well, bob the nav, I've followed your posts when travelling for two years; we used roberta curiel in venice last spring and just loved her. The website is most helpful. The guides (forgot her partner's name we had the second day, but she was wonderful as well) were professional, informative, sensitive and so personable. We (from 7 yrs old to 77) learned so much. Could never have gotten this well-oriented and comfortable in venice without them, so thanks.
now thinking about a trip to rome, so of course, I turned here first.
Also, last spring, we had a guide in Puglia who was nice; will come back with his name...penny

ttt

Thank you for posting this...I tried searching for just this info earlier and didn't get this thread...I don't know why.

Very much appreciated.

Another whole-hearted recommendation for Francesca Caruso!

We (family of 4, kids at the the time 9 & 11) also used her for our trip to Rome three years ago. She was fantastic and truly the highlight of our three weeks in Italy and France.

After our initial contact, she gave me a general idea of a tour of the ancient sites; I asked if we could also see the Basilica San Clemente, which she thought was a great addition. She helped us get our Roma passes and even bought some snacks for the kids to take with us since I had expresed some concern that we may need to get them something to eat along the way.

After the 4+ hour tour, we paid her including a healthy tip as we had gone over the alloted time, plus just thought she was so wonderful. We then said our good-byes and wandered around to find something to eat. Half an hour later she caught up with us - said we had overpaid her! We couldn't believe that she had spent that time trying to find us because she thought we had paid too much!!!

In 2007, her fee was 50e per hour; our booking for the ancient sites was for three hours. She does not charge if she goes over the agreed-upon time frame.

In a post from April of this year, someone said she has a new email address: [email protected]

In September 2009, we took our first trip to Italy, visiting Florence, Tuscany and Rome and my in-laws hired a guide who arranged our entire 10-day trip. He arranged tours of private wineries and museums, drove us all around Tuscany, made all of our lunch and dinner reservations, etc., etc. He told us the history of the places we were visiting and really made it one of our best and most interesting vacations ever! We enjoyed it so much we are returning in October for another 10-day trip of Northern Italy with him. I have his contact information if anyone wants it. We also hired Katie Parla for a Vatican/Pantheon tour and she was fantastic.

EKC: PLease post the name and contact information of the guide. That is the purpose of this thread. I am happy to hear that you enjoyed the tour with Katie Parla.

Friends, I would recommend Country Tours of Siena. A few years back I was staying at the Palazzo Ravizza (loved that hotel!) in Siena with my cousin. We had rented a car but found getting around frustrating. A guest at the hotel recommended Country Tours so we engaged Fabio Manicini to take us to Pienza, Montalcino, and Montepulciano (sp.?)for an excursion which included lunch. Don’t recall the cost but we both agreed it was well worth the price. Just checked their website and they appear to be going strong.

Great idea! Thank you so much ~

This is a great thread...not sure how I didn't see it until now. I have used Francesca Caruso on 2 occassions and agree she is fantastic. I do still keep in touch with her and amamax is correct her current email address is francescainroma at gmail dot com.

On another note, I am beginning the research for my November trip to Bologna, if anyone has a recommendation for a guide in Bologna I'd love to hear about it!

For small group (maximum 6) tours of ancient and renaissance sites, I have had excellent guides through ContextRome.com.
All were native english speaking university profs or PhD students in various fields of art history, classics, archaeology, etc.

Sorry ekscrunchy! His name is Guido Gambone and his email is guidogambone at gmail dot com.

I tried setting up a tour with Francesca Caruso but unfortunately she is already booked.
However, she recommended a few of her colleagues:

*Sonia Tavoletta at soniatav AT aliceposta.it
*Luca Capparucci at lucaguide AT gmail.com
*Alessandra Mazzoccoli at alemazzoccoli AT gmail.com
*Richard Bowen at rbowen AT libero.it

great thread! BKing

fantastic, bookmarking

I got excited to see this but didn't see any mention of guides for the Calabria Region. We are interested in finding someone who might know how to do some research for ancestors in the Catanzaro, Sersale area. We will be there in September looking for grandpa's roots.

ttt

FLORENCE (Uffizi & Accademia): I can strongly recommend Marzia Valbonesi of Walks Inside Florence (www.walksinsideflorence.it). This was the first time I had used a guide and the experience was absolutely wonderful - instead of (as in the past) running around trying to see everything and not really seeing anything, her very carefully crafted museum tours showed us that less really is more. By dealing in more detail with a smaller number of works selected to show the evolution of styles of art over time, we came away with a much better understanding of what the art was really trying to tell us. Marzia was perfect.

We were a group of 6; cost was about 300 Euro for 3+ hours, and well worth it.

We had an excellent winery tour day this past June with Paolo Ferrero of http://www.buongustotours.it/ in Piemonte. It turned into a 10-12 day, with stops at several wineries, an artisan pasta maker, a goat cheese farm, etc. I would highly recommend him, and look forward to another trip and another day with Paolo (in my dreams right now).

ttt

thanks for coordinating all of this information!