on the beauty and full experience of Italy. The 4 small boutique hotels she picked out for us were great. Locations and views were spectacular and the service was amazing. The team of drivers and Tour guides felt like they were part of the family. They were passionate, knowledgeable and very witty and fun. We had so many laughs with all of them. As part of the trip Giuliani set up various lunches and food & wine pairing sessions which were my favorite. The overall experience was fantastic. For anyone seeing Italy for the first time or just looking for a great experience, I highly recommend Sense of Italy. You will not regret it. Haven't stopped talking about the trip.

Giuliana at Sense of Italy provided us with a headache free ,2 weeks in Italy, that will be remembered as "the Greatest"!
She provided professional drivers to and from the hotels, train station, airport, and tours. They were very accommodating at our every need and professional.The tourguides were the terrific and passionate about what they do. What could be better than a guy with a PHD in Archeology in Rome! Hotels were 5 star and better than what we expected. Views from the hotel over the Pantheon, and Sorrento and Tuscany were mind blowing. The olive and wine tastings were memorable experiences we will never forget. Guiliana's followup was exceptional, as were any of the people on her team. No waiting lines and difficult travel in the large cities, was made effortless by her team. We had a super vacation.You won't go wrong on utilizing her experience. Not even close to the tours booked locally. We hope to use her again in some future trip!
Greg and Carol Sebald
Minnesota

We just returned home from a two week trip to Italy and the most amazing time of our lives! Giuliana, with Sense of Italy, planned such a romantic and wonderful trip for us, everything was absolutely perfect! I had never traveled out of the country before and I was hesitant to book with someone that I could not meet with in person but after doing some online research I am so happy that we did! Booking with Sense of Italy was the best decision we could have ever made! Giuliana knew firsthand all of the areas we wanted to visit and she worked with a network of the best hotels, restaurants, guides, and drivers that took our experience to another level. Our drivers and guides were SO nice and really made us feel like we were VIP. Giuliana was amazing, she and her staff were working behind the scenes the whole time we were there, making sure that all of our reservations and excursions ran smoothly. Everything was completely seamless for us, she truly made all of my dreams come true! While we were in Italy, we saw so many travelers who had issues with their reservations and who had trouble navigating from location to location. We had absolutely not one single thing go wrong during the entire two weeks. Everything was booked in advance for us and we had a driver or guide working with us in each location that we visited, I truly felt so special during the entire trip. Italy is a spectacularly beautiful country and I feel so fortunate to have had such an amazing group of people working with us to help make our dream vacation a reality. Thank you thank you thank from the bottom of my heart to Sense of Italy for the wonderful memories I will treasure for the rest of my life! xoxo

Giuliana and her staff put together a trip of a lifetime for me and my wife. It was stress free and organized. The trip was so detailed to exactly what we wanted. I would recommend sense of Italy to everyone and look forward to around trip they plan.

Giuliana does a great job creating the perfect vacation. You give her your budget and she does the rest. Our hotels were in perfect locations in every city we visited so we could walk everywhere. The rooms were lovely with amazing breakfasts. Our transistions to trains, drivers, etc were seamless. The small problem we had was quicky taken care of with one phone call to Guilana. I would highly recommend Sense of Italy!

That was, by far, the best and most organized vacation we’ve ever been on. The Sense of Italy team was flawless: excellent tour guides, great restaurant selection, perfect hotels, and everything was right on time. Very impressive. We’ll definitely refer your name to our friends and family.

Sense of Italy did a tremendous job from start to finish. Giuliania prepared a trip of lifetime for our family. Every stop along the way, we were greeted with very kind, courteous hotel staff, tour guides, personal drivers. The restaurants, the wine tastings, each tour planned out was simply awesome. Our stays in Florence, the Amalfi coast, and Rome were just right and did a lot at each stop. We can't thank you enough. Love Sense of Italy...

Sense of Italy took care of every aspect of our trip. We gave Giuliana a budget and some ideas of places we would like to see. She had suggestions of things that we would have never know to ask for on our own. She put together a trip of a lifetime. Everyone we encountered from the drivers, guides, hotel and restaurant staff, treated us like family or friends. The hotels Giuliana selected were beautiful. The tours were tailored to our interests and fitness level. The meals and wine tastings were amazing! If we have an opportunity to go back to Italy, I will call Sense of Italy again.

Giuliana Pinelli at Sense of Italy designed our trip to Italy in May of 2017. We enjoyed every minute of it, and we hope to return some day.

The guides she selected for us were all knowledgeable, interesting and fun to be with. We liked all of them very much. We learned so much about art and history during our time with the guides!

Giuliana arranged our trip, which included Rome, Florence and Venice, with a break in Tuscany in the middle. This made for a really great balance of interesting tours where we learned a great deal and relatively quiet days in Tuscany, where we were able to visit two wineries for lunch and tastings.

We also had great drivers. These were interesting guys with interesting stories and a great deal of knowledge of the country, people, and politics. They made some fairly long drives seem very short. One of them found a little village for us to buy wine, bread, sausage, cheese and chocolate for our last dinner in Tuscany. We had a great time trying out our very bad Italian with the shopkeeper, and the food we bought was excellent.

We could have spent many more days in each place; we’re sure that if we had, Giuliana would have provided us with fun, interesting, and educational things to do. We were very pleased with her professionalism and attention to detail. It was a great experience!

Sense of Italy arranged a wonderful 3 week trip to Italy for us. Milan, Bellagio, Venice, Tuscany, Florence, Amalfi Coast and Rome. Everything was top notch! Accommodations, Transfers, Tours and Activities. Probably the best part of the trip was the high quality of the private tour guides. The guides and drivers were all highly knowledgeable, friendly, engaging and quite humorous. Giuliana of Sense of Italy is at your disposal the minute you arrive to the minute you depart. She was great! If you are going to Italy, let Sense of Italy plan your trip. You won't regret it!

SENSE OF ITALY - 5 STAR PLUS – ORGANISING, SERVICE, PEOPLE, CARING ATTITUDE
We found this “boutique travel planner”, which is based in Rome (Italy), whilst searching through the Internet. We were looking for a local travel organiser that was based in Italy, who could assist us in putting together a special Italian program which incorporated the “the sights, the flavours and the culture of Italy”.
Right from the outset of the relationship, we felt very comfortable in working with Sense of Italy and its founder / CEO, Giuliana Pinelli. To obtain references from clients who had used Sense of Italy, Giuliana provided email addresses of a number of their clients from around the world for us to correspond directly with ... all of the responses received were glowing of the service provided by Sense of Italy. For around 18 months we corresponded (via email) with Sense of Italy, in creating a wonderful and very memorable 23 night program which was set down for September / October of 2016. The turnaround time to Sense of Italy’s response to emails was excellent, and no request or suggestion or itinerary change was too small or too difficult. The draft proposal / itinerary put together by Sense of Italy from the outset to the final product, was very thorough and professional.
However, putting pen to paper and creating an exciting program was one thing, but experiencing it for real was another. Right from time we arrived in Italy at the cruise ship port in Civitavecchia, we were met and transferred to our boutique hotel (which overlooked the Pantheon) in the middle of ancient Rome, to the boat transfer from our Venice hotel to the airport, it was an absolutely incredible experience and a very memorable trip ... due to Giuliana’s (and Sense of Italy’s) drive to be the perfect Italian host and to ensure client’s expectations are exceeded.
Throughout the trip, Giuliana was “only a phone call away” should we have had any issues or queries. If anything came up (which was rare), Giuliana and her staff were on to it straight away. A cell phone was also provided to us by Sense of Italy for the entire period of the trip. Giuliana would also be in regular contact with her people (guides, drivers) throughout the trip ensuring everything was OK and in place.
All of the recommended hotels were excellent, including the stunning Villa Bordoni in Tuscany, La Minerva in Capri, the Grand Hotel Tremezzo (on Lake Como), to the Aqua Palace in Venice.
Our Italian cuisine experience throughout our trip was exceptional – from the wine tastings, the gourmet food & cheese tastings, to a cooking class in Tuscany. The recommended
restaurants were all incredible and they tended to specialise in local Italian cuisine. In the majority of cases, table reservations were made by Sense of Italy and, where possible, tables with views were reserved.
Sense of Italy’s tour guides, hosts and drivers were excellent. All of the tour guides that Sense of Italy had assigned to us in each of the places we stayed were all very impressive with their knowledge and passion for their work. This made our tours that more enjoyable and interesting ... plus as entry tickets to the various attractions had either been purchased earlier or obtained by the guides, we did not have to endure the large crowds waiting to enter at some of the main locations / attractions (such as the Vatican Museums, the Colosseum, the Uffizi Museum, Michelangelo’s David, Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”, the Duomo, St. Mark’s Basilica, etc). The same sentiments applied to all of the drivers used by Sense of Italy in the various locations around Italy. They were professional, polite and safe, plus their cars were kept in an immaculate and clean state.
This trip, as organised by Giuliana and the Sense of Italy team, was simply “out of this world” with too many highlights to list. However, the one highlight (out of many) which was very surreal for us and organised by Sense of Italy, was going to the opera in Venice at the Teatro La Fenice to see the performance of “La Traviata”. This whole trip was “5 Star Plus” service from the start to the finish. Having now done the trip and had some time to reflect, there is not one thing we would change on the itinerary ... everything was incredible and very memorable.
Many thanks to Giuliana and the Sense of Italy team for a great experience ... and a trip of lifetime.
Kind regards,
Rob & Marg Phillips
Melbourne. AUSTRALIA