Your calls always answered within 5 rings.
When we had a hiccough with car hire (they didn’t accept contactless payment and my husband didn’t have his card) Darryl sorted everything for us - really helpful and efficient as always
Noah always finds a good deal for us. We've been getting flights from him since 2014. Really great service!
What an absolute legend Neil is....
You were excellent. British Airways was awful.
We were told by BA that our flight had been cancelled - due to bad weather in the UK. We had calls and emails from DialAFlight offering help and advice.
Thank you again darling Helen and team.
Holiday was great. Five star service
Hotel needs update. On the whole good location. Clean rooms. Great breakfast.
Brilliant as always
Service overall was fantastic. Wish I had been informed of the cabin luggage difference for my easyjet flight though.
All was well thanks to Annabelle
Very professional and knowledgeable customer service
Car hire was awkward. Although directions were OK it was not evident where we needed to be to get the car.
Great holiday, great hotel location, perfect flights, thank you to Lauren Canning!
First time using ITA and would use again. Only one issue that you should be aware of relating to the hotel transfer. We believe they cancelled the coach pick up at 1pm so we were left waiting for an additional 90 minutes. The Hotel did not confirm this but that is our feeling and we heard others had a similar experience. Might be easier to get a cab for an extra 20 euros.
As always, Michelle Dooler and her team lived up to their excellent reputation! Before I had even started to worry about having to check in online, Michelle had thought about it and the boarding passes were in my inbox ready to be printed! Superb - thoughtful and efficient service!
All great - thank you to Bella for arranging. The hotel was lovely and very central, Verona was great place to explore.
Your representatives are always very helpful and will always look something up if we are not sure of any part of our holidays. We have been using DialAFlight for 5 years now and have never had any occasion to complain or query any part of the service.
No problems!
Thank you Travis Simon for all your hard work organising flights for my crew. Awesome service and thanks a million!
Staff in hotel were all exceptional as was the hotel itself. Europcar also excellent, not the normal rip off car rental company I have had to endure previously. Well done to Lily who organised everything for us.
As usual Ashley was excellent
Our agent Molly Smith has been amazing and we will use her next time.
Car hire with Centauro was very good but was not expecting an age related surcharge!
Apart from poor weather conditions which cancelled our boat trip to Positano and the Amalfi coast the holiday was a big success. The hotels were very comfortable and we had memorable days in Rome, Naples and a day trip to Pompeii. Many thanks again Chloe.
It's always good. But fortunately there was nothing to go wrong. The plane both ways was punctual. Gatwick has become efficient although looking shabby after Bologna, but I was through in 10 minutes.
BA let us down on return flight ... announcing on all screens they were boarding extra early. So we had to leave a bottle of nice wine and a couple of cocktails to rush to the gate only to find they were not boarding and indeed the flight was actually delayed! Not happy but obviously nothing to do with you guys
I highly recommend you to other people. Thank you for the personal service.
Amy and Erin couldn’t help us enough. Always there when needed.
Everything went smoothly. Good human touch. Why go anywhere else?
Italy makes me greedy. Florence is awash with deliriously good art, Milan is Italy's fashion and design hub, and both of them have outstanding food scenes.
However, it turns out that you don't have to make a choice when it comes to a long weekend break. These two cities are only a 90-minute train journey apart, so it's possible to explore both in one trip.
By happy coincidence, both cities have airports nearby. It is a just a 20-minute journey from Peretola airport in Florence to our hotel, the Helvetia & Bristol, in the heart of the city.
Opened in 1848, this former palazzo is the oldest hotel in Florence and is still a charmer, with deep colours, marble bathrooms and ingrained atmosphere. We sip aperitivos beside a log fire while elegant Florentines mill around us.
However, with just 67 rooms, the Helvetia & Bristol hasn't got attitude. Rather, it's as friendly as Tom Hanks (the Hollywood star stayed here while filming 2016's Inferno) and it's also handily central - the Uffizi gallery and the Duomo are just minutes away.
The view from my window is pure E.M. Forster, although there are signs that Florence is becoming hipper.
In Piazza della Signoria is the Gucci Garden. The Italian fashion house has taken one of Florence's palazzos and turned into an arty showcase, with slogans on the wall and where a box of pencils, made in China, costs an astonishing 90 euro.
Offering more of a bargain is Desinare, just off Via dei Serragli. It's a reclamation yard, restaurant and cookery school, where Maria has us making fresh tagliatelle with a saffron sauce, bruschetta with kale pesto, and a delicious flourless chocolate cake.
For a more rural experience, but just 15 minutes outside Florence and still with amazing views of the city, is Il Salviatino hotel. This is a beautifully restored 15th century villa in the rolling Tuscan hills. It has original frescoes, lush organic gardens - and offers the opportunity to go truffle hunting in the hotel grounds, as well as winery tours and family-style Tuscan dinners. This is an authentic, magical, Italian escape combined with sheer luxury, perfect service and a setting of pure grandeur - and Florence in easy reach.
Also in the stunning countryside near Florence is the Belmond Villa San Michele, a 14th century former monastery that's now recognised as one of the country's finest small boutique hotels. It's surrounded by lush woods and terraced gardens of lemon trees and fragrant roses, with stunning views.
The hotel is steeped in history - and seeing medieval architecture perfectly blended with modern luxury is fascinating. First, savour superb Tuscan cuisine on the alfresco loggia...then take lessons in Tuscan fusion cuisine at the hotel's famed cookery school.
A day or two later we clamber aboard the train and head north, and glimpses of glorious Tuscan hills give way to tunnels and finally to Milan.
Our hotel, the Rosa Grand, also has a prized location. From here you can see every knobble of the city's spiny Duomo.
If Florence is joyously tied to the past, Milan is a city that works. It feels sure of itself. There are crowds and paparazzi as we start to explore - it turns out that one of Italy's top chefs is getting married.
Staying so centrally brings all sorts of pleasures, mostly of the lazy sort.
I get to wander into the Reale Palace to catch an exhibition of Caravaggio and costumes from opera house La Scala, peruse mind-bogglingly expensive vegetables in Peck (a grocery story that displays its wares like art) and then slip into the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, the imposing glass and steel shopping arcade built in 1877.
In the middle is Marchesi. Milan's most famous pasticceria recently opened a branch here. Now owned by Prada, it's part cafe, part art installation. And wholly delicious - as are both of these cities.
First published in the Mail on Sunday - August 2019
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