Thank you, Matteo, and the entire staff at FuorITinerario for giving us the trip of a lifetime experience we wanted. It has been our pleasure working with you, and we will certainly recommend you to any friends looking for a similar Italy experience. In fact, we would not rule out using your services again, because we want to spend more time at the Naples Archaeological Museum (probably staying in Rome and commuting by Frecciarosa), the Vatican Museum (preferably with Grazia), and a few more days in Florence and Venice. Milan would also be on our next itinerary, and maybe a day tour of the Amalfi coast. We have no regrets on missing that this trip; the time we spent at Pompeii, Herculaneum and Oplontis (your addition, we didn’t know about it) was well worth it. Had we not selected you, we would have missed Bologna, Oplontis, and probably wouldn’t have had true pizza Napoli, as our driver recommended the specific restaurant.
The hotels were very well located, nice, and with many nearby food options. For those staying at the Hotel Lunetta, you need to recommend Osteria Costanza. Truly outstanding food at a very reasonable price. Their mozzarella di Bufala was spectacular, and we ate a lot of it everywhere we stayed, just to compare. One key to eating well for little cost is to find places where locals eat; even in “tourist” areas, that’s a good indicator. The one time we didn’t follow this rule, we ate at Elle Effe near Hotel Lunetta (we were tired and just needed to eat something and it was Sunday), which was very bad. We should have asked the hotel staff first. We were pleased with the quality of the rooms, although the room at Hotel Lunetta we had for our first night in Italy was much better arranged than the one we spent our last 4 nights. As I indicated in the email I wrote about it, it was only 4 nights, and we didn’t spend a lot of time in the room, but there wasn’t much functional space. Thank you for the offer to change rooms, but at that point, it wasn’t worth closing the suitcases and changing rooms. We’re flexible, but for a longer stay or more picky clients, it could have been an issue.
Finding taxis in Italy was an experience. We had problems finding the taxi stands, particularly in Florence. Since we like to explore, it wasn’t so bad, even though we may have walked a lot more than we had to. Some guidance on that would be good to include in your information packet. I also have to say we strongly preferred the Frecciarosa over Italo. The trains seemed cleaner, less cramped, and more tourist-friendly. Had I learned enough Italian before the trip, that would have been less of an impact, but the cleanliness and the staff on the national trains was better than the Ferrari service. Advance warning about large luggage would have been nice, but we managed. It took us a few minutes to find our guide in Bologna, but that’s more our fault for not looking across the street. All of this is very minor, and didn’t detract from the experience in any way.
We truly enjoyed our entire experience. Nothing bad happened, and I want to make sure you understand we were not disappointed with anything. The drivers were all on time, polite, and helpful, and the Italians as a people were delightful and helpful. If we could have done anything better, we would have scheduled our day off for the day after arriving in Sorrento. The trip from Florence felt long and tiring; it was longer than Rome to Venice. We never felt rushed at the train stations or the airport on departing. If anything, we waited a bit long for our trains, but you made sure we didn’t miss them.
Again, we thank you for the trip of a lifetime,
Derek and Billie Morgan
Derek & Billie Morgan (Saint Louis, MO) – OCTOBER 2021
Cathedral of San Marco, Venice
Main Square, Bologna
Sorrento, Italy
