We will be in Venice 2 days pre-cruise and 3 days post-cruise. A prior trip to Italy was wonderful with the help of the Fodor forums - private guides in Rome and Florence exceeded expectations.

I need help with Venice Italy now, please.

Dates are early October. We will be on the Grandeur of the Seas and Greek Isle tours. All help is appreciated. Thank you.

We very much enjoyed our tours with Walks of Italy ( www.walksofitaly.com ), and they offer some great tours in Venice. Also if you are planning things in advance, try and get access to the secret rooms of the doge's palace. We missed it when we were there because all the slots were filled. Good luck!

We have used Roberta Curiel from walksinsidevenice.com
She is a life long resident and speaks very good English.

I am grateful for your advice and will look into both suggestions. We have time. Thank you.

Do you have any advice for Santorini, Mykonos, Split Croatia, Corfu, Crete?

Contact Tours by Roberto at: https://sites.google.com/site/toursb.../home/about-us.

We used his referral guide in Venice last year and she was wonderful.

For Venice, I highly recommend the lovely Nan McIlroy http://yourfriendinvenice.com/

She's happy to customize, is clear about her pricing, offers lots of suggestions and is prompt with email communications.

Not sure if this will help: http://bookboon.com/en/travel-guides...e/rome-english -free e-book travel guide download.

Thank you all. Loveners, can you tell me more about the tour(s) you took with Nan McIlroy? I have contacted her and she sounds lovely - just like you said.

All booked for pre and post cruise with Nan. Thank you so much for the advice all!

Our plans changed and we arrived a few days earlier than originally planned. This resulted in confusion with our initial tour but as luck would have it, we were able to attend a wine tasting instead. How fun!

Nan McElroy was a lovely American in Venice and a pleasure to deal with. Our guides for both a walk through Venice and the Doges Palace were knowledgable and fun. I highly recommend her.