Bologna Private Highlights & Hidden Gems Tour With A Local

We had a wonderful experience with our guide, Paolina. Great communication before the tour so we knew where to meet her. Friendly, knowledgeable and kind. She showed us many wonderful things and places in Bologna, and the history of both the city and her own family. We went at our own pace with no rush or hsssle. It was delightful. Highly recommend Paolina and City Unscripted for individualized tours and personalized experiences. A+++

We had a fantastic time with Paolina. She went at our pace and showed us all the wonderful secret spots, history and spectacular architecture that Bologna has to offer. It was a perfect day exploring a city we had never been to with a very personal and customized tour. We would absolutely recommend Paolina and City Unscripted again, and we would book her for another tour without hesitation.

We had a lovely morning with Nikola in Bologna. He packed so much into to hours and provided a wonderful overview of the highlights of the Old City of Bologna as well as made several great recommendations for dining and things to do afterward on our own. There is no way we could have discovered all of this on our own!

We took a private customized tour with Nicola and did not give him much input into what we wanted, but he seemed to sense that we wanted to see different things form the usual, since we’d been to Bologna twice before. He’s very engaging and open, and we learned a lot.

Nicola was a true gentleman who cared what we wanted to see and taste. He went beyond simply providing a tour. By the time we had finished our tour we felt he was a friend. He took us to some great place with wonderful food we would not have experienced otherwise. He even provided us dinner options for the rest of our stay in Bologna, then on to Florence and Rome. If you want to experience great Bolognese food, ask for Nicola. You will not be sorry.

We had an amazing experience on the private highlights and hidden gems walking tour of Bologna with Paolina! She was an excellent guide who even picked us up at our accommodation to start the tour, which was such a thoughtful touch. As a young couple, we really appreciated how engaging, fun, and entertaining she made the experience. She showed us all the must-see spots in central Bologna while sharing hidden gems and fascinating history along the way. Since Paolina is originally from America, she was able to explain things in a way that was easy to understand and relatable, which made the history even more interesting. We walked away with so much knowledge about Bologna and a much greater appreciation for the city. She even followed up afterward with restaurant recommendations, which was incredibly helpful! We would HIGHLY recommend Paolina to anyone visiting Bologna. If you want a tour that combines history, local insights, hidden gems, and a genuinely wonderful guide, book with her! It was one of the highlights of our trip.

Andrea was a perfect guide, he lead us through the hidden gems of Bologna and was extremely knowledgeable and easy to understand!! This was a great tour that we would highly recommend!!

Nicola is one of the best guides I have had. Very knowledgeable about history and culture of Bologna. He was friendly, easy to speak with and we had a lot of fun. Super!

Paulina shared so many fun facts and gems about Bologna. Walked and talked at a good pace. Paused when needed for the group. Loved she shared her personal experience in Bologna. She really was wonderful, kind and welcoming. A great way to start our vacation in a place we were not familiar with.

The tour we took with Paulina was a great way to get an overview of Bologna. Not only was she very generous with her time, but she showed us the highlights of the city, providing us with a great plan for what to do with our remaining time in the city.

Nicola filled a three hour tour with history and insight on Bologna that brought the city to life. He tailored the tour to our interests and provided us with an excellent list of restaurants and gelato that made the visit extra special.

Our guide, Nicola, was excellent. He has deep knowledge of Italian history, which made his tour super informative. I was particularly interested in the history of Bologna during the 1930 as background for a novel. Not only did Nicola provide valuable insights into the city at that time, he provide resources that I can use for further research. He was also very personable and attentive to our questions and interests, which personalized our tour even more. What a great guide!

We had Diego for a 2 hour tour. Very personable and knowledgeable. We ran into a problem as we were not ‘properly dressed’ to go into the church and he told us the church was not to be missed. Rather than go back to our hotel, which meant losing an hour, we had to go shopping for me to buy a shawl and for my husband to buy long pants since he was in shorts. That took a chunk of time. If this was true, we should have been informed ahead of time how to dress by someone at the company. We get to the church, and I noticed most of the men were in shorts and quite a few of them with their knees showing which he said was going to keep us out. There also seemed to not be a plan, sort of directionless with asking us what we would like. We also had just completed a food tour, so some of his thoughts were duplication. I had mentioned that before when we texted but he was not familiar with that food tour. That was also a curveball We had one idea and he was good at a pivot to that idea. This all could have been discussed prior. We leave in the morning so if we did miss sights, we are out of luck.

Paolina was fantastic…very knowledgeable and made the tour fun. We covered a lot of sites and provided a great overview of Bologna

Terrific experience. Such a knowledgeable and interesting/entertaining guide. Highly recommend!

Great tour with Nicola. Very knowledgeable and informative with facts about historical Bologna.

His enthusiasm for the city of Bologna was contagious. He let us take our time to see the sites as well as answered many questions. And we were looking for a special gift to take back to the US and he helped us identify the perfect one.

Andrea was an excellent tour guide! This was an awesome tour that felt like it gave just the right amount of information. I enjoyed getting the lesser known sites along with the major interest point.

Private tour is a good idea Diogo was knowledgeable & pleasant He didn’t have a plan - made the tour feel bit aimless Lot of walking without knowing what was next!! We were asked for preference - couldn’t have one - being first time in Bologna Better with a structure

What a fun way to discover Bologna!!! Loved our guide. Loved the stops! Upgraded the wine experience was nice but not necessary. We stopped in great places. Tried great foods.

Personalized tour of Bologna with Lorenza was wonderful. Lorenza shared the love of her city and helped us to find many hidden gems. We highly recommend this tour.

Antonia was a fantastic guide. Her knowledge of all the sites and history was amazing. She was a pleasure to spend time with. Thank you!

Lorenza was wonderful. She gave us the authentic Bolognese history at our pace and helped us with recommendations based on our interests. I will look them up in every travel destination!

We had a wonderful experience with Antonia. She was very friendly and she gave a wonderful tour in Bologna. We had a good time and learned a lot about Bologna.

Diego was amazing! Full of energy very knowledgeable about Bologna! Highly recommend he is a lot of fun and engaging.

Andrea is very friendly, knowledgable, flexible, and importantly his love for the city of Bologna comes across loud and clear. We felt very fortunate to have him as our guide.

The walk was not rigorous, very pleasant pace. Guide was very personable. Lots of little tidbits of information.

We had an excellent tour with Nicola. He was a very knowledgeable and personable guide. We had a lot of fun:) We’d highly recommended this tour with Nicola!

We really enjoyed our tour with Nicola! We learned a lot about the city and got to try some local foods. I enjoyed how he started the tour from the outside of the city and we worked our way in to learn about the layers of history. This worked for us because we came in from the train just for the day.

We had an amazing 3hr private tour with Jonathan! Very easy to communicate with via WhatsApp and arranged for an easy meetup location as well. Jonathan sent us a wealth of information about Bologna ahead of our tour. He was extremely knowledgeable about Bologna, it's history, and it's food! He was incredibly helpful with recommendations for places to shop and dine as well - and his recommendations were excellent. Would 100% recommend him to anyone visiting Bologna!

Nicola was fantastic and very knowledgeable. He structured a great itinerary for the time we had. Highly recommend him and this tour!

Andrea was great. Informative, pleasant and made the experience like a walk with a friend.

We had an amazing experience with Claudio through City Unscripted. Claudio was an outstanding guide—friendly, professional, and incredibly knowledgeable about the history of Bologna. He shared fascinating stories that brought the city to life and gave us fantastic recommendations for local restaurants and hidden gems that we never would have found on our own. City Unscripted did a wonderful job matching us with someone who truly loves what he does. Claudio made us feel like we were exploring the city with a knowledgeable local friend rather than just taking a tour. We highly recommend both City Unscripted and Claudio to anyone visiting Bologna. Thank you for making our day so memorable!

Claudio was welcoming and knowledgeable. He planned our tour around our needs. He has very good English which allowed us to have fun and delivered an interactive afternoon. He also went the extra mile making recommendations for, and helping us to book, a couple of wonderful restaurants. The communication prior to the tour was excellent too. Would highly recommend

We were lucky to have such a knowledgeable, thoughtful guide in Lorenza. We were able to experience and learn a lot in a very short amount of time. We were thrilled with her authenticity and passion for the city, its history, and culture. She did a wonderful job of tailoring the experience to our interests!

We had an amazing 3hr private tour with Jonathan! Very easy to communicate with via WhatsApp and arranged for an easy pickup location as well. Jonathan sent us a wealth of information about Bologna ahead of our tour. He was extremely knowledgeable about Bologna, it's history, and it's food! He was incredibly helpful with recommendations for places to shop and dine as well. Would 100% recommend him to anyone visiting Bologna!

Nicola was a fantastic guide, showing us all the interesting & historical parts of Bologna at a gentle pace. We never could have done it by ourselves. Highly recommend.

Paolina, our guide, gave an extensive and thorough historical tour of Bologna. A worthwhile tour. Would highly recommend!

From the moment I connected with Paolina over the phone to plan our visit she was meant to be our guide. Fun, witty, caring, and passionate about the city of Bologna. We were whisked away to another time with her detailed stories of popes, leaders and women. She pointed out art that had gone unnoticed by us. We will never look at any city the same. Hidden faces, hidden works of art, hidden stories within walking distance of our hotel. It was nice to be wrapped up in Italian culture with someone who knew the language as well as being from Wisconsin! She is a delight. I told her to not change a thing. I have no negative feedback to give. She is a perfect tour leader!

This was such a wonderful experience for the 4 of us. Paolina, our private tour guide, was EXCEPTIONAL!! Her knowledge of the area and its vast history was just what we wanted. As my husband was a history major it was great to a share and glean from Each other. This tour was so much better since it was private. We asked lots of questions. Don’t miss out on this special Treat.

Very informative and fun. Let us kind of give our nyerest and the. Tailored the trip to us. Very nice day

Fantastic 3 hour walking tour of Bologna exploring the history of the city and its amazing buildings. Cristiano was a brilliant guide and made sure we packed so much into our time. Would highly recommend.

Andrea was awesome! From the time that we booked the tour, he was in contact asking about what sort of things we were interwstdd in seeing and learning about. Based on that he tailored the tour to those subjects. He was right on time and met us at the hotel. We went right over to the main town square where he gave us some history about the different churches and government buildings while also taking us through the town hall to a balcony over looking the square that I'm sure most people don't know about. We peppered him with questions as we walked about the city and he was very knowledgeable about all subjects concerning Bologna both historically and today. He is completely fluent in English and gets nuance about sarcasm. He can also recommend great places for Gelato and dinner in the city. 100% would recommend him as a guide for your trip to Bologna.

Our guide, Claudio, was very knowledgeable, patient and accommodating. We enjoyed the whole tour, which was personalised to our interests and adjusted on the day. Would definitely recommend especially if you don’t like group activities.

It was a delightful two hours with Claudio. He was very friendly, kind and knowledgable. He covered much of Bologna's history as well as current favorite restaurants. Our tour with him covered lots of ground but was so interesting that we never felt overwhelmed or tired. Really happy that we were introduced to some of the best places to see near the City Centre of Bologna.

Christiano was an excellent tour guide and showed us many sights of Bologna. The history and tension between Bologna and the papacy/Rome was very interesting. He also showed how intertwined the University is with the city. Teens, parents and a grandparent - everyone stayed engaged and learned a great deal about a city we'd never seen before this trip.

You will learn a lot of interest facts about Bologna. Our guide Paulina was able to give a unique perspective since she was born in America but has spent so much time in the area. We chose the 2 hour tour due to our own time constraints, but I recommend at least 3 hours because there is so much to see

Nicola was a wonderful guide on my first visit to Bologna. Unfortunately my wife was not feeling well so it was just Nicola and me for 3+ hours. What a pleasant and informative time. It was like strolling with a new young friend -- who happened to know so much about so many topics. A history major with knowledge of architecture, geography, food, culture and more. Perfect English. Totally adaptable. Could not have been better.

I booked the “Bologna Private Highlights & Hidden Gems Tour with a Local” during my visit to Bologna, and it was hands down one of the best experiences of my trip. My guide, Christiano, was absolutely exceptional—friendly, passionate, incredibly knowledgeable, and clearly proud of his city. From the very beginning, Christiano made Bologna come alive through its history, architecture, traditions, and stories. We visited many of the city’s iconic landmarks, including the Basilica, historic statues and monuments, and the famous towers. Beyond the major sites, he also introduced me to hidden gems and local details that I would have completely missed exploring on my own. What impressed me most was Christiano’s ability to weave together historical facts, local legends, and insights into the culture and everyday life of the people of Bologna. Every stop had a story, and his enthusiasm was contagious. I left not only with beautiful photos but with a genuine understanding and appreciation of the city and its people. As a solo traveler, I especially appreciated how engaging and personalized the experience felt. It was like spending the day with a local friend who happened to know everything about Bologna. 100/100 highly recommend this tour! If you’re lucky enough to get Christiano as your guide, you’re in for an unforgettable experience. Bologna is a beautiful city, and Christiano is the perfect person to help you discover it.