A Summer Family Vacation in Italy

March 20, 2024 by Liz Picurro Leave a Comment

Regina and her family were overwhelmed with planning a summer getaway to Italy. With three kids (ranging in age from 10 to 18) and a very limited window of opportunity to get everyone together in one place, they needed to make the most of their time, without overdoing it. They wanted to see as much as they could, experience the art and history but also have some relaxing time by the sea to really feel that summer vacation vibe. We put together an adventure in Italy with spectacular views and a little bit of everything! Here is their report of the adventure:

Florence

We had many many highlights and favorite moments! Florence was literally steaming hot, but the kids surprised us by totally loving the two tours we had — the walking tour which ended at the Accademia, and then a short but awesome whirlwind into the Uffizi!

They are old enough and curious enough to have been utterly wowed by the history — and both guides we had were AWESOME! It was too hot to climb the Duomo, but no matter, we walked and walked and felt always in the orbit of that amazing dome. Of course, beautiful food and endless gelato helped keep spirits up too!

Plaza Lucchesi was fantastic — can’t tell you how much fun that rooftop pool was at the end of a dripping hot day, before heading out for dinner!

Sorrento

We loved Sorrento. As you predicted, the location of the apartment was perfect. And we all enjoyed having a little more room to spread out. (you cannot overestimate how amazing it was to have a washing machine to deal with our very very sweaty clothes!)

We had some of our very best days in the orbit of Sorrento. The amazing joyful cooking class at Villa Pane, the drive through the Amalfi Coast with Carmine (who works with Fabrizio — we totally loved both of them).

I would say the boat ride — which we were able to salvage after the initial cancellation — was quite simply one of the most wonderful days we’ve had in recent memory.

So much fun! Such a great way to get glimpses of the gorgeous coastal towns without having to spend too much time amidst the crowds. I would recommend this small boat trip to EVERYONE!

Ischia

But as amazing as all this was — our favorite 2 days of the trip were on Ischia! Seriously, we didn’t want to leave! I briefly pitched the idea to Jim that we could retire there! We loved the hotel (the Continental Mare) — here was the view from our balcony:

We had the most amazing experience at a hydrothermal park/beach – Negombo Thermal Park and Preserve. So so incredible.

We got there when it opened at 9, and stayed until 7pm. The first half of the day was spent going from one thermal pool to the next

… and the afternoon was spent floating in San Montana Bay. The kids made us promise to return — and truthfully, we could have stayed several more days there happily.

Rome

So by the time we got to Rome, we were wiped out! After Ischia, we didn’t have a lot of tolerance for the 100+ heat. But — we had dear friends from White Plains (one of whom was Roman born) who coincidentally were there the exact time we were. So we canceled our tours and spent the time with them roaming around Italy, having great food, and getting some wonderful views. Such a beautiful city — we will return some November! (We would totally return as well to our awesome Hotel Dei Mellini!)

Really, for us, it was more spectacular than we could have imagined. You took what could have been a chaotic and unwieldy trip to Italy and made it as smooth as it possibly could have been! And we are so grateful!!!!

A Honeymoon in Paris & Italy

January 9, 2024 by Liz Picurro Leave a Comment

Kelly and Chris were looking for an October honeymoon in Europe. Someplace romantic, with plenty of food, museums, and opportunities to explore on their own. The perfect combination of these? Florence, Rome, the Amalfi Coast, and Paris! Here is their feedback on their European Honeymoon:

We had such a great time on our trip! Everything turned out amazing! The transfers you set up for us were very helpful. The cars were all on time and it was nice to not have to worry about finding transportation. All of the flights and trains were on time and easy to navigate.

The Highlights

We loved all of the hotels but we especially loved Hotel Le Littre in Paris and Hotel Berchielli in Florence (the views and the locations)! All of the tours were great. The guides were all very knowledgeable and helped us see the main attractions in a short amount of time.

One of the highlights of our trip was the Semi-private wine-making experience and gourmet dinner. The vineyard in Tuscany was beautiful and we had fun at the wine and olive oil tasting. We also loved getting to blend our own wine to take home.

The Sorrento Farm Experience was another activity we really enjoyed. It was nice being able to try their different olive oils and cheeses and even watch them make fresh cheese in front of us!

Good to Note

We just had a few things to note: When we landed at the Paris airport it took us over an hour to get through customs. Luckily the driver was still there when we got through so it wasn’t a problem. The other thing was the private tour of the Amalfi Coast. The driver was so great and he recommended an excellent place to eat.

We got to visit Positano and Ravello which were beautiful but we spent almost 2 hours in traffic and were not able to stop at Amalfi due to crowds and timing. Totally understand that traffic can’t be predicted and we had a great time at the stops we did get to make! That is really the only feedback we have!

We had an incredible honeymoon thanks to you! Your planning was a great help and took a lot of stress off of our plate and the Pocket Travel app made everything so easy and accessible. We will definitely use your services again when we plan another big trip.

It’s All About The Details

September 3, 2018 by Ann Petronio Leave a Comment

Judging from the trip report below, Mia and Matt clearly loved their Italian honeymoon! But here’s what jumps out at me the most — the things that they’ll remember forever (the things that make or break the overall experience) are NOT the hotels. Even though that’s what most clients want to focus on when we’re planning the trip. Instead, it’s the finer details. The fabulous tour guide in Rome, whom they invited to have drinks with them afterwards. The private water taxi that whisked them to the airport on their way home from Venice. The food tour in Bologna that she’s been raving about to anyone who will listen. All of that clearly overshadowed the Rome hotel that she thought was “shady”, and I’ll bet she will have forgotten the name of that hotel before her first anniversary — unless she looks back and re-reads this blog post 🙂

ROME

The hotel {Hotel Cecil} was a little shady. The location, yes, is great, but the hotel itself is weird and they were not very helpful or even nice at this hotel. As for the breakfast in the morning – I spit up the first thing I tried into my napkin… it was disgusting! Thankfully we were not in our room long…..

Now….. as for the guided tour…

OH My Goodness – our guide was AMAZING. yes it was a long day touring everything in 90 degree heat and 90% humidity but wow was it worth it. Matt and I lost at least 5 pounds walking around in all that heat! But she made everything fun and exciting and boy did she know her stuff… We even invited her to drinks after, she was that great we had to take a picture with her!

The train was easy to get to and our car service was waiting for us in Naples and was the nicest guy!

SORRENTO

This was the most amazing part of our trip. From the crazy city and walking around we did in Rome, what a relaxing time we had here. And OUR ROOM!!! my god, I couldn’t believe that was ours! it was unreal. It was like I was in a dream. It was the most picturesque place I have ever been to. We even did a day trip to Positano and Amalfi and omg I can’t say enough about this place, the hotel {Hotel Minerva}, the view, the people we met…. Unbelievable

FLORENCE

Ok, not going to lie, we were a little depressed to leave Sorrento for a city but what a lovely place Florence was. Our hotel {Hotel Kraft} was in a great location (right near the American Embassy and walking distance to lots of places) we did some shopping at the Mercato Centrale and had wonderful dinners every night. Our tour to Siena and Chianti was like being in a postcard. Our tour guide was amazing once again and so knowledgeable. Our wine tasting and lunch were delish and it was a memorable excursion.

As for the cooking class – MY FAVORITE!!! I already made a dish we made in Florence at home! I loved loved loved it! and Matt loved it just as much! Check out pics!

BOLOGNA

Our hotel room was HUGE and perfectly located {Al Cappello Rosso}. I loved everything about this city, the people, the food, I would recommend bologna to everyone I meet. That is because we went on the tour of our lives to the prosciutto, cheese and balsamic factories. WHAT A DAY!!! unreal. I’m still telling people about how amazing that tour was. It was one of the many highlights of our trip!

VENICE

Our hotel {Hotel Ala} was very tiny but easy to get to and accessible to everything. I loved Venice. Again, our tour at night was awesome. The lady was a sweetheart and we learned so much about the so-called floating city. And to top it off… our water taxi to the airport was the best way to end our beautiful honeymoon.

I can’t thank you enough and have been giving your praises to everyone I see. You planned the best honeymoon for Matt and myself and every place was better than the next.

If I could suggest two things:

1 – we did an AIRBNB experience in Rome and it was amazing their company is RomaEat

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187791-d6728912-Reviews-Roma_Eat_Food_Experience-Rome_Lazio.html

what a great way to try local roman food

2 – Teatro De Sale – a dinner theater that I would go back to Florence just to go to again. worth looking into!!!!

Also – go on netflix and watch “somebody feed phil” and he does a segment on florence and venice and we went to both those restaurants! and they were amazing!!!

AGAIN…. I can’t thank you enough.

How Do We Top This?

June 1, 2018 by Ann Petronio Leave a Comment

Is there anything more gratifying for a travel planner than to have a client come back from an anniversary trip and say “we have no idea how we’ll possibly top this next year“?? Dana and Kevin clearly loved their anniversary “escape” to Rome and the Amalfi Coast, and I better start thinking NOW about what to suggest next 🙂

Thanks, Ann! We had the most INCREDIBLE trip and definitely feel like we’re having Italy withdrawals now that we’re back at home. We absolutely loved the country, the culture and the scenery, and our itinerary was amazing. All of our transfers, trains, hotel check-ins, etc, went perfectly to plan and helped to make our trip care-free.

When we arrived in Rome the first morning, we were excited but exhausted. Neither of us can really sleep on planes, so we had tried to wake up really early the day of our flight so we’d be tired on the plane. Turns out, we still couldn’t sleep no matter how tired we were. So now we know when we take our next trip to Europe that we’ll just get as good a night of sleep before we leave as possible! We took your advice, though, and powered through / caffeinated ourselves so we could stay up and get on the time zone. We were very happy to not have any specific tours or plans that day so we could just explore and get a feel for the city.

The River Palace was such a great hotel! The rooms and elevators were very small, but we were prepared for that. Everything was beautifully appointed, classy and comfortable. We really liked that our hotel felt like a Roman hotel, and not just any hotel we’d find at home. The complimentary breakfast put those we’re used to at American hotels to shame! It was delicious. They had all sorts of pastries, cheeses, meats, eggs and fruits, made us delicious cappuccinos, and even had a juice bar with complimentary make-your-own mimosas. Definitely a great way to start the day! We found the breakfast at our other hotels to be equally as impressive.

We did TONS of walking and exploring in Rome. We explored the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza del Popolo, shops, side streets, countless churches and monuments, and of course ate as often as we possibly could. The food and wine were beyond amazing – definitely lived up to and surpassed the hype. I was just in disbelief that we were actually experiencing such a beautiful city that I’d only seen in pictures before. The only downside to Rome were the flower guys who were overly aggressive in trying to get you to take a flower and popping up from everywhere. But we learned to deal with them and certainly didn’t let them put a damper on our fun 🙂

The Colosseum and Roman Forum tour we took was so amazing! Before the tour, we sat at a little cafe overlooking the Colosseum to enjoy cheese and wine. It was unreal! Our tour guide was interesting, entertaining and funny, and the 3 hours flew by. Going in through the Gladiator Gate was a really cool experience, and I would definitely recommend it! The Vatican and Sistine Chapel tour we took the following morning wasn’t our favorite, although the city, museums and churches were absolutely breathtaking! We found the 3 hour tour here to be longer than we would have preferred, just because there was such an overwhelming number of people at the Vatican, and the tour dove more into Art History than we were really interested in. That said, we are still really glad we got to experience it! If we did it again, we would probably want to do either fully private (so we could customize the tour more), or self-guided.

After the Vatican tour, we headed for the train station to begin the Amalfi Coast portion of our trip. We completely fell in love with the region; so much so that we started looking up real estate! The Hotel Mediterraneo Sorrento was the perfect hotel, and the sea view room was 100% worth it. The hotel itself was gorgeous, the staff was the best I’ve ever seen, and the room was amazing. We had panoramic views of the sea without even having to get out of bed! We really enjoyed the pool, hot tub and pool bar, and the Vesuvio Roof Restaurant was delicious and absolutely perfect for dinner on our anniversary evening. While in Sorrento, we explored the downtown area, which was probably the most charming city I’ve ever seen. The shopping, restaurants and cafes kept us entertained for hours. Our third day there, we took the Circumvesviano Train to Pompeii, where we did a self-guided tour. The city was incredible, and we really enjoyed the self-guided aspect here as everything was really well labeled, so we got to go at our own pace & avoid the largest crowds of the tours while not feeling like we missed out on information.

For the day of our actual anniversary, we decided to have the hotel book us on a semi-private day trip to Capri. This ended up being one of our favorite days on our trip (which is saying something!). We were on a gorgeous, mid-sized boat with 8 people and a captain. We went to the Blue Grotto first which, even though the cost was steep (28 euro for the 2 of us for about 10 minutes total), we are so happy we got to experience it! We got off our boat and into a small rowboat which held 4 of us and a captain. The entrance into the grotto is only about a meter high, so we had to lay in the bottom of the boat while the captain guided us safely into the grotto. Once inside, the height and characteristics of the rocks and the unreal, glowing blue of the water was absolutely breathtaking. Once back on our boat, we were taken on a tour of Capri, which included the Green Grotto, White Grotto, sailing under the Faraglioni arch, and the most amazing coastline we’ve ever seen. We had about 4 hours to explore Capri, which involved a LOT of stairs and a workout, but the views were beyond worth it. The island itself is beautiful, but also unassuming in its own way while being mega glamorous. On the designer shop-lined streets, it felt like we were on a more exclusive Rodeo Drive that, at the same time, managed to be more welcoming and down to earth. Back on the boat, we enjoyed wine and limoncello while we got a tour of the Sorrentine Peninsula, and got back to port around 6:15 pm – just in time to enjoy happy hour and dinner at our hotel. I’m not sure how we’re going to out-do that day for our 5th anniversary!

Back in Rome for our last day, it was fun staying in a different part of town than our first stint in Rome. The Hotel Britannia was lovely and very charming, and was located super close to the train station. The room itself unfortunately didn’t have very good A/C, but the windows opened so it worked out. The room was tiny, but the bathroom was HUGE, so it balanced out and we had all the space we needed for just a one night stay. We spent the last day seeing some more sites, doing some great shopping, and eating as much as possible before we would have to leave the delicious Italian food behind.

All in all, it felt like we were living a dream on our trip. It’s always been #1 on my travel bucket list, and it didn’t disappoint! We can’t wait to go back and explore more of this incredible country. Thank you so much for planning our dream trip! Can’t wait to see what you help us with next!

Dana