Experience Bologna
Beyond the Guidebooks

Claudio was friendly and patient with our many questions. He answered all of our questions, and offered recommendations to many other things we could do and see in Bologna! He’s fabulous!!

Claudio was absolutely outstanding! From the moment we met him in Bologna, he was kind, attentive, and clearly passionate about creating a memorable experience. He thoughtfully tailored our time together to match our interests, weaving in fascinating historical details and vibrant touches of local culture. The food and wine selections were nothing short of incredible—each stop felt like a hidden gem. Claudio’s knowledge and warm personality made this experience truly special. Highly recommend!!

This was a great personal tour and I enjoyed the one on one conversation. Claudio had wonderful historical stories to share. Lots of time to ask questions and learn more. Bologna is quite unique, a lot of people, a lot of educated people here, home to the first university and still it continues! We enjoyed a nice leisurely walk about Bologna and I learned some amazing, interesting and fun facts! Claudio is very knowledgeable and patient.

The best! Took 4-5 tours while in Italy. Claudio knew Bologna both as a resident, and an educated historian. Nice presentation of the city, its culture, and history.

Antonia reached out ahead of time and asked if there was anything we were interested in which we shared. She covered those spots along with sharing historical knowledge, information on bolognese food and ‘legends / stories of bologna. Was a fun informative walking tour of the historical area of bologna and walked thru the upscale shopping area as well. Great overview of a lovely city.

We enjoyed our tour very much. Antonia was informative, friendly, and went the extra mile to let us contact her after the tour if we have more questions. History, food, and stepping into places we might not have noticed added another layer to our time in Bologna. Thank you!

Antonia does a great informative tour. She invites you to ask her questions even after the tour by WhatsApp if you need more info or have more questions. She has food suggestions as well which we appreciated very much.

Great job by our guide.

We LOVED our tour with Nicola! He has a masters degree in history and was able to satisfy all my nerdy curiosities! He really helped the city come alive and give it context. He showed us many little things that even locals don’t know. He also knew we were on a trip focused on cars (for my 16yo fan boy) and he took us out of the way to show us the founding location of Maserati!

I can’t say enough great things about my tour of Bologna with Nicola. As a new resident, I was hoping to get a feel for the city beyond the typical tourist experience—and Nicola absolutely delivered. He blended deep historical knowledge with a genuine love for Bologna, which made the entire tour feel like an afternoon with a passionate local friend rather than a scripted walk. From hidden alleyways to breathtaking viewpoints and the best local food stops, Nicola gave me a rich and personalized introduction to the city. He tailored the tour to my interests and offered tons of practical tips that have already made my transition to living here so much smoother. If you’re moving to Bologna or just want to fall in love with the city on a deeper level, I wholeheartedly recommend a tour with Nicola.

I can’t say enough great things about my tour of Bologna with Nicola. As a new resident, I was hoping to get a feel for the city beyond the typical tourist experience—and Nicola absolutely delivered. He blended deep historical knowledge with a genuine love for Bologna, which made the entire tour feel like an afternoon with a passionate local friend rather than a scripted walk. From hidden alleyways to breathtaking viewpoints and the best local food stops, Nicola gave me a rich and personalized introduction to the city. He tailored the tour to my interests and offered tons of practical tips that have already made my transition to living here so much smoother. If you’re moving to Bologna or just want to fall in love with the city on a deeper level, I wholeheartedly recommend a tour with Nicola.

Nicola was brilliant and tailored the tour perfectly to our needs. He was extremely friendly and knowledgeable, would highly recommend!

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!

Lorenza reached out b4 the trip and arranged to meet at our hotel which was great! She was very informative & entertaining. The 3 hour walk passed very fast. She brought us to the side streets away from the crowds which was great. Was a great walking tour. Highly recommend.

We had a great time with Lorenza. She is a native of Bologna and gave us a wonderful tour of the city center including the Anatomy theater. We would recommend this tour without reservations.

Andrea was conscious that we had already see some of the areas. Introduced us to another aspect of Bologna

These kinds of tours always depends on the tour guide and our guide was solid. Our guide was Andrea and he did a great job of providing history, local insight and the ability to seamlessly have a conversation all throughout. It didn’t feel like a tour but just walking around with a friend. Good tour

Andrea did a perfect job of balancing history with conversation and also discussing life in general around Bologna. He did an excellent job.

My son and I enjoyed a visit to Bologna under the very able guidance of our tour guide, Andrea Bertolucci. We found Andrea to be well-informed, thorough and comfortable to spend time with. His personality enhanced the experience for us and we greatly enjoyed our time with him. We would highly recommend Andrea should you be looking for a tour guide in Bologna (and surrounding areas).

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.

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

Paolina personalized the tour with a lot of history and stories to tie in the surroundings so it all came together. She is also originally from the US, so it was easy to bond with her and understand it all from a different view.

We were told that Milan was a vibrant city, but we didn't fall in love with it until we met Barbara (who is also quite vibrant herself!) She was everything we look for in a guide to a city that we do not know. She absolutely adores Milan and it shows! Her extensive knowledge of the dramatic history of Milan, its frequently changing foreign conquerors, its fluctuating role in Italian politics and religion and in how Italy finally came to become a unified country, and most importantly in how the average citizen’s daily life was often turned upside down, was simply fascinating—and entertaining. There wasn't a single question we asked that Barbara could not quickly answer, summoning extensive details and connections to other pieces of information and history. And we loved how her vivid behind-the-scenes details and anecdotes brought famous historical figures to life for us. She has a warm personality, and is in addition, both fun and funny. She should produce her own show on Netflix!

I arrived in Bologna a couple of hours before my tour. I was overwhelmed by the city and did not understand or connect with it. Within the first fifteen minutes of being with Paolina that all changed. She was warm and welcoming. Her passion and enthusiasm for her beloved Bologna was infectious. Each new place she guided me to was more beautiful and interesting than the last. Each new secret she revealed to me made me love the city a little bit more. I began to appreciate and understand the character of the city and the people who inhabited it. By the end of my three hour tour I felt like I had only scratched the surface of the most beautiful city I had ever seen. I changed my travel plans so that I could return for two more days. This time, I will stay in the historic city center and explore a city that is already familiar to me. I am excited to return and that is entirely because of Paolina. I was interested in having Paolina because of her many positive reviews and was able to request her as a tour guide through City Unscripted. I highly recommend that you do the same! This tour made me realize that I should be booking tours in every new city I visit. I hope my future guides are half as good as Paolina! She even gifted me a little tortellini magnet because of my passion for pasta.

I arrived in Bologna a couple of hours before my tour. I was overwhelmed by the city and did not understand or connect with it. Within the first fifteen minutes of being with Paolina that all changed. She was warm and welcoming. Her passion and enthusiasm for her beloved Bologna was infectious. Each new place she guided me to was more beautiful and interesting than the last. Each new secret she revealed to me made me love the city a little bit more. I began to appreciate and understand the character of the city and the people who inhabited it. By the end of my three hour tour I felt like I had only scratched the surface of the most beautiful city I had ever seen. I changed my travel plans so that I could return for two more days. This time, I will stay in the historic city center and explore a city that is already familiar to me. I am excited to return and that is entirely because of Paolina. I was interested in having Paolina because of her many positive reviews and was able to request her as a tour guide through City Unscripted. I highly recommend that you do the same! This tour made me realize that I should be booking tours in every new city I visit. I hope my future guides are half as good as Paolina! She even gifted me a little tortellini magnet because of my passion for pasta. A true cultural ambassador for Emilia Romagna and Italy, especially Bologna.

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!

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.

A casual walking tour with Alberto was a great introduction to Bologna. Alberto is friendly and very knowledgeable about the city, highly recommended

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.

Marina was wonderful and happy to accommodate us as we wanted to enjoy central Bologna but we were all pretty tired. We really enjoyed her conversation and topics and enjoyed the evening with her!

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.

I enjoyed the personalised tour rather than being in a group. Nice to have a coffee with my guide and hear about life in Bologna. Good general knowledge of the city without overbearing minute historical detail. I ‘felt’ the ambiance and background rather that it being a direct school trip

Alex was the perfect guide to introduce us to Bologna! We did the kick start tour which took us around the main sights and orientated us to the city. Alex gave a great balance of history, architecture, interesting stories and a fabulous lunch recommendation. The tour was perfect!

Alex, our guide was terrific, knowledgeable, interesting, caring and charming. We enjoyed every moment.

Una guía profesional, preparada, y amable….! Conoce lo que expone y lo hace con gentileza y es amigable. A professional, prepared, and friendly guide….! He knows what he is saying and he does it gently and friendly.

Our visit with Fiore was wonderful! She is an excellent guide! Saluti!

We had a wonderful afternoon with Fiore! She showed us the Secrets of Bologna as well as the major highlights. I had got injured the day before and had to use a wheelchair, she adjusted without hesitation. She was fun, personable and left us with a list of restaurants and other sites!

The history of Bologna we received from our guide. She showed us around the whole plaza and pointed out several secrets from years back. We also were able to taste the best of Bologna.