Your Exclusive Gateway
to Tuscany and Italy
Exclusive Journeys
by Ariela Bankier
Travel Italy Guru is your exclusive gateway to Italy’s culinary, cultural and artisanal treasures: Plan your trip to Italy with us or join one of our incredible food and wine tours and classes in Tuscany and beyond!
Led by Travel Expert, enogastronomic guide and best-selling guidebook author Ariela Bankier, we cater to discerning travelers with a taste for the extraordinary. Our team leverages nearly 20 years of experience and trusted connections to curate the perfect bespoke vacation for you and your group. Travel Italy Guru prioritizes quality and authenticity, and can cater to a variety of budgets. As a boutique agency, we pride ourselves on our unparalleled customer service.
Nahal and Amit, USA
Thank you very much, Ariela, for a very experiential day, for interesting explanations and stories, for professionalism, knowledge and a warm and cordial attitude.
Nancy, USA
Our visit to Tuscany would not have been the same without Ariela's expertise. She is not only a sommelier, but also a cheese and olive oil expert, which greatly enhanced our experiences.
Theresa, USA
“We truly enjoyed your company were blown away by the choices and the tour you put together for us!”
Beth, USA
Our farm and wine tour in the Chianti hills was incredible. Anyone visiting Tuscany should book a tour with Ariela ASAP!
Restor and Sally, USA
Your expertise and enthusiasm made it a truly special experience for us
Avigail, USA
She planned every day in detail with great recommendation for restaurants and wineries in each and every city we visited, and gave us detailed instructions for every element of the trip.
Bric , USA
Ariela, many thanks for your hard work, advice and support along the way. Our visit was so much more enriching thanks to you. I’ll be sure to sing your praises among my friends!
Shelley and Joe, USA
This was a very special trip that required a lot of planning.
Maya, USA
Her passion is infectious! We had actually changed our plans to be able to go on a tour with her
Angie and Marc, USA
it was one of our favorite highlights in a 10-day long trip to Italy.
Rod and Mary Jo, USA
I loved the detail that she included for each excursion; parking, restaurants, and sites. Those details made it so much easier to cover a lot of Tuscany.
Steve, USA
It was truly one of the highlights of our trip!!
Patricia And Richard, USA
The tour guides you set up were both wonderful; we learned a lot and enjoyed their delivery.
Deb And Jack, USA
Thank you for creating us such an awesome experience on our Tuscan journey!! Everything was above our expectations!!!
Meredith, USA
Ariela is a true professional, she is deeply knowledgeable and passionate about Italy, and all things food and wine.
Julie, USA
If we visited the area again, we would definitely use her tour service again.
juliana, USA
We had such a great time that she’s now working on our second trip to the Amalfi coast and Puglia.
Beth, USA
We got to do the unique things and the more common ones. WE HAD THE TRIP OF A LIFETIME-MOSTLY DUE TO ARIELA.
Herb, USA
She arranged a wonderful day for us, including cheese and wine tasting at a goat farm, a lovely lunch in the countryside, and a private wine tour.
Melissa, USA
She made a wonderful itinerary for us based on what we wanted to do and it was perfect.
meg, USA
I'm glad to say that the experience exceeded our expectations.
Jaclyne, USA
We all agreed it was one of our favorite days of our Tuscany vacation and that was largely in part to Ariela!
Ferna And Galen, USA
One of the highlights was having Ariela herself guide us on a fantastic food tour in Florence, as well as a memorable day trip to a cheese farm and winery.
M. Jackson, Texas
Ariela helped create unique, memorable experiences that I’m confident we would never have discovered on our own.
How Can We Help?
Whether it’s a food & wine tour, a cooking class, a guided museum visit, or a truffle-hunting adventure, we offer the most memorable experiences. From personalized itineraries to expert advice, we’re here to make your trip unforgettable.
Recommendations
Our Clients Say
We visited San Gimignano with Ariela on a tasting tour of the most select places, and then we went with her on a tour of a cheese-making farm, where a delicious meal from raw materials produced on the farm awaited us.
At the end of the tour, we visited a local Tuscan winery in the Chianti region, where we tasted the types of wines produced there, toured the winery and heard interesting explanations about the production process and the lives of the locals.
Along the way, we traveled the famous and magical wine route, and heard the learned and fascinating explanations of Ariela, who has extensive knowledge and rich experience in Tuscan life and local cuisine.
Thank you very much, Ariela, for a very experiential day, for interesting explanations and stories, for professionalism, knowledge and a warm and cordial attitude.
Highly recommended for anyone interested in touring the Tuscan countryside."
Nahal and Amit, USA
"Our farm and wine tour in the Chianti hills was incredible. Anyone visiting Tuscany should book a tour with Ariela ASAP!"
Beth, USA
"We contacted Ariela to plan our trip to the Italian Riviera /Tuscany - 2 families traveling with kids and very focused on culinary experiences. Ariela was amazing from the beginning. Very knowledgeable & responsive, she understood immediately exactly what we are looking for and built the perfect trip for us. Finding and focusing us to the right villas (we we’re looking for almost a month and after her suggestions booked the next day and all 3 Villas we booked from her suggestions were great). She planned every day in detail with great recommendation for restaurants and wineries in each and every city we visited, and gave us detailed instructions for every element of the trip. (Roads, driving, fairies, trains…). On one of the days my husband lost his glasses in the ocean. It was already evening and he was supposed to drive early the next morning we were concerned our plans will need to change - Ariela immediately guided us to the next town where we were able to get him contacts and get back to our plans in less then an hour. We had contacted Ariela after having had a negative experience with a different traveler planner. The difference was immediately noticeable and I am so glad we found her. She made our trip!" Avigail, USA
Avigail, USA
"Ariela, many thanks for your hard work, advice and support along the way. Our visit was so much more enriching thanks to you. I’ll be sure to sing your praises among my friends!"
Bric , USA
"We had the most amazing time with Ariela! This is our first time in Pisa and what better way to explore then with food. Ariela shared history of Pisa, its architecture, the food we were tasting as well as their producers, We only tasted the very best locally sourced food and wow you can truly taste the quality. Ariela, thank you for showing us a fabulous time in Pisa. It was truly one of the highlights of our trip!!"
Steve, USA
"Ariela, thank you for partnering with us to make a very memorable visit to beautiful Italy…. The itinerary worked out well in terms of travel time and sights included. Your recommendations for lunch and dinner were wonderful and we really enjoyed the wine tours; each was different and all had very good tour guides and well set up tastings. The tour guides you set up were both wonderful; we learned a lot and enjoyed their delivery."
