Experience Bologna
Beyond the Guidebooks

Learn about the real Bologna. Claudio was excellent and very passionate about the city. I would highly recommend the experience.

Claudio made our tour of the city extra special taking time to personalise our experience. Would definitely recommend to a friend.

Claudio was extremely knowledgeable and friendly. We were able to experience the beauty of Bologna in a short time. It was a wonderful tour.

Our tour guide, Claudio, was outstanding. He provided us with a broad overview of Bologna's history. Very informative and we saw areas I'm sure we would not have seen on our own. He was personable and also gave us recommendations for food and drink.

Antonia - very informative, genuinly worked to customize the experience as she learned more about our preferences.

Our host, Antonia, was exceptional. She made our afternoon in Bologna a wonderful adventure. We sampled a variety of traditional dishes native to Bologna and received a great orientation to the food culture and an introduction to the history of the region. We highly recommend for a new visitor to the region. Thanks for a wonderful afternoon!!!

Our host, Antonia, was exceptional and made our afternoon a wonderful adventure. We sampled a variety of dishes native to Bologna and were introduced to the food culture and history of the region. We would highly recommend to first visitors. Thanks for a wonderful afternoon!!!

Our guide Antonia was fantastic! We had a leisurely walk around the main sights in Bologna and we had lots of opportunity to ask questions.

Nicola was a great guide and showed us true Bologna food gems that we would not have found on our own.

The experience was need excellent because of our guide Nicola, his knowledge was understanding and he was very friendly and helpful. The tour gave us an understanding of the history and well as the city in general.

Nicolas was a delight and an excellent tour guide who instructed and entertained at the same time! Our 4 hours with him were a delight! Thank you!!

Lorenza was a delightful lady and showed us the less known paths of Bologna along best sightseeing. We’ve spend 3 hours together in a personalized experience as we’ve asked for. Thanks for that .

This was a great way to get to know the city from a locals perspective. Our guide was friendly, knowledgeable and very helpful. She answered all of our questions and gave us tips on things to do after our tour.

On our first day in Bologna, we had the pleasure of taking a 3-hour personalized tour with Lorenza, and it truly set the tone for the rest of our trip. She was incredibly warm, welcoming, and knowledgeable—bringing the city’s rich history to life through engaging stories and fascinating insights. Throughout our stay, we kept recognizing places she had shown us, often recalling the fun facts she shared with a smile. Thanks to Lorenza, we experienced Bologna through a much deeper and more meaningful lens. One of the highlights was learning about the history of the porticos and how they symbolize the city’s spirit of hospitality—something she herself embodied with her magnetic personality and thoughtful approach. An outstanding experience from start to finish. 5 stars—highly recommend!

Lorenza hat uns einen tollen Einblick in die Stadt Bologna ermöglicht. Von oben, von unten und auch hinter den Kulissen konnten wir dank Lorenza die Stadt aus einer ganz anderen Perspektive kennen und lieben lernen. Lorenza ist eine aufgeweckte, aufmerksame, „fühlige„ und pragmatische Stadtführerin. Man spürt die Leidenschaft für ihre Heimatstadt, welche sie uns mit einem hohen Fachwissen, mit tollen Anektoten und einem gewissen Schalk näher gebracht hat. Wir würden Lorenza uneingeschränkt weiter empfehlen schon dank ihrer angenehmen Persönlichkeit. DANKE LORENZA ! Lorenza gave us a great insight into the city of Bologna. Thanks to Lorenza, we were able to get to know and love the city from above, below and also behind the scenes from a completely different perspective. Lorenza is a bright, attentive, sensitive and pragmatic city guide. You can feel the passion for her hometown, which she brought to us with a high level of specialist knowledge, great anecdotes and a certain mischief. We would recommend Lorenza without reservation, thanks to her pleasant personality. THANK YOU LORENZA!

Andrea is Very knowledgeable and friendly.

Andrea made himself available on a public holiday and provided the 2 of us with a wonderful insight into the history of Bologna. He was extremely knowledgeable and personable. We would recommend him to future visitors. Exceptional value for money.

Andrea is very knowlegeable about his hometown. He had a great grasp of both medieval and modern history in a very facile way.

Gabriel’s was a fantastic tour guide! He showed us so many highlights of Bologna, and he also made sure to take us everywhere we wanted to go. He was extremely knowledgeable and engaging, and he answered all of our questions. We are American, and his English was excellent! He also gave us great recommendations for places to eat, things to do, etc. At the end of our tour, he walked us to a restaurant we had seen earlier that we wanted to go to. I highly recommend this private tour with Gabriele!

We have a great time with Gabriele in the beautiful city of Bologna! He showed us all of the main sights. Highly recommended!

I would highly recommend him for any traveler looking for a good guide to Bologna.

A delightful tour of Bologna given by Gabriele whose pride and passion for his home town shone through . He was friendly and informative and led the tour at a lovely pace giving us opportunity to ask questions on the way . He advised us of a great place for lunch ( Simoni ) and have further suggestions for meals during our stay . It was the perfect start to the city break because it gave us the chance to get to know the City . We would not hesitate in recommending this tour - especially if you get Gabriele as your guide . Thanks Lele

People should try not to book on a Sunday because the markets are not open. Gabriele is great!

Wonderful!!

An absolutely incredible tour given by Gabriele! Walking around the city we got to experience so much of Bologna’s history. Gabriele was very kind and extremely knowledgeable. We had many laughs and amazing food. His recommendation for our dinner later was absolutely perfect and delicious. We couldn’t ask for a better way to be introduced to this lovely city. 10/10

It was excellent. Our guide Gabriele was incredible, very knowledgeable. He also told us a lot about Bologna.

Paolina Jacobi was a WONDERFUL guide. She was personal, informative, relatable, and fun. We were so happy that she was our guide as she made the day perfect!

Our tour guide, Poalina, fit all of our favorites in just 2 hours. She was so knowledgeable about the city with all its history. Ken

Paolina, made our tour special by remembering our anniversary. She was able to navigate us to all of the spots we wanted to see and a few others. Paolina also ended with helping us find a great place to have an authentic Italian lunch!

Paulina was great. Nothing was too much trouble and the walk/tour was just right. The walking pace was this good and the locations visited were well chosen.

Giacomo was an excellent guide! We could not have asked for a more knowledgeable or enthusiastic guide who was truly passionate about his city. He customized the tour to our preferences and showed us some unique and off the beaten track places since we have been to Bologna before. He was kind, personable, and very flexible when we requested to change the time to avoid the heat. He went overtime and never seemed rushed. He gave us lots of history and fresh insights about the culture as a local who has lived there most of his life. He took us to a non tourist lunch spot that we could never have found on our own and joined us for a delicious meal.He went above and beyond to give us a memorable and unique experience and then followed up after the tour with lots of additional information. He was truly the best!

I really enjoyed learning about the city with Giacomo. His deep knowledge and love of his city is so genuine and rich that it is infectious. Having such a personal tour of Bologna felt more like visiting a friend rather than a tour.

Giacomo was a fantastic guide to Bologna during a trip I took for business in December 2023. He has terrifically wide-ranging knowledge about the history of the city in general, and was a great guide to the details of the specific places we visited. He customized the tour to accommodate the fact that I had already seem some of the sites in the central city in a short Welcome Bologna tour (also excellent and recommended) and we ended up with a long itinerary that took in parts of the center, some sites up in the hills, and looped around to a part of the city where I planned to meet friends. Overall a great experience!

We absolutely loved our tour with Giacomo. He knows the city very well and we covered so much ground and saw so many fabulous sights in our 2 hour tour. Our favourite was definitely the Basilica of San Domenico. It was magical! We learned so much on this tour and just wish we had more than a day to explore this fabulous city. If you, like us, are only in Bologna for a short time, I highly recommend this tour with Giacomo.

There were so many great vegan places we ate. We had smoothies with pasta straws, tortoloni, mini pizza, stuffed aubergine, lemon drink and more! Plus we visited several vintage shops and I purchased things at 3 different location. We ended in a beautiful garden where there’s a café.. (highly recommend the stuffed aubergine). I was also excited to see the Street Art by the university too

Claudia was awesome! She was so knowledgeable About the city. We got to experience a version of the city that would have been impossible without a local’s perspective. We also got to try many wonderful Bolognese dishes. Highly recommend.

Claudia was amazing. She has so much knowledge of Bologna. Not only did she show us the main points of interest, but she also took us around the not so known places that were fantastic. I highly recommend this tour and especially Claudia.

We scheduled a three hour tour with Claudia the first morning of our stay in Bologna, and it was such a fantastic experience! Claudia was very communicative with us prior to the tour, asking about what we would like to see, and she delivered perfectly on this! She took us to various corners of the city to see World War II partisan memorials (an interest of ours), independent bookshops, street art, and more - all things we never would have seen without her guidance. She pointed out so many sights, shops, and restaurants that we were able to return to and experience over our next four days in Bologna. We learned so much about the city from her, and felt that we were truly given an insider's look at this amazing place. We fell head over heals with Bologna and cannot wait to return - the most favourite city we have been to! Thank you Claudia for such a great day, and we hope to see you again in Bologna. ~ Sarah and Ben

My guide Chiara was very well informed and lovely to tour with. She explained the history the monuments and buildings of Piazza Maggiore, the University, the Two Towers and the seven churches. I learned a lot about Bologna’s history and was guided by Chiara towards other activities to enjoy. I thoroughly recommend this tour, very interesting and enjoyable.

Claire was a great guide for my Bologna tour. She took me round Piazza Maggiore, into the church and the city buildings, to the two towers, the University and the Seven Churches. She was knowledgeable and informative and explained the history of the amazing monuments very well. I really recommend this tour

Claire took me to several major Bologna landmarks: Piazza Maggiore, inside the city building and the church on the square, to the University building, the two towers, and the seven Churches. She was very well informed, was able to tell me the history of these amazing monuments, and also what she loved about the city and its citizens. It was a great tour, and has set me up very well for an enjoyable stay here.

Chairs was knowledgeable, attentive, kind and informative. She did a great job and it was a wonderful tour!

Alberto was so nice and accommodating and answered all of our questions! He was great!

Very informative and loved the local suggestions and hidden gems. Alberto was very nice and flexible!

Nuestro guía hablaba un inglés adecuado, muy conocedor de toda la historia del área. Se comportó muy amistoso, cooperador e interesado en hacer su trabajo muy bien. Our guide spoke adequate English, very knowledgeable about all the history of the area. HE He was very friendly, cooperative and interested in doing his job very well.

Our guide Alberto was amazing. He tailored the trip perfectly to us. The sights we spectacular. The restaurants and food met our expectations.

What an incredible experience. Alex was very knowledgeable and knew historical facts that were very specific to each site. We went off the beaten path to several local spots included an awesome beer garden at the end of the day. I would highly recommend getting a tour guide like Alex to lead you through Bologna. It was truly memorable.

Alex did a great job showing us Old Town Bologna. The tour was a mix of historical sites and present-day life. It was exactly what we were looking for.

Alex was great! Very knowledgeable and personable.

Alex covered the history and culture of Bologna in a clear and insightful manner. He answered all our questions in as much depth as we required and never rushed us along. He is a good advocate for Bologna and we finished the tour with a much more rounded understanding of city. Would definitely recommend.

Marina is a delightful and knowledgeable local. We wanted a slower pace with opportunities to sit, enjoy coffee, observe and talk. Very accommodating and we ended up walking further than we thought we could since she was so engaging. Highly recommend!

I had a fabulous experience with Marina. It was great to see both the typical tour spots (but maybe from a different angle) as well as the off-the-beaten path sites- that were customized to my interests. Experiencing a city is always more memorable when accompanied by an insider's perspective. Marina also gave me ideas for what I could explore more in depth on my own- and gave us spectacular dining recommendations.

Like walking around town with an old friend. Nothing more needs to be said!

Marina gave us a cultural and historical walkabout in old town Bologna that was very interesting. We recommend her highly.

Jonathan gave us a great tour, entirely at our own pace, taking in many of the sites and pointing us towards others we could visit later. He gave us tips about shopping, transport, food & dining as well as historical context and stories. We can highly recommend Jonathan as your guide to Bologna! He also took charge of the wheelchair so my husband could walk and I could take photos. A very kind man. P.s. he knows a super gelateria.

Delightful, knowledgable host.

The perfect immersive experience to Bologna! Our guide, Jonathan M. was incredibly informative, upbeat and knowledgeable. In our 2 week Italy trip I had not done my due diligence to plan for things in Bologna. This tour took care of that! A planning email from our guide helped tailor the highlights that would interest us the most. The two hours was a great length of time, allowing you to see so much without being draining. After the tour we felt oriented to the city and knew what we wanted to visit again and spend more time. Jonathan went above and beyond to give us local info for day trips, things to do and see and restaurants. He also sent additional info to me for Liberation Day events. This was one of the best tours we enjoyed and it was money very well spent. Thank you so much!

Excellent tour, our guide Jonathan is a local with detailed knowledge of his town. He is an excellent guide as well as person! Very insightful tour.