A group of six wants to hire a private driver/guide for seven hours plus transfer time between Rome and the cruise ship docks. Who would you recommend? Who would you not recommend? I have done a good deal and research and just need some imput from past customers.
Thanks..
Casey

A close family friend has been using La Dolce Vita Tours (ladolcevitatours.com) for many years, and gives a very strong recommendation. I won't be able to report my own personal experience until I return from Rome in July.

I suggest you split this between a driver and a guide, as you want both to be quality, and the best drivers are not going to be the best guides, IMO. You can't really "see" Rome by car, the sites are either too huge and inaccessible by car (Collsesum or Vatican), or you will spend a lot of time in traffic and not actually seeing anything other than the beautiful buildings you are passing.

Use limoservicerome to pick you up at the dock and take you into Rome. www.limoservicerome.com
Reliable and efficient. Use Context Rome for tours. Excellent, can’t say enough good things about this group. www.scalareale.org.

Is your 7 hours excluive of time getting back and forth to Cittavechia? If not, you will only have something like 5 hours in Rome, not a lot of time. I would take either the Collesium/Forum tour or the Vatican Tour. Both are 3-4 hours. This leaves you enough time for a quick snack or gelato. Pre-arrange with the driver as to where he should collect you to head back to the port. If you have a cell phone that will work in Italy, that would be very helpful for last minute changes, otherwise you can find payphones.

If you have 7 hours IN Rome exclusive of transport back and forth, you could either do both Context Rome tours, or do one tour and then see either the Vatican or Collesium on your own, or walk around the Spanish Steps area. You can take a taxi between sites, rather than keeping the driver. Areas like the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and Via Corso are all within walking distance of each other so you don’t need a driver.

I was just on the Context Rome site and see that they now offer transportation to and from Citavecchia; however it looks very pricey, I would check with limoservicerome.

I think Scala Reale can help you with both, the driver and the guide. But it will almost certainly be pricey. When we went to Rome they helped us out with quite a few recommendations and reservations beyond the tours that we booked with them. They hired us a driver for a tour of Rome by night which was fun. And their tours are great. The Ancient Rome tour and the Vatican tour were both awesome.

Thank you. Please, other recommendations are much appreciated.
Casey

We took a service into Rome from the airport, arranged by our car leasing agency. When we left Rome we used someone in business for himself. He charged less than the service and was quite affable. We intend to use him again.
Maurixio Fabiani can be reached via his cellphone at 3394621988 or via fax at 068815324.
Carol L

Hi i would like to add my suggestion to the mix.
We just got home from the Brilliance of the Seas (and wish we were back!). We used DriverinRome - Daniele - in Rome and had a terrific experience. Daniele was our driver/tour guide and he was just perfect. Lots of info and history, but not overwhelming or too chatty. His English is perfect - hardly even a trace of an accent - which made a nice contrast to the tour guide we'd had on a RCCI trip in Dubrovnik.

We started at the Vatican Museum where we beat the tour buses and got in without a wait. Next we went to St. Peter's - also little waiting. After that we headed to a hilltop park with a great view of the City (and landmarks pointed out by Daniele). Then it was off to the Colliseum where he took us to an alternate ticket location which eliminated the wait there. After that we stopped at the Pantheon where a couple of our group left the tour to walk to the Spainish Steps and meet us there later. Daniele drove the rest of us to the Trevi Fountain where we also elected to walk to the Spanish Steps. (We wanted to walk some to get the flavor of the city "from the ground&quot. He was waiting right where he said he'd be when he said he'd be. All in all a great day.
Have a wonderful trip!
Ann

I Cruised with my sisters family twice to Italy in the last 3 years and used daniele and a few associates of his at www.driverinrome.com
more than once for different shore excursions.
thier rates are acceptable compared to the pricy ship excursions.He was our favorite driver, though we were also very pleased to meet Daniele's father, Remo.From the moment we met, we felt we were amongst friends. The hospitality and friendliness displayed not only made us feel welcome and at ease but also set the scene for a true taste of Italian and Roman hospitality.
Try them at
www.driverinrome.com
Pat