People & Stories

Meet our Travel Directors - Chiara

Recently updated on January 17th, 2020 at 09:53 pm

Travel Director: Chiara
Region: Italy

Trafalgar’s Travel Directors play a key role in providing each of our guests with a truly memorable experience. From the moment your Trafalgar journey begins, our Travel Directors share their local knowledge and provide a personalized, one-of-a-kind insider’s view of each destination. They are experienced travelers, learned historians and culture buffs whose job is to help you become immersed in the places you visit.

This week, Travel Director Chiara took a few minutes to talk to the Trafalgar Blog to share some of her experiences and give some insight to why she loves what she does.

What is the best part of your job?

Sharing with our guests my constant, sincere enthusiasm in visiting certain places in Italy and striving to make their adventure a memorable one, giving them an overall Italian cultural experience.

What’s your best Hidden Treasure?

The small resort of Passignano on Lake Trasimeno between Florence and Assisi and in Venice taking them down the side alley next to S Maria della Pietร  Church to show them where illegitimate babies were left by their mothers, originating the first orphanage in Europe where the famous musician Vivaldi taught music and directed the choir.

What is your favorite place to take guests?

The view of the Faraglioni Rocks from above the Gardens of Augustus in Capri is always breathtaking.

What is your most memorable ‘on the road’ moment?

A Christmas Eve in Venice when we all gathered at the hotel bar after dinner for a glass of champagne and a slice of โ€œpanettoneโ€, each guests receiving a small gift I has prepared for them. We shared a moment of sincere Christmas spirit as in a family.

What vacation photo would you recommend our guests have to take?

The Faraglioni Rocks in Capri, the wonderful view of the basin of St Mark from the boat and the view of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo.

Florence Cathedral
Florence Cathedral

Your staple travel items?

Money-belt, camera, guidebook and a map, small notebook for recording ideas, emotions, addresses, a book to read after the sightseeing and an alarm clock.

What is your tip for feeling like a local when traveling?

Eat street food, take public transportation and use the local language as much as possible in communicating with the locals.

A favorite local saying you need to know is:

โ€œChe Pizza!!!โ€ meaning โ€œwhat a nuisanceโ€, very common saying in Italy.

What is your favorite food within your region?

In addition to the many pastas and pizzas which everybody likes, I love a typical Roman snack or light lunch called โ€œpizzetta romanaโ€ which is a square piece of white pizza stuffed with cheese and ham, heated like a toasted sandwich and ideal with coffee: We Romans love it.

Must buy souvenir?

A piece of Venetian glass that โ€œspeaks to youโ€ and a piece of beautiful pottery in Sicily.

Venetian Glass
Venetian Glass

What or who is your biggest inspiration?

My empathy with our guests putting myself in their shoes with regards to daily expectations. When decisions need to be taken I always ask myself โ€œwhat would I want from my Travel Director?โ€ The PDP program I participated in has been a source of new inspiration on how to relate to our guests with a new enthusiasm. Reading unusual travel books such as โ€œA Traveler in Italyโ€ by HV Morton which is full of stories and legends hard to find in new guidebooks.

What is your best travel tip?

Be very, very open the surprises a new country always brings, keep your eyes as open as possible when traveling on the bus through new scenery, avoid using the word โ€œtiredโ€ because curiosity and enthusiasm defeat tiredness.

Would you like to visit Italy with our Travel Directors? Explore our Italy trips.

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