sylviam

We are researching guides for Rome for April and came across this gentleman's name among others. Anyone use him in Rome?

sylviam

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Rosemary_Rich_Baum

Dear Sylviam:

Re: Rich Brunn Rome Tour Guide

Rich Brunn is great! Go onto his web site and you will be able to read his resume -- he is so knowledgeable - and very adept at giving the tours the information they are seeking. Rich also told us about the courses that he has taught in Rome on the Monuments and Rome History in general.

I had an unusual situation re my Christmas 2006 trip to Rome and Rich helped to make it a complete success. The person I was scheduled to tour with had to cancel at the very last minute, so I contacted Rich and he set me up with another family he had scheduled. It was terrific. He adapted the tour to both of our interests. I took a Commercial tour one morning when Rich was not available to the Vatican (I was only there for 5 days). That Commercial tour was very mediocre, did not give much detail and moved us along so quickly we could hardly see anything. Rich's tours are the exact opposite. A lot detail, time and awareness of what those on the tour are seeking.

Needless to say I highly recommend him.

Rosemary
Herndon,VA

kfusto

Rosemary, do you have an email address for him? Thanks/

sylviam

kfusto: Rich Brunn's email is [email protected]

We used Rich for two days April 2006. I agree with Rosemary he is very detail oriented and knows a lot of history. This can be either very exciting for you or very boring after a few hours.

We toured the Vatican Museum and Vatican on one day for about 3-4 hours. Rich can zip you around the other tourists to get to the hilights quickly. The next day we toured the Colosseum and the Forum for about 5 hours. Both tours were very informative if you like detailed history.

My niece was bored after the first 1.5 hours. She loved the Colosseum but detailed information about The Palatine and the Forum and how much of a door is original and how much has been replaced got old for her. My husband and I enjoyed it but it was a bit tideous after a while.

Also, we thought we were booking a private guide with only one other couple. We were told that this would enable us to move on to something else if the subject was not of interest to us. The first day we toured with two other couples and the second day with 3 other couples. Naturally with that number of guests the route could not easily be changed.

All in all it was a good experience but expect to spend half of your day touring.

kfusto

Sylviam, thanks for the detail. We have eight in our group so I am wondering is he is capable of giving me and my very Type A friends the highlights only or do is he the type who has something to say and does not realize when his audience is falling asleep?

I have been to Rome a half dozen times at least but my friends have not and I wanted them to get the highlights.

Thanks~

sylviam

kfusto: If you are able to book him for only the 8 of you then I think you can control it better. I don't know your ages but in our group there were two couples in their 70's, a mother with a daughter age 16, my husband and I mid 50's and my niece 14.

His take on the Colosseum was great with a lot of good information, the Forum and Palatine Hill seemed to drag for us.

The two couples in their 70's were very interested in every minute detail. We on the otherhand, wanted a descriptive overview, with some interesting insider highlights.

A lot also depends upon how much time you are in Rome. We were there for 4 days and because we used him for 2 days it seemed like we did not have much time to just "hang out" and look around and explore on our own. My husband and I have been to Rome so we were looking at something with detail for our niece.

kfusto

Thanks. We are in our 40s and 50s and are also there for four day. I only want to plan two half days and leave the rest open to do what I love best which is to wander at will and enjoy Rome itself!

sylviam

kfusto: Have a great time in Rome. Two restaurants I can recommend Ristorante Rinaldi al Quirinale on via Parma www.ristorantidiroma.com/rinaldialquirinale The owner wanted lamented that he only had sons and wanted us to take one of them for my niece.

The other restaurant Vladimiro on I think Via Veneto www.vladimiroristorante.com was also very good. We have a friend who works at the American Embassy and it was very close by.

kfusto

thanks. I have so many fav restaurants in Rome it is hard to get them all in : )

eileenm

Hi Sylviam
My husband and I along with our two children, 4th and 6th graders had a delightful day tour with Rich Brunn on January 3, 2007. Because of the kids, we wanted to show them quite a bit of Rome but keep it light, (in other words, NOT spend the entire day going in depth at one site) so we asked Rich if he would develop a ROMAN HOLIDAY-based tour, with the sights in the movie as our stops. Our children are classic movie buffs and had seen this particular one 3 or 4 times. This was not a usual tour for Rich but he was game, actually watched the movie himself before we got to Rome, and made a very fun, memorable itinerary. We saw so much, got highlights and some more in-depth coverage of a few important sites such as the colosseum and Roman Forum. This was a tour for the four of us, although I would actually recommend this type of tour for a family or group who wishes a lighter overview but a fun theme for the tour. All four of us highly recommend Rich based on this great one day experience.

Incidentally, the kids saw The Italian Job before our trip to Venice, and this made our visit (we took no tours there) more interesting to them as well. Please let me know if I can be of any further help.
Eileenm

sylviam

eileenm: Your info regarding the tour Rich Brunn with your children was very informative. As I mentioned we used him in 2006 and as we were mostly adults it was geared that way. I am sure your experience, which was quite different than ours will be helpful to others.

I think the important thing with Rich is to determine who is on the tour with him when he says it is a "private guided" tour. We thought it was only us and maybe another couple which turned out to be false and therefore the tour was geared to the group rather than to our interests.

eileenm

I agree with you Sylviam, it is good to communicate about what you are looking for in your guided tour. We found that once we mentioned to Rich what we wanted he went out of his way to accomodate our wishes. We told him we would welcome another few people with us for the tour, but in our case it was just the four of us, which meant we got the exact guided tour we were hoping for. We would highly recommend him and agree, communication before arrival in Rome is important.

artists_retreats

I used Rich for my artists group...a tour of outskirts of Rome. He is very knowledgeable and would probably be the quintessential guide for the vatican. His extensive knowledge of Rome is peppered with his religious bias. But as he said, "the church IS the history of Rome." Would I use him again? If I cannot find someone with an art history background by June then I will use him again. Very nice guy. Walks fast. Covers a lot of ground.
buon viaggio!