The Holden’s  – July 2021

We spent a wonderful family vacation last December at Villa La Fonte, outside of Florence. While the villa and the amenities were truly outstanding, the icing on the cake was certainly the personal attention from Marinella Fattorini. Marinella worked behind the scenes to accommodate any of our many requests. With a group of 14 and often differing interests, as you can imagine, we kept her quite busy. She worked effortlessly on our behalf during the busy holiday period.

With staggering arrival and departure dates, Marinella was always on hand to greet each of us warmly or bid us farewell. I was immediately taken by her warmth and passion for life. She worked tirelessly to secure hard to get reservations, to arrange transportation for us, and to basically ensure we had the experience of a lifetime! Marinella developed itineraries for us quickly and often with limited notice. She entertained any and all queries from our group. “Marinella, we would like to visit the seaside. Marinella, what winery can you recommend for a special day? Marinella, we need a lunch reservation in Siena.” Our questions were many, and she greeted each one with the same abounding enthusiasm and desire to please. Marinella was always available and incredibly responsive, taking What’s App to new levels!

I can not recommend Marinella’s services enough. I have worked with many travel planners, but none that demonstrated such warmth and enthusiasm as Marinella. The beauty of the country goes without saying, but having Marinella on your planning team is the intangible that will make your Italian vacation the very best it can be. I recommend her highly!

The Levine Family – December 2019

“I cannot say enough about Marinella’s services! I was speaking to a close friend about my dream to spend a month in Italy in September 2019, particularly in a villa, and also to enjoy sightseeing and wine touring. She immediately recommended Marinella and from that point forward, Marinella was in regular contact, doing extensive research on villas in the region, enabling me to select what I believe was the most beautiful villa I have ever seen! She also booked us a fabulous wine tour with a private driver that was absolutely magical. She checked in routinely and was always ready to help us find restaurants, hotels, drivers – whatever we needed. She is truly indispensable and I could not recommend her more highly!”

– Andrée Boisvert, Nanaimo BC

“A friend of mine went with her husband to Italy for 2 weeks and had their entire trip planned by Marinella. My friend kept posting about their trip on Facebook and they looked like they were having an amazing time.

When they returned, I asked how they planned their trip and my friend told me that Marinella planned the entire two weeks- accommodations, excursions, restaurants, adventures and more! Marinella made theirs a forever memorable trip.

And therefore, when my husband I and were heading for Florence, I contacted Marinella to do the same thing for us.

Although my husband wanted to leave a portion of our schedule open-ended, her suggestions were excellent. We loved Viola, the guide who spent a couple of days with us. She was amazingly knowledgeable about Florentine history, art, and culture. We enjoyed her thoroughly. Plus, the food in the restaurants she suggested was fabulous.

Marinella stayed in touch to make sure we were enjoying our trip and to be available if we had any questions.

Planning a trip to Italy? Contact Marinella. Let her plan a trip you won’t forget.

Marinella is a combination of travel agent, guide, and guardian angel! As first time travelers to Italy, to celebrate a milestone anniversary, she listened to our unique personalities and desires and helped us plan a custom trip to Italy that

exceeded our expectations. She not only helped us to book all the arrangements ahead of time, she was available every day of our trip – by phone and text — to celebrate our joys or help navigate any challenges. She arranged the most wonderful drivers when we needed them to go from town to town full of personality and local information told in entertaining style. Accommodations were fabulous and all within our budget. Loved the trains. We would highly recommend Marinella to anyone! She has an easy, comforting, encouraging style combined with organization, lots of insight to Italy and she speaks flawless English. You will feel at home with her instantly. In a word, she is fantastica!”

Marinella was the most responsive and attentive travel coordinator we have had the pleasure to work with. We were a party of 10, with grandparents and four boys ages 8-12, so we were a lot to deal with.

Marinella was amazing! Leading up to our trip she was incredibly responsive and gave us valuable input as we planned the details of our family trip. As a group of fifteen with ages ranging from 6-73, everything went so smoothly. I called her our “miracle worker” on several occasions! Going into the trip, we didn’t want too be overscheduled or plan too many things. We wanted to have downtime, especially since we were traveling with children and weren’t sure how the time change would affect them. Once we were in Tuscany, there were excursions/tours we wanted to do and reservations we needed. She was on top of it! One day that stands out in particular, we decided around 12 pm we wanted to go on a winery tour but knew it would probably be hard to pull off because it was so last minute. By 3 pm, she had our entire group scheduled for a 5 pm tour and it was perfect – a true miracle worker! The transportation she set up made day trips and traveling stress-free, and she was so helpful if we had trouble communicating with our driver(s) due to the language barrier. Having done most of the planning for our family’s trip to celebrate our parents’ 50^thwedding anniversary, I felt completely at ease knowing that she was so accessible and willing to help with anything we needed. Her energy is contagious and she is a breath of fresh air. I would highly recommend her. If and when we travel back, Marinella will be the first person I will call to help arrange our trip!

 Cleveland, Allison Moore July 2019

Working with Marinella is a must for Tuscany!  I am so grateful we chose to work with her.  We started emailing and talking 6 months before our trip since we were a large group of 18 people.  She was so easy to talk with and worked hard to understand what we wanted out of our trip and also gave us great ideas and guidance on new options for our itinerary.  She helped our 4 families plan what each family wanted to do individually and together as one big group. After we arrived, she was so calm when plans needed to be modified. We just turned it over to her and she managed it all flawlessly. This was the vacation of a lifetime and I will absolutely use her again on our return to Tuscany!

Kendra Echols –   June 2019

Marinella….
Thx so much for acting as our ‘concierge’ for the month….Judy and I loved being connnected to u for so many things – Help with Vows ceremony, winery & van details, reservations everywhere, even the doctor for minor ailments! Plus, u are a joy to be around, not a small thing…

Love…Judy & Ed Tessaro, Atlanta.

My husband surprised me with a trip to Italy to celebrate our anniversary.  Marinella worked with him to explore the type of vacation we would like and then helped him to plan our trip from start to finish. The entire 2 week trip was wonderful!  She arranged the lodging, private guided tours, train tickets, and made reservations for several delicious restaurants.  Her recommendations were perfect! Prior to our departure, she sent us a personalized book including our daily itineraries, interesting things to see in the area, recommended restaurants, information about the history of our hotels, as well as other helpful hints and suggestions. Marinella is a wonderful example of outstanding customer service and we would recommend her to anyone

Marlene – September 2017

Marinella planned a fabulous stay for me and my extended family at a villa outside of Florence. My children flew in from the states and she made sure that they were prepared for their week in Italy, right down to the last detail. My cousins from Umbria also joined us and even though they are native Italians, she made their stay special. Marinella is knowledgeable, capable and caring, with a broad and expansive personality. Where to stay? How many rooms? Transportation? Amenities, Shopping? Sight-Seeing? Chefs? Cars? Drivers? Food in the refrigerator and pantry? She does it all and then of course she visits and calls every day to make sure that all is as planned. out it in her hands!

Richard and Mila Capezzali – September 2017

Marinella’s knowledge is staggering. She knew what to do and who can help make it all happen. Hotels, restaurants, tour guides, car and drivers, extra adventures — she knew how to put it all together for a smooth and memorable trip. To me and even more important than a great relationship between the tour company and the travelers is the one between the Marinella and her preferred services, like hotels, tour guides, drivers, etc.  Because the company seeks out and works with great businesses and individuals, the travelers get the best.

Kim – October 2017

Our family has spent a fantastic holiday in the Chianti region. Being a group of 14 people everything has to be organized. Restaurant, transfers, guides etc. Marinella did an excellent job of organizing our whole week in Tuscany: From a German-speaking guide in Florence to a trip to the beach to excellent restaurants on the way. We experienced Marinella as very flexible and she answered emails in no time! We truly can recommend her to organize a holiday in Tuscany.

Georg Scherrer – October 2018

Marinella did a fantastic job of planning our once in a lifetime girls trip. She took care of all the details so we could relax. She was flexible when we needed to change things last minute. She was so helpful and gave us great ideas about places to stay and things to do. She took care of making sure that we got to where we needed to be when we needed to be there. Some days it was by air, some days it was by trains, some days it was by boats and some days we had luxury vans or taxis. She is very conscientiousness about details and it made for a beautiful trip for all of the girls.

Kathy Hickey – October 2017

Throughout our time working and traveling with this company, we always felt she was doing the right thing for all involved.  Example: Marinella was very accommodating with changes that some of the Ladies wanted to make during our trip and Marinella was great with dealing with and making those requests happen. We were in constant contact with her throughout our time in Italy.

Kim – October 2017

Our family recently vacationed in Tuscany in May 2019. We stayed at the beautiful Villa Ripanera. They recommended many services, and Marinella Fattorini was the “concierge” service they recommended. I initially did not think that I needed someone in Italy to assist us in our travel plans since I had my own travel agent back home assist me in planning our family vacation since Fall of 2018. However, I decided to contact her to find out more about the services she offered. Our first conversation on the telephone was probably for 30 minutes. Ms. Fattorini did not try and sell her services. Instead, she listened to the plans I’ve already made and other thoughts on activities while in Italy. Ms. Fattorini made suggestions on other activities we can enjoy while in Tuscany. By the end of the conversation, I knew I wanted to work with her. Her genuine excitement to help me & my family was felt during our conversation. We engaged in communications on various activities over the course 3 months prior to our arrival. Ms Fattorini was responsive no matter the time. She helped me coordinate communications with the Chef we used while at the villa, all of our transportation needs, rental of Vespas, arrangements for wine-tastings & lunches, and Museum tours in Florence. Prior to our vacation, she prepared a vacation itinerary with everything we had discussed. When we met her at the villa, she was as warm and genuine as she was on the telephone. She made herself available to the family for whatever questions we had, no matter what time it was. Since she knew the Villa caretaker, the Chef, the drivers, and everyone else we used while in Tuscany, all of our arrangements/activities occurred seamlessly. The real test was how much we would enjoy all of her recommendations. And without a doubt, all of the places she recommended (some not initially my first choice) were just perfect for our family. The wine-tasting & lunch tour she recommended was one of the most enjoyable events during the trip. The tour guide she arranged while in Florence was fabulous. She even helped us change our reservations at a very busy & popular osteria in Florence to accommodate the timing of our tours. She didn’t have to do that, but she volunteered to handle. What really touched our family was the kindness she showed when we arrived at the Villa. Due to a flight cancellation, we were not able to visit Positano prior to arriving in Tuscany. She knew about the mishaps & our disappointments and when we met for the first time, she welcomed us with beautiful flowers and her warm hugs. Who does that? People who care about their clients. I will miss Tuscany, not only because of its beauty and our amazing time our family had, I will miss it because of people like Ms. Fattorini. She is amazing & I’m glad we used her services. I miss her already.

Pinky Vergara Controller  – May 2019

Thanks to Marinella’s guidance and around the clock assistance, my family of 15 had the most wonderful Tuscany holiday. We were a tough family to please as we had every age from 5 to 82 on the trip. We knew this was going to be the trip of a lifetime and we wanted to be sure we didn’t end up feeling like if we only knew more, we would have done it differently. This is where Marinella came in and really helped us get the most out of our vacation. If I had to summarize the multitude of things that Marinella did, I would categorize them in three areas.

First, Marinella provided us with critical direction at the onset of the trip. For example, my family met in Rome and we needed to get to our villa just south of Florence. Some of the family wanted to experience the high speed train, but Marinella suggested that we take vans door to door instead. Slightly more expensive, but we quickly realized on our trip that traveling in a large group (especially with luggage) is very difficult. Instead of wrestling with multiple taxis, trains, schedules, etc. we were picked up by vans, stopped for lunch in a beautiful little town (Cortona) and then arrived at our villa relaxed and ready to have fun.

Second, Marinella helped us get our plan set up early. Italy is a little different in that they don’t really like to plan 6+ months in advance, but if you don’t plan well in advance, you can often get closed out of things. There is nothing worse than arriving at a destination like Pisa and find out the next available time slot to climb the tower is in five hours. Additionally, Marinella was able to line up the perfect tour guides for our group. In Florence we had two guides, one for the families for adults and one for the families with little children. The guide for the younger children turned out to do tours for the Disney ships when their tours are in town. She weaved a gelato stop, a carousel ride and a little souvenir shopping within a fun tour of Florence. The kids loved it!

Finally, and by far the most important, Marinella was available throughout our entire trip. This is where her services were simply outstanding. We happened to visit Tuscany during a highly unusual heat wave where the temperatures were hitting 100 degrees F (38 degrees C) which was simply too hot to be out all day. We originally planned a couple of full days sightseeing where we would hit two towns in a day followed by a relaxed day at the villa. We adjusted our plan constantly and ended up sightseeing in the mornings and spending the afternoons in the villa pool. This caused us to need to adjust van schedules, restaurant reservations, etc. Marinella handled all of the changes in stride and made sure that we were able to do exactly what we wanted when we wanted. The heat could have been a real problem, but thanks to Marinella, it was handled in stride.

I cannot thank Marinella enough for all the heart and passion that she put into our trip to make sure that this once in a lifetime holiday turned out to be such a huge success.

Simon Storm ~ Washington DC ~ June 2019