My reviews

  From the second we met Anna my son and I were made so welcome. Her knowledge an understanding of both the,as we discovered four not one, battle was fantastic. The... read more visit to the abbey was breathtaking. We were given so much information all relevant and not at all boring. Thank you.

  We had a wonderful and very informative tour of the Monte Cassino battlefield. I strongly recommend Anna and her tour if you want to learn the details of this important... read more battle in the Italian campaign. Anna is very knowledgeable and an absolutely wonderful guide. I would give her my highest recommendation. In addition to her thorough knowledge of the battles and the area she was very personable to just talk with. Finally, we had some potential issues with our train back to Rome. Anna went out of her way to help us and ensure we got a train to Rome. Again, I strongly recommend Anna and her fantastic tour.

  I contacted Anna about three months before I did my Battlefield Tour with her and locked in a date. I recommend doing the same and avoid disappointment because of poor... read more planning.

Anna offered to pick me up from the train station but I instead opted to be picked up from the B&B. Anna is a lovely person who was very welcoming and asked why I wanted to do the tour. After a quick run down of my reasons we were off for our look around the city first. If you have any wishes and areas you want to see, I suggest you relay that to Anna well in advance so she can at least be better prepared for you, like I did.

After having a look around the city we started our drive up the hill and into the car park at Montecassino Abbey, of course we stopped along the way at spots and she mentioned about the important parts to me. I am a Kiwi and wanted to know about the NZ Military actions there of which Anna is very knowledgeable. At the top Anna took me around the Abbey and totally blew me away with her recall of what happened at the Abbey and the reconstruction of it over the following years after the war. Such a tragedy that happened.

From here we drove around to the Polish Cemetery car park and started our walk to the Polish Tank Memorial at the top of Cavendish Road. This is a great wee walk out in the nature and taking in the views that the German's would have had as the Allies were advancing and maneuvering around trying to take on the Germans. The memorial is a very solemn place, very quiet and a chance to take in the surroundings and sit there and imagine what would have been happening as the Kiwi and Indian Engineers were building the road and the subsequent advance by the Allies.

From here we made our way back to the car and then headed down to the Cassino War Cemetery. Anna pointed out some very pertinent points about the graves, who was buried there and reasons for no markings etc. Had a chance to pay my respects to some of the heroes of what would have been a very hard fought battle.

Our final destination was a visit to the Cassino Railway Station, this is where a NZ Memorial is in place in recognition of the 50th and 70th Anniversary's of the Battles at Cassino.

Overall this was a fantastic tour with a fantastic tour guide, Anna Priora is very knowledgeable and will adjust the tour to suit you as you progress through it, of course if you are in a large group this would be difficult.

Thank you for a fantastic afternoon on the Battlefield tour of Cassino Anna.

The Kiwi