Laney Sachs

“For seasoned clients that typically travel several times a year, they had a lot to make up for the past few years.”

Regions of operation: Europe

Countries of expertise: Italy, Portugal

Special categories: Food, Wine

What do you do that competing specialists can’t/won’t:

Having traveled to Italy over 30 times and personally taken over 100 clients on small group trips, I know what clients are looking for in Italy. I know the off the beaten path experiences clients want to have, but also know that they don't want to miss the highlights of the major cities. With my incredible network of local in-country partners, hotels, drivers and guides, I provide my clients with a very personal, local and intimate experience.

What is one of your all-time favorite experiences you've been able to pull off for guests?

I have a client who had applied for Italian citizenship as his grandparents emigrated from Italy. It is a long process and requires certified copies of the family's vital records. He was planning a trip to Italy and to his ancestral small town in Puglia. I arranged for a local guide to make the appointment at town hall, to act as translator and to arrange for the necessary documents. And the guide returned to the office two weeks later to collect the documents and ship them back to the clients in the U.S. In the end, the client received his Italian citizenship.

How do you deal with unforeseen issues on the ground?

I always work with my in-country local partners or directly with a hotel so I have people I can contact to take care of my clients. A few years ago, I had clients in Florence and their next stop was to be Venice. Unfortunately, Venice was experiencing unprecedented flooding and the Venice hotel said the clients wouldn't be able to arrive. I had to quickly find a destination nearby they would enjoy and for it to be a seamless transition. I worked directly with another hotel in a beautiful (and drier) part of Italy, and we arranged a car to pick up the clients in Florence and take them to Umbria where they spent a magical and unexpected three days. This was done while I was in Africa with limited communications and connectivity.