Hello,

Ten of of us, a multi-generation family group, are planning our first (for all but one) trip to Italy!! Still working out the details and will have more questions later. For now, I wondered if anyone here has a driver and guide recommendation? With a group of this size, I've learned from previous trips, it's best to have group transportation for Rome and perhaps to even to take us between cities. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I can highly recommend http://www.romeshuttlelimousine.com in Rome. They probably would do city-to-city transportation, too, but I imagine it would be horrendously expensive. For safety reasons, the driver can't serve as a guide, so you'd really be hiring two people and a large vehicle for the trip if you want a guide as well as a driver.

You can get excellent discounts on train fares if you buy your tickets well in advance (up to 120 days). The train is absolutely the fastest way to travel between major cities in Italy. For example, 120 days from today, I can see fares of €16.10 from Rome to Florence. Children under 12 would pay half of that. Unless the driver would charge less than €200 for transporting 10 people to Florence, it would be cheaper and much faster to take the train. These discounted tickets can't be changed, so don't buy them until you're pretty sure of your dates. Of course, if you reserve a van for 10 people, that probably wouldn't have very flexible terms for changing dates either.

The two web sites for train tickets are:

http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en (cheapest tickets €19.90)
http://www.italotreno.it/en (cheapest tickets €16.10)

You have to use the Italian names of the cities (and train stations): Roma (Termini), Firenze (S. M. Novella), and Venezia (S. Lucia). Italo, the second site I mention, only serves major cities. You're asked to pick the cities of departure and arrival from a list.

As an example of travel time, the train from Rome to Florence takes an hour and a half, whereas the drive could easily take three hours. The train travels at over 120 miles an hour.

Contact my friend Guido Gambone - he often arranges transportation and guides for our trips to Italy. You can email him at [email protected]. Feel free to tell him Engred gave you his contact info.

Bvience thanks so much for the information on the trains. So good to know! EKC, I'll send your friend and emails. Appreciate the info!