FOUNDER & DIRECTOR

Veni, vidi, velcro – I came, I saw, I got stuck! James Hill has been happily ‘stuck’ in Rome and Italy for over thirty years. British-born, his travels began as a teenager visiting his Anglo-Genoese family in north-west Italy before settling in Rome in the early nineteen nineties. After a degree in politics and working in travel, guiding, travel writing and television, James began creating, escorting, leading and co-leading cultural group tours over twenty years ago with UK-based Ciceroni Travel principally up and down Italy and then further afield to Croatia, Slovenia, France, Switzerland, the USA and the Caribbean.

GUEST LIAISON & RESERVATIONS MANAGER

Helen is our Guest Liaison and Reservations Manager. Based in Buckinghamshire in the UK. Helen studied Tourism Management and has travelled extensively throughout Europe and beyond. She has previously worked for several UK tour operators including Art Pursuits, Boxwood Tours and most recently with James at Ciceroni Travel. Helen enjoys travel, art, languages, culture, food and walking.

Rachel Lamb trained in horticulture and garden design in Cambridge including within the University Botanic Garden. A passionate world traveller, plantswoman and highly experienced in Mediterranean gardens she has held the position of head gardener in various prestigious properties in France, Italy and the Lebanon since 1998. Since 2002 she has been based in Sicily and developed the magnificent gardens belonging to the Marquis of San Giuliano near Syracuse, considered to be one of the most beautiful on the island. She continues to consult at San Giuliano and works as a freelance horticultural consultant in Sicily and throughout Italy.

Dr Hugh Maguire is the Director of the Dr Williams’s Charitable Trust, London, and was previously an independent Cultural Heritage Adviser, based in Dublin.  A graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, and the Courtauld Institute of Art, he has lectured in architectural history in the University of Otago and Auckland, New Zealand, and in heritage studies at Ulster University.   A one-time curator of Castletown House – Ireland’s largest country house – he has been Museums & Archives Officer for the Heritage Council and subsequently Director of the Hunt Museum, Limerick. He sits on the Board of the Independent Library Association (ILA) and on Arts Council England’s Designation Panel.

James is a native of Oxfordshire, and educated at Durham University, the Courtauld Institute of Art and the University of Paris-Sorbonne IV where he obtained his MA degree in the history of art. James lectures on art history in Paris, where he is an official guide-conférencier. He has given tutorials at academic institutions in Paris and translated major exhibition catalogues from French into English. 

In 2011 he was awarded a PhD by Southampton-Solent University for a thesis entitled 'Illustrated Travel: steel engravings and their use in early nineteenth century topographical books'. His current academic interest is the history of the book and in recent years he has written a number of articles on his specialist subject for scholarly journals and is currently Reviews Editor of the Journal of the Printing Historical Society.