Presto Tours Story

Group Tour in Italy with Presto Tours

Presto’s Story

Just about fifteen years ago, I traveled by train across Italy and when my feet hit the pavement in Rome that was it. I HAD to move there… And I did!

But I didn’t speak Italian, didn’t know how to cook, didn’t have a place to live, a job, and definitely didn’t have any Italian fashion sense (some things never change). More to the point… I didn’t know anything about Italy.

As life would have it, I ended up meeting tour guide after tour guide to the point where all of my friends in Rome were either tour guides themselves or worked with tour guides. I ended up learning a LOT!

I created friendships with super hospitable and highly educated tour guides who never made me feel bad for not knowing something and that’s what gave me inspiration to create Presto Tours.

I realized that spending just a day with one of these prized people can change your entire experience of Italy. It really makes the world feel smaller too, and nowadays I think it’s so important to connect face to face with others. I want to share our guides with our guests.

Happy people on a tour with Presto Tours in Italy

Presto’s Mission Statement

Presto Tours was created to be a boutique tour service.  Living in Italy, we know the city like the back of our hands and we also know tour guides both professionally and personally.  It is our promise to our guests to pair them with guides of outstanding character and knowledge.  We have scouted out the best guides in order to have the utmost confidence in putting our guests in the hands of guides whom we trust because we understand that visiting a foreign country is just one of those things that you need to get right the first time.

What sets Presto apart

 

If we haven’t lived in your destination, we’ve been there.  You can trust that all of our suggestions are based on first-hand experience.  Our tour guides are experts in their fields and are really nice people too!  We’ve already done all the work in scouting out the best guides which means we can focus more on you, our guests.  We’re flexible and are happy to create boutique experiences for special occasions, anniversaries, birthdays, honeymoons, girlfriend trips, family reunions and more.

Not Your Average Tour Guides

Bored of the thought of going on a tour?  A tour is a tour, right? Well, is wine wine?  Is chocolate chocolate? Is coffee coffee? So…yeah.  Does that answer your question?  Listen, there’s lots of boring tours out there but that doesn’t mean ours are!  Actually, quite the opposite.  Here’s the thing, the experience of a tour is really all about the guide and to be flat out blunt…I don’t hire boring guides.  I hire highly qualified and highly educated guides….yes.  But the icing on the cake of our guides is that they’re personable, and entertaining, and friendly.  They are warm and hospitable and more than that…they actually enjoy what they’re doing!  Imagine that.  So yeah, you’re in good hands with our guides.  Just watch one of our tour previews here if you want to see for yourself.

Meet our Guides

We’ve Served Over 37,000 Smiling Faces 

I’ve been organizing tours since back in 2005 when it dawned on me that my circle of friends in Rome was heavily dominated by tour guides and tour gurus.  Meeting many English speaking travelers in Rome, I thought I’d try my hand at matchmaking my tour guide friends with travelers.  I always get so excited when I see smiling faces on tour or when I get an email from a guest saying how spending a day with one of our guides went down as the highlight of their trip.  That’s what I always aim for and well, truth be told, our team of guides makes that job pretty easy for me 😉

-Kirsten Gottwald, Founder & Director

Read Our Story

We’ve got your Back!

Before you choose your tours, Presto Tour Experts are here for you to help create your Italy experience.  When you book your tour, you’ll get all the nitty gritty details of where to meet for your tour (we can pick you up at your hotel too if you prefer!), how to dress for your tour (yes, believe it or not, there are some places that require a certain dress code), what to bring (usually just yourself and a bottle of water is all you’ll need!), and where the tour will end so you can plan the rest of your day from there.
On top of that, we’ll send you handy tips on getting to your destination from the airport, navigating the cities, day trip recommendations, restaurant recommendations, and some other fun stuff like fun Italian movies to watch before you get here and books that are great to read to get you excited about your trip.

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