Buongiorno Principessa can help with any and all of your Italian travel needs.
SINGLE ACTIVITY PLANNING
COMPLETE VACATION PLANNING
GROUP TRAVEL PLANNING
EVENT PLANNING
Do you want help planning a single activity or outing? Want to learn to cook pappa al pomodoro in an Italian villa? Looking for the best cycling guide in Tuscany? Want to create a personalised scent with a master profumiere? Or do you want to pack your suitcase, hop on a plane, and arrive in Italy with every step of your Italian dream vacation waiting for you? Buongiorno Principessa can make it happen. Our focus is to provide access to unique, local experiences and resources so you can experience the true Italy.
Possible activities include: private museum and city tours with art historians, cooking classes, truffle hunting, olive harvesting and olive oil pressing, private vineyard tours followed by a family lunch, shopping in the local markets, getting fitted for bespoke shoes by the best Italian cobblers, artisan workshop visits, spa treatments, guided cycling tours and much more.
Not only for the well-seasoned adult traveler, Buongiorno Principessa can also create unique itineraries for families, as the company’s owner Kate Collins-Manetti has two small children of her own. Looking for the best parks to bring your kids to? The best child-friendly museum for a 4-year-old on a rainy day? Pony rides in the country? We’ve got it covered.
Kate has excellent personal relationships with many Italian artisans, business leaders, and families who can trace their Tuscan roots to before the Medici came to power. These friendships can open doors to unique opportunities.
Buongiorno Principessa can also arrange your accommodations, book restaurants, and facilitate airport arrival and local transfers through private drivers.
We can consult and help with event planning for weddings, family reunions, and corporate events.
Our focus is to provide access to unique, local experiences and resources so you can experience the true Italy.
Not only for the well-seasoned adult traveler, Buongiorno Principessa can also create unique itineraries for families.
When Colorado girl Kate Collins signed up to take Italian 101 at Middlebury College in 1997, she never dreamed it would be one of the biggest decisions of her life. A Phi Beta Kappa majoring in Art History and Italian, Kate came to study in Florence for her junior year abroad.
She fell in love with a Florentine and all things Italian, and 15 years later she is still in Florence.
Kate has worked in contemporary art for the past 10 years: first at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice, then at a photography gallery with exhibition spaces in Florence and Rome, and she is currently studio manager for well-known contemporary photographer Massimo Vitali in Lucca.
Kate is uniquely knowledgeable about Italy’s art from the Renaissance to contemporary practices. She married into a Florentine family with a centuries-old tradition as battiloro (gold beaters), who make the gold leaf used for many of Florence’s monuments (think the shiny ball on Florence’s Duomo!) as well as architecture and restoration throughout Europe and the world. As such, she became well-versed in this legacy of preservation and beauty.
In 2007 LUXE City Guides approached Kate to be their resident editor for the Florence edition, and she has been their go-to-girl for the past 8 years, always up-to-date on the best restaurants, guides and secret itineraries.
After years of helping arrange trips for friends and family, Kate wondered how she could share her love of Italy with others, allowing them the opportunity to experience the unique culture of an insider’s Italy, and not the over-trodden Italy of guidebooks and Trip Advisor. And so Buongiorno Principessa was born!
Have you seen the Academy Award winning film La Vita è Bella with Roberto Benigni? Our hero falls in love at first sight, and she will be forever his principessa.
Now with Buongiorno Principessa we can all experience Italy with the feeling that we are each someone’s special princess.
Benigni’s character urges us guarda i girasoli (look at the sunflowers). Buongiorno Principessa provides access to unique experiences offering you the opportunity to enter into the beauty of Italian life, discovering treasures and making memories that will last a lifetime.
Guarda i girasoli!