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THANK YOU NOTES & TESTIMONIALS

““I booked five days in Naples in November as a birthday treat for my wife. Initial research on the Internet and in tour guides easily identified the major sites of interest but I wanted us to leave Naples with more than just a check list of monuments visited. Any fool can do that, including this one!

I chanced by luck upon Sophia's website. What serendipity! Her promise to be able to create a bespoke walking tour ticked all the boxes for me, all the more remarkable since I had not even considered the personal tour option until that point.

I called Sophia and told her what I had in mind and she told me what was possible and achievable. She could not have been more helpful and accommodating.

On the day, Sophia met us at our hotel in the Centro Storico, which proved to be in a perfect locale. 

There ensued the most perfect few hours in Sophia's company, culminating with a delicious late lunch in one of the many trattorias she seems to know so well. We stepped inside former palaces, convents and monasteries, private courtyards and homes, alimantares and pasterias. We chanced upon an award winning nativity crib craftsman, (who turned down a significant sum from a certain former Italian Prime Minister to purchase it) a figurine making workshop, a shoe heel maker, saw how local pasties* (can't remember Italian name) are made and we met the founder and owner of Popella, the current King of Italian pastry making. Everywhere Sophia took us it was clear that she is well known and well loved. At the end of the tour, we had lunch together, reviewing and absorbing all we had seen, as well as discussing what we might do over the last three days of our stay.

Sophia kept in touch and made herself available for help, ideas and suggestions throughout our five day stay. She arranged, at short notice, an excellent private guide for us for our visit to Heraculaneum, recommended places to eat, places to visit and booked a table for our last night's dinner at a seafood restaurant she had recommended to us. 

For someone who has conducted well lots of such tours, Sophia would be forgiven for developing and settling into a set itinerary with a "pat" commentary. It felt to me as if Sophia was leading our walk for the very first time given how her enthusiasm, energy, passion, fun and vivacious personality were infectious and enchanting. 

Sophia has adopted Naples as her home and it is clear that the Neapolitans have adopted Sophia, as one of their own. With her degree in Fine Art and Italian, combined with a love of history, Sophia has a depth and richness of knowledge about Naples which a foreigner rarely acquires. 

Sophia's walking tour provided precisely the "under the skin" and the "Naples uncovered" experience that I was hoping for and it will live long in the memory.

We could only scratch the surface of what Naples has to offer and there is much still to experience in the years ahead. 

Make no mistake, when we return to Naples we will arrange another walk with Sophia so that we can not only learn more about this city which is overflowing with a huge array of incredible jewels but also spend several hours in the company of a very special young lady. Thank you, Sophia xx””. James Marjoribanks

““I spent maybe 3-4 hours with Sophia walking and using public transport exploring the different neighbourhoods of Naples. She has a lovely way of chatting naturally and with genuine interest: both with me and with anyone we met along the way. Sophia introduces market sellers, bakers, shop-keepers and local tradespeople along the path of the tour. It was all organic and natural. Nothing is too planned and nothing is staged. it is very fluid and personal.  I visited the neighbourhood where the two girls apparently grew up. I saw the school and went inside the library. Seeing the neighbourhood just crystalizes the strength of the stories in my mind and I feel so lucky to have been there. But it was so much more than just a visit to places from the Ferrante novels. Sophia's Italian is fluent and she has a great knowledge of the social, political and economic history of the country which adds even greater depth to the tour. She also knows which coffee you should drink at a certain time of day and where to buy this coffee from along with the best Sfogliatella that I ate on my entire trip.  She recommended a restaurant which turned out to be another highlight. She kindly shared some photos of the morning with me when I'd been too shy to take my own. I was absolutely delighted that I chose to go on a tour with Sophia. It made my trip to Italy and Naples in particular an absolute highlight of 2018. It also convinced me without any doubt that a (good) tour guide can change your whole experience of a city/place in just a few hours. I cant wait to return to Naples.”” Phil and Clare, UK 

“Sophia organised a fantastic weekend in Naples for us.  There is no way that we would have come away loving or feeling we understood Naples as much as we did without her efforts, and those of the local Neapolitans she brought in to help, from the Gennaro who met us at the airport to Amadeo and Chiara who led us around for a day, they all burst with their enthusiasm and love for the city.  It was infectious, and we all fell in love with the place too. Every minute of our short stay was perfectly orchestrated, from relaxing in the piazzas to hunting down some hidden producer of local delicacies, it was all so memorable. I could not recommend Sophia’s input onto anyone else’s stay more”. Paul Keeling

  

""We could not recommend Sophia more highly. Not only did she take us to the most amazing places, places we would never have thought of going to by ourselves, but she provided lots of ideas for us to do and booked restaurants for the rest of our time too.


We all loved her walk . My ten year old said ‘ I feel like a person in that Locatelli programme, please can we do it again tomorrow?’ And he is not generally a fan of such things. My 13 year old is into vintage fashion, Sophia found us the finest vintage fashion market in Europe.

With Sophia we saw catacombs filled with skulls and offerings, hidden courtyards of Baroque palaces, a little bakery with the best cream buns I have ever eaten, a seventeenth century nativity scene. And we heard so much about the people, from a street of feminist drug dealers (I never  saw more respectable women in my life) to a priest revitalising the scruffiest area to a communist squat. After a morning we felt that we knew parts Naples better than after a month with a guide book . Any member of the family or close friend who goes to Naples, I am fixing them up with this as a present." Miranda Worsley, London

“After having spent many holidays on the islands in the bay of Naples, we decided this year to also explore the true city of Naples. Our own guide books had earlier taken us to the most famous museums, but to experience the daily life of the city we realized that help was needed. We found Sophia Seymour on the Internet and what a perfect match it turned out to be. Sophia picked us up at our hotel in the morning and after an espresso at the local bar, Sophia took us around by foot in her home town for more than five hours including lunch. We were taken to places which we would never had found on our own such as the small local markets, bars with the best pastries in town and historical buildings you would never find in a guide book. Sophia’s professional and charming guidance to her city of Naples met our expectations in full.” Torbjörn Wängemar & Ulla Hermann, Stockholm, Sweden

“Sophia, magically distils her passion for the vast and varied Neapolitan story into a delightful morning stroll and makes one feel like a traveller rather than a tourist.” Lulu Benson

"Looking for Lila is an utterly unique tour company. Whether Sophia takes you on her Ferrante, food, historical or hidden naples tour, she will lead you around her Naples – a city not always easy for the first-time visitor – and inevitably make you fall in love with its ramshackle beauty and mysterious ways. You'll hear stories, meet colourful characters, eat pasta with cabbage and cream pastries galore, drink wine from a barrel and be reminded constantly to keep looking in because, you will learn, things aren't always as they seem in Naples. Never has a city so been brought to life for me in a couple of days. Thank you, Sophia." Mina Holland, Editor of Guardian Cook

"We were shown round Naples by Sophia in late November. She was wonderfully enthusiastic and incredibly knowledgeable of Naples ‘s history and its architecture, but equally important the unseen side of the city which I suspect is not on the usual guided tour. “ Look left and right” is her motto to catch the intriguing foibles that exist behind the streets from an unearthed amphi theatre behind someones apartment to intricate staircases now in disrepair and a weird cemetary in a disused quarry!. Do not be put off by the poor state of the city, Sophia's enthusiasm brings a beautiful city alive.""  Simon Troughton, UK

""Whopping success and thank you so so much for making their trip so successful. What did you end up going to see as they said you were simply amazing?"" Bellini Travel

""Elena and Mina absolutely adored you and said you were completely amazing at guiding and fixing and generally making their piece come to life"" Bellini Travel

""Sophia, made it ALL happen! She was incredible. I think that part of the reason she knows Naples so well is that she has such a wonderful way with people. Everyone warmed to her and wanted to help. We could not have done it without her, I'm pretty sure Mina feels the same way! I could write a whole essay singing her praise."" Elena Featherwick, Photographer, UK

""Just to repeat that we found Sophia's enthusiasm for Naples infectious and the detailed research she had clearly undertaken enabled us to put things into a illuminated historical context. We loved the fact that in addition to seeing some of the more traditional sights she took us through the back streets of Naples which enabled us to get a real feel for the lives of the local people."" Janey Marsh, UK

 ""Thank you for all the time and effort you spent on giving us a very memorable day in Naples. We all really enjoyed it"" Sara Foreman, Wales.

""A huge THANKYOU for our absorbing and really fascinating Naples tour: you have a treasure trove of a city and you definitely bring it to life in a wonderfully vibrant fashion. We are all so grateful that we were lucky enough to have you to ourselves -and lunch was such fun and absolutely worth any wait!Very much luck to you and great appreciation for your inspiring and energetic company,"" Nicky and Geoff Brown, UK