Livette

Hi,

I e-mailed them early December ago to start planning some tours for our 9/04 Italy trip. However, they advised me to contact them the beginning of the year? Therefore, today I tried visting their website to get some refresher info on their tours but kept getting an error message. I also e-mailed them and got the message back undeliverable?

Anyone know what's up with Scala Reale?

Thanks,
Linda

adrienne

Hi Livette,

Try again tomorrow. The site may be down for maintenance or some technical problem. I was on their site yesterday and it worked fine. They're a great organization so keep checking. Also, you have 9 months until your trip so there's plenty of time.

mendota98

Hi Livette,

My family used SR for three tours over the holidays and it did take some time for them to reply at first. Everything turned out well and they proved to be highly orgainized so please be patient. Overall the tours were excellant and worth the minor inconvenience.

==Mike

Livette

Ok guys I will try again tomorrow visiting their site and await a response to my earlier e-mail. I'm booking with them due to the overwhelming raves from you all on their tours. It's our first trip to Italy so we decided to go with the best according to many of you.

I'm really looking forward to these tours.

Thanks,
Linda

principessa

I just checked... and they are back. They made some improvements to their website... and you no longer need to become a member in order to participate!!!

Koshka

I received an email from them, but my reply resulted in an error at my end.

However, it appears my reply got through. ;-) So I don't really know what is up with them or their site.

For a February/March trip, they posted the schedule in December, so you may be a bit premature to nail things down.

But according to reports on this site, they are the BEST and well worth the extra effort. (fingers crossed the reports are right!)

shessie

Scala Reale's tours are awesome. In 1999 my daughter and I took 4 of their excursions around Rome. My husband and I are returning this March and I'm definetly taking there Vatican tour again.
I must add that the tour prices are 4 times what I paid in 99--but they are worth it!

wesley

My sources tell me that Tom Rankin has sold Scala Reale to Paul Bennett, a Scala docent (no longer using that term) who founded Context Rome. The sale became official just a week ago. Apparently, Mr. Rankin needed to focus more time and energy on his American Institute for Roman Culture.

Word is that Tom sold to just the right man. Paul Bennett is a very bright, likable guy with an impeccable reputation for providing quality, intellectual services. Paul brings many years of experience with a sincere desire to make Scala Reale even greater than it already is. He is highly regarded by the best at Scala. Sounds like very good news to me.

Livette

Hi again,

I was able to get onto their site however, my e-mails keep coming back undeliverable? Will keep trying to contact them.

Thanks,
Linda

context_rome

Hi everyone,

This is Lani from Context Rome/Scala Reale. I just found this message and wanted to reply.

It is true, our email is not working at the moment (though we are working around the clock to get the mail server sorted out and everything back to normal). In the meantime, you can reach us at [email protected] or [email protected].

Again, I apologize for the glitch in our service, it is not the way we wanted to start out with the merger, but we hope to have everything in order in the next 2 days.

Thanks for your patience,

Lani and Paul

tgrankin

I would like to add a personal note to this thread to clarify the changes we?ve made to Scala Reale here in Rome. For reasons related to Italian law and my own personal commitments to the American Institute for Roman Culture (www.romanculture.org) we have moved the walking tours into a new commercial company and kept the Italian non-profit Associazione Culturale Scala Reale (www.scalareale.org/acsr) as a membership organization which sponsors more specialized cultural programs.

I?m still very much involved in strategy for Scala Reale walking tours, especially planning and designing itineraries, and I continue in my role as President of ACSR. Most importantly, the staff of docents remains the same. I have the utmost confidence that under the direction of long-time ACSR member Paul Bennett, the walking tour business will move to newer heights.

Best,

Tom Rankin

ecat

Tom,

Thank you so much for this direction, I was going a bit nuts trying to figure out what was happening with my e-mail I had sent and how to book for my trip in May. I found the correct site and menu, now I just have to decide which two to choose!

See you in May

E

NYCFoodSnob

Congratulations to Tom Rankin. If anyone reading this would like an unforgettable tour experience, book something private and special with Tom Rankin as your guide. Yes, it will cost you a few bucks more but it will be money well spent.

tgrankin

Thanks NYCFoodSnob for the vote of confidence. I should have also mentioned
that one of the main motivations for merging Scala Reale with Context Rome
was to free up more of my personal time to get back out in the field,
leading tours for Scala Reale. You'll find me listed on the regular calendar
of walks and also leading many of Scala's private, specially-designed
itineraries. See you in Rome.

Tom Rankin

Koshka

DH and I booked our tours with Scala Reale back in November, when the € 20 membership was still required to participate in tours.

That membership included either an Orientation Stroll or Orientation Hike. When the structure of the organization changed, the membership was no longer required and the orientation walks had fees attached.

Not wishing to appear "penny-pinching," I was considering letting this pass, especially since, until recently, there were no "orienting" walks scheduled during our six days in Rome.

But checking the scalareale.org site frequently, I found that some new walks had been added in the last week or so, so I bit the bullet and wrote to them asking about the possibility of applying our € 40 toward one of those.

I received a MOST cordial and helpful reply from Paul, and we are now going to schedule their new version of the Orientation Hike, the Quirinale Ramble, at little or no additional cost.

Just wanted to post yet another rave about this group and their business methods! We can't wait!

wesley

Even if you're on a budget, Tom Rankin is well worth every sacrificial cent. I've done a few "take me wherever you want to go" type tours with Tom and I can't wait to do more. Tom has a brilliant mind. He's a great history teacher and he loves to share what he knows. Plus, he's handsome, very easy to be with and quite down to earth. Tom will introduce you to a Rome very few tourists get to see.

I can also recommend Frank Dabell. Talk about brilliant!!! After five minutes with Frank, I wanted to be him. Frank can take you anywhere but try getting the Forum.

I've been to the Vatican Museums many times with numerous guides and nobody comes close to Liz Lev. She is Caravaggio reincarnated. WOW!

And, John Boyden is the man to have by your side when you walk through St. Peter's Cathedral. You'll swear you had a visit with an angel, a very knowledgeable angel, indeed.

Congratulations to Tom, Paul, and Lani.