Italy Family Vacation Review: Rome, Florence, Siena, Venice, San Gimignano

The trip was absolutely amazing!  My husband, two daughters (13 and 15 years old) and I had a wonderful time.  Our travel company was very professional, very helpful and 'held our hand' when we needed it.  No complaints there whatsoever!

We had no problems in Rome.  We were met by a driver who was on time, polite and helpful.  The hotel was aware of our arrival and, even though we got there too early to check in, they worked with us and gave us one of our two rooms to freshen up in.  The next day we met our guide who was a wonderful guide. Very knowledgeable and down to earth.  He answered our questions, and never seemed put out by any of our requests to change something about the tour.  He had tickets ready for all the places we were meant to visit, so we didn't have to wait in line for very long.  He recommended great places for lunch.  So, overall, our visit to Rome was seamless.  Just perfect!

We then left Rome to go to Florence.  We had a driver meet us at the hotel and drive us there, who was very courteous and helpful.  The hotel in Florence was lovely and the people there were very nice.  Our guide in Florence was, again, very knowledgeable about the city.  The next day, we had a driver take us to San Gigmiani and Sienna.  She was very professional.  Excellent driver and great communicator.  Answered any questions we had and was patient with us on the way there and back. She even went into a pharmacy with us to help us get some medication for one our daughters who was not feeling well.  Our driver really did go above and beyond her role as drive for us. 

Her husband took us the next day to Venice.  Again, great person, driver and very helpful. 

We got to Venice and were met by our guide who was going to take us to our hotel.  I didn't think much of him unfortunately.  He dropped us off at the hotel and that was that, until we saw him again when we left to take up back to the main land get a car to the airport.  This was the one hotel out of our whole trip that I didn't care for very much.  They had messed up our reservations, so that our room had a window that faced a dirty wall.  Our girls were put in a room down the hall, where we could not see them.  The hotel knew that we needed to be closer to our girls.  I tried to explain to them and show them an updated email informing them that this was not the room we should have had.  The lady at the check in desk there told us to wait while she checked something.  She made us wait an hour in the stuffy room before she came back. I called our travel company and they were incredibly helpful in trying to sort things out.  In fact, I remember our agent saying to me on the phone, "you don't have to try and sort this out yourself.  Its our job.  You should go and enjoy yourself".  I really appreciated that.  Eventually, we had to spend one night in that room and were then given a different room, closer to our girls, the next day.  When I went to breakfast the next morning at the terrace restaurant, the staff were abrupt and very standoffish.  When I asked to be seated at one of the tables by the balcony, I was informed that if I wanted a table there, it would have to be in the sun, not in the shade, even though there were empty tables in the shade.  Then one afternoon, when we got back to our room, we found that it was unlocked and the door was open.  I was amazed.  All our stuff was there, so nothing had been taken thankfully.  When my husband went to the concierge to inform them that our room was left wide open, he was told to call housekeeping and complain!  My husband, then told him, that that was his job!  The reason we were worried, is that the hotel is very busy, with people coming in and out all day long who, we found out, were NOT actually guests.  They were curious people off the streets who would just walk in and look around the hotel, upstairs as well.  All in all, I would not stay at this hotel again.  They treated us as if they didn't need our custom.  I felt TOTALLY unwelcome there.

I would definitely go through this agency again if I went back to Italy.  They were wonderful.  Absolutely no complaints there whatsoever.  They checked in with us throughout our time there to make sure we were ok.  If we had a problem, they got back to us right away.  Would highly recommend them to anyone!!  Our agent had the patience of a saint with my husband when were planning the trip (my husband asks a LOT of questions!) and never lost his professionalism.  Cannot say enough about them.  Thank you to this company for making our time in Italy totally memorable!!