You Don’t Need a Travel Agent to Plan a Great Trip to Italy

If you’ve ever thought of planning a trip to Italy, you already know the problem. You open Instagram for inspiration. Then Google, or TikTok, and maybe even Reddit. Then a hotel website, and another blog, and BANG, before long, you have 47 tabs open, a Google Map covered in pins, but absolutely no idea whether any of it actually makes sense together.

How do you turn all of those individual recommendations into one trip that actually works? That is why I created Italy with Isa. I’ve done it for myself, as well as many others, and I can help you too.

Before I get more into this website, let me take a minute to introduce myself. As you probably guessed from the name, I did not bury the lead, my name is Isabella. I grew up in the United States, more specifically in Northern Virginia, but now my life is full-time in Rome, Italy.

In high school I was blessed to be able to travel on a couple school exchange programs. I hosted a student from France and it was reciprocated with ten days there. It was exciting and fun, but after ten days I was ready to come home. The next year I hosted a Chinese student, then got to go to China for ten days. It was exciting and fascinating and so different from everything else! But, again, after 10 days I was ready to come home. Then, one summer in high school, I took my first trip to- Italy, and immediately, I knew I was home.

The minute my plane touched down, I fell in love. I was completely obsessed with, well, everything. From the sites, to the food, to the people, to the language–just the totality. I’m not sure I can describe it as anything other than a sensazione viscerale, or gut feeling, something inside telling me this is where I was meant to be. The minute I finished high school, I hopped on a plane, bound for adventure.

I studied at a small American university in Rome, majoring in business for practicality, and art history for avocation. After a few incredibly fast years, I found myself with a degree but in need of a job, or any lifeline, to be able to stay in the one city that truly felt like home.

That's when my career started. Getting into the tourism industry was a joyful synchronicity. Something that just fell into my lap by a happy accident. It was the perfect way to combine my practical business background with my love and knowledge of art history.

I first started at a tour operator, working with clients and their immediate logistics like directing them to meeting points. Then I moved up to a luxury destination management company, or DMC where I started behind-the-scenes, working directly with hotels and suppliers. That is where I truly built my career and progressed into the planning, tailoring, and personalizing of trips for clients throughout Italy.

So, back to this site specifically.

One of the biggest things I’ve learned through my profession is that it’s hard to plan a great trip without experience. That’s why, of course, some people would rather hand everything over to someone else. They don’t want to spend hours researching hotels, comparing destinations, or figuring out which experiences are actually worth their time. And they can afford the premiums attached to such services, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

But that’s not who I created this site for. I created it for the curious traveler. The person who wants to know why one hotel is better suited to their trip than another. Who wants to see all of their options, not just the two that someone else selected for them. Someone who enjoys researching, comparing, discovering, and ultimately having a hand in every detail of their trip, but wants the ease of doing it in one place.

In other words, I want to help you be your own travel agent, and I want to make it easy (and fun!).

The most important thing you need is good information, all in one place. That’s what Italy with Isa is designed to provide. You can explore the best places to visit, compare hotels by style and location, learn how to plan your days, and understand how each piece fits into the bigger picture of your trip.

Instead of opening dozens of tabs and trying to piece together conflicting advice, you can explore your options, click into a destination or experience, and decide for yourself whether it belongs in your itinerary. You don’t need years of experience planning trips to Italy. You just need the right information and the freedom to make your own choices.

And that brings me back to why I created this site in the first place. I’m not pretending to sell you that I know everything about every country I’ve ever visited. My career is exclusively focused on Italy, and only Italy. Italy I know.

I want to share that knowledge with you so you can use it to create a trip that is completely your own.

So, if you’re curious, ready to plan, and want to be involved in creating the details of your next Italian adventure, welcome. You’re exactly who I built this for.

A dopo,
Isabella