hi, our first time in italy ande need some assistance. What sites do we need a walking tour guide? any recomendations on which guide to use? Do we need to make reservations for tour guide prior to getting to rome? we are going in july and to make life easier want to hire a car and driver from airport to hotel. Where can getinformation on car/driver? any recomendations? thanks for any information

WOW i can't spell,,,,,,,,,the tour guide is needed for rome.

Hi Chrissy, <BR>you don't need to make advance reservations for a car and driver when you arrive in Rome. After you get your luggage, when you walk out into the main concourse near all the car rental desks, there's a small booth for car hire. You can just go there, and they will get you a nice air conditioned car, and charge a flat fee to get you to your hotel (if I remember correctly it was 90,000L, which is about $50USD. A taxi would be about $35-$40USD. <BR> <BR>We used Scala Reale for walking tours, and they were great. check their website at www.scalareale.org. Also look at www.initaly.com. THey have walking tours in Rome. I didn't use them, but they looked quite interesting. <BR> <BR>I think its very useful to have a guide for the Ancient sites. The ruins are very ruined, and although you can purchase guidebooks, it really helps to have aguide. I thought it was fun to have a guide for the Vatican museum too, although I understand the audio tour is most excellent, so a guide is not necessary.

I don't know if it's the same limo service that Beth is talking about, but there is one right across the lobby when you get out of customs. You can't miss. We felt it was worth the extra $$$ over a cab for the peace of mind! <BR>As for guided tours, Beth is correct about the Vatican Museum. The audio tour is magnificent! It is quite thorough and allows you to move at your own pace. We felt it was the best museum audio tour we've ever experienced. I also recommend Rick Steves book "Mona Winks," which is most helpful wheno touring museums and a lot of other sites in historic Rome.

thank you howard and beth for your timely response. the information i gathered from fodor's is invaluable. keep up the good responses and interest everyone

Chrissy, by coincidence, I just answered your comment about NY cabs on the U.S. forum! Will be curious to read your reponse to that one! <BR>You're going to love Rome. Just do a lot walking!

Hi Chrissy, <BR> <BR>I just got back from Rome yesterday (boo hoo)and cannot recommend Scala Reale tours too highly. The 4-hour tour of Ancient Rome with Richard (a PhD classical scholar from Stanford) was absolutely fabulous. There were six of us in the group, and the others said that they had done a tour of the Vatican museums with Liz (a Baroque art historian) and it was equally wonderful. Their website is www.scalareale.org.

hi carol i am sorry you do or do not recommend scala reale tours?

Chrissy--Scala Reale tours are wonderful. I recommend them very highly.

I've only did it once (thru a TA so I have no info) but I'd opt to pre-book the car/driver. It's great to clear customs and have the driver with the sign with your name on it standing there waiting to whisk you away). Very hassle-free and quick! HTH Regards, Walter <BR>p.s. I'll send you some websites to search I'm sure you'll find some car/driver info in the links. Compare the price if it's in the ballpark book them, even if they didn't show just cancel the CC payment and go to "plan B".

I used "Enjoy Rome" for my group tours. They were wonderful, very accomodating and our guide (Susy?)was great. We did the Ancient Rome at Night tour and my group of 30 is still raving about.

kathy....how do i get information on this "enjoy rome tours"..thanks

To the other Kathy delighted to see that you found the Enjoy Rome people good - Susy is their Chief Guide and is very knowledgeable. We used some of their tours during our visits to Rome Enjoy Rome is run by the people from Faulty Towers youth hostel. The <BR> walking tours were excellent and relatively inexpensive at about 30,000 lira <BR> per person. The ancient Rome tour lasted about 4 hours & was excellent. <BR> The Vatican tour was also very good. However do not pay for tours of St. Peters <BR> Free tours of St. Peters are available from the Vatican Tourist Office. The quality is very good. We took these tours on visits to Rome in the past 18 months. The walking tour we used for Ancient Rome was enjoy rome and they can <BR> be contacted at www.enjoyrome.com - 0644.51.843 or fax 0644.50734 the <BR> cost is 25,000 lira for students under 26 or 30,000 lira for non students. <BR> The tours last 3-4 hrs and are excellent (prices are as of March 1999). We <BR> took the Ancient Rome incl. the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, <BR> Capitoline Hill, Trevi Foundation, Pantheon and Piazza Navona.You don't <BR> have to stay at the Youth Hostel just e-mail them - they are cheaper than <BR> most other walking tours and use native speakers which I found helpful <BR> rather than trying to exclude the native accent before understanding what <BR> the guide was talking about. Another tour recommended by people on this site is scale reale - web site www.scalareale.org Enjoy yourself in Rome <BR>