Full day trip to Florence from Rome. 12 hours

Short description of the itinerary for the full day excursion to Florence from Rome. 12 hours:

We meet at your hotel in Rome at 7:30/8:00 am and drive to Florence via the "Autostrada del Sole", the trip takes approximately 3 hours, so we arrive there around 10:30/11:00 am. We tour around Florence for about one hour and head back for Rome around 4:30/500 pm. Around 8:00 pm you're back at your hotel.

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Once in the city of Florence you will be taken to all the major highlights. The first stop will be made in Piazzale Michelangelo a beautiful lookout point from where you can see a great panorama of the city. Then you'll be driven down to The Duomo, the city's Cathedral. From there you can walk to Piazza della Signoria which is the main square and it's decorated with statues made by famous Florentine artists of the renaissance. Not too far from the Signoria Square is the Ponte Vecchio, the famous "Old Bridge", where the Florentine gold craftsmen have had their shops since 1500's and you can get a beautiful view of Florence's river, the Arno. Than we'll drive to Santa Croce. This is the church where Michelangelo, Galileo, Dante and other famous Florentines are buried and the seat for the famous leather school of Florence, which was started by the Franciscan Monks. Depending on the time set for our reservation for the Accademia Museum you'll be also taken there to see Michelangelo's David. Maybe you'll want to use part of your time in Florence  also to do some shopping, You can do that as you stroll between the Duomo, Signoria Square and Ponte Vecchio, in fact that's the area where most of the shops are. If you should instead be hunting for top quality, you can walk down the famous via Tornabuoni. This street is not too far from the Duomo, but you'll have to give up some of your sightseeing time to shop there. In case you should instead like spend your time tasting the famous Florentine cuisine and Chianti wine, I'll be glad to suggest a good and handy restaurant.

We'll leave Florence between 4:30 or 5:00 pm and will reach Rome in the evening.

Full day tour to Pompeii from Rome. 8 hours

A day trip to Pompeii from Rome to visit the excavations and have an unforgettable lunch by the sea before returning to Rome. Tour the excavations to enrich your culture learning about life in ancient Rome, but also familiarize with the Neapolitan way of life sitting by the sea enjoying a sea food based meal and some of the famous local chilled white wine.

Driving guides aren't allowed to guide you through the site and I warmly suggest to hire a local guide for the tour of Pompeii

Short description of the itinerary for the excursion to the Roman Castles, 4 hours:

We meet at your hotel in Rome at 7:30/8:00 am and drive to Pompeii. After the tour of the excavations we drive to Seiano, a place on the coast, for lunch and then return to Rome. You'll be back at your hotel around 6:00 pm.

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Full day tour to Assisi and Umbria from Rome. 10 hours

Short description of the itinerary for the excursion to Assisi and Umbria. 4 hours:

We meet at your hotel in Rome at 7:30/8:00 am and drive to Umbria. Depending on your preferences, we may spend the day in Assisi and visit it thoroughly, or spend just a couple of hours there to see the highlights and then continue to Deruta, Todi and Orvieto.

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Full day tour to Sorrento and Pompeii from Rome. 12 hours

Short description of the itinerary for the excursion to Sorrento and Pompeii from Rome. 12 hours:

We meet at your hotel in Rome at 7:30/8:00 am and drive to Sorrento first, making a stop on the way there. We'll drive along the and reach Sorrento, which is also the ideal place to stop for lunch. In the afternoon we drive to Pompeii to visit the excavations and then return to your hotel in Rome.

This itinerary could be reversed: Pompeii in the morning and Positano in the afternoon.

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We leave from your hotel around 7:30/8:00 am and drive to Sorrento first. After driving for 2 hours you're going to need pit stop and the Cameo factory in Herculaneum is perfect for this, not only you can use their clean restrooms (in Pompeii they're filthy!) but you can also learn about the cameos since they give you a little tour. Across the street from the factory there's a coffee shop where you can try the famous Neapolitan "Espresso".

Sorrento is a lovely resort area at the tip of the homonymous peninsula which separates the Gulf of Naples from the Gulf of Salerno. The drive to Sorrento offers unforgettable panoramas. Driving along the winding road, built on spectacular overhanging cliffs, the isle of Capri, the city of Naples and the mount Vesuvius appear in front of your eyes. Arriving in Sorrento about one hour can be spent walking around its narrow streets and looking at the colorful shops selling typical products like Limoncello liqueur, inlaid wooden furniture, embroidery and ceramics.

Sorrento is also a good place for a nice, typical seafood based lunch by the sea in a good restaurants right on top of the wonderful cliffs or down by the seashore for a rather moderate price. Leaving Sorrento in the early afternoon, we drive to Pompeii to visit the famous excavations.

Unfortunately, though I would love to personally guide my clients through the ruins, I am not allowed to do so. They have local guides there and they are the only ones who have the permit for guiding through Pompeii's ruins. The cost for hiring a local guide is about 100 Euros, for a group up to 6 people, and the tour lasts nearly 2 hours. The alternative to hiring a personal guide is the audio guide, a sort of portable CD player that one takes along and activates once he arrives to the spot marked on the map, that comes with it, and tells the story of the particular site that moment he's looking at. After visiting Pompeii we return to Rome to arrive there in the early evening.

Full day tour to the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii from Rome. 12 hours

Short description of the itinerary for the excursion to Positano and Pompeii, 12 hours:

We meet at your hotel in Rome at 7:30/8:00 am and drive to Positano first, making a stop on the way there. We'll drive on the Coast of Sorrento and we'll cross the hills to get on the Amalfi Drive to reach Positano. We drive then to drive to Sorrento, which is also the ideal place to stop for lunch. In the afternoon we drive to Pompeii to visit the excavations and then return to your hotel in Rome.

This itinerary could be reversed: Pompeii in the morning and Positano in the afternoon.

More about this tour:

We leave from your hotel around 7:30/8:00 am and drive to Sorrento first. After driving for 2 hours you're going to need pit stop and the Cameo factory in Herculaneum is perfect for this, not only you can use their clean restrooms (in Pompeii they're filthy!) but you can also learn about the cameos since they give you a little tour. Across the street from the factory there's a coffee shop where you can try the famous Neapolitan "Espresso".

This is almost exactly the same as the tour to Sorrento and Pompeii but, in this case, before going to Sorrento we do a little side trip on the famous Amalfi drive. We reach as far as Positano and spend some time there. After visiting Positano we drive to Sorrento to be there in time for lunch. Arriving in Sorrento about one hour can be spent walking around its narrow streets and looking at the colorful shops selling typical products like Limoncello liqueur, inlaid wooden furniture, embroidery and ceramics.

Sorrento is a lovely resort area at the tip of the homonymous peninsula which separates the Gulf of Naples from the Gulf of Salerno. Sorrento is also a good place for a nice, typical seafood based lunch by the sea in a good restaurants right on top of the wonderful cliffs or down by the seashore for a rather moderate price. Leaving Sorrento in the early afternoon, we drive to Pompeii to visit the famous excavations. The drive from Sorrento to Pompeii offers unforgettable panoramas. Driving along the winding road, built on spectacular overhanging cliffs, the isle of Capri, the city of Naples and the mount Vesuvius appear in front of your eyes.

Unfortunately, though I would love to personally guide my clients through the ruins, I am not allowed to do so. They have local guides there and they are the only ones who have the permit for guiding through Pompeii's ruins. The cost for hiring a local guide is about 100 Euros, for a group up to 6 people, and the tour lasts nearly 2 hours. The alternative to hiring a personal guide is the audio guide, a sort of portable CD player that one takes along and activates once he arrives to the spot marked on the map, that comes with it, and tells the story of the particular site that moment he's looking at. After visiting Pompeii we return to Rome to arrive there in the early evening.

Full day tour to Sorrento, Capri and Pompeii from Rome. 12 hours

Short description of the itinerary for the excursion to the Sorrento, Capri and Pompeii from Rome, 12 hours:

We meet at your hotel in Rome at 7:30 am and drive to Pompeii first, making a stop on the way there. After visiting the excavations, we drive along the coast to reach Sorrento. You board the ferry from Sorrento and reach Capri in about 30 minutes. You tour around Capri and then catch the ferry (one hour) to Naples. While you'll be visiting Capri, I'll drive to Naples and meet you there. Once we meet again in Naples, we drive back to your hotel in Rome.

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This tour is similar to the one described above to Sorrento and Pompeii, but in the Summer we can manage to squeeze in a short excursion to the beautiful island of Capri. We make a stop just before Pompeii. After driving for 2 hours you're going to need pit stop and the Cameo factory in Herculaneum is perfect for this, not only you can use their clean restrooms (in Pompeii they're filthy!) but you can also learn about the cameos since they give you a little tour. Across the street from the factory there's a coffee shop where you can try the famous Neapolitan "Espresso". After visiting Pompeii, we drive to Sorrento and board the hydrofoil to Capri. We have to be there by 1:30 pm, so there's no time to stop for lunch, you'll have time for lunch in Capri. An alternative would be to bring sandwiches and eat them on the ferry.

They don't let you take your car on the island, so you have to use public transportation, so while you tour the island I'll drive to Naples to meet you there. This will save you a lot of driving. From Naples it takes about two hours to get to Rome. The best way to tour Capri is using a local taxi. The taxi drivers generally speak enough English to give you a little tour and will take you all over the island. They will make stops to let you walk around the most interesting places and set a time with you to get picked up again and driven to the next place. The usual charge for the tour of the island is around 200 Euros.  The biggest attraction in Capri is the Blue Grotto. Normally tourists are routed onto a the big boats which, from the Marina Grande, bring them to the Grotto. Once the boat gets to the Grotto's entrance, tourists have to wait aboard to be taken inside by smaller boats that fit its 6-feet wide entrance. They spend a few minutes inside the Grotto and then they are brought back to the bigger boat which takes them back to the port. The whole thing takes a couple of hours. Few people know you can drive to the Grotto and get tricked into going on the big boat. If you drive there you can visit the grotto in 1 hour, rather than the 2 or 3 that it would take you if you went by boat and you don't wait a long time. Once you are done with the grotto, you will be taken to Anacapri and Town of Capri Itself.

The alternative to using a taxi is to use the funicular to get to the city of Capri and, naturally, to go to the Blue Grotto by boat. The entrance to the Grotto is so shallow and narrow that if the sea is a little wavy they'll not allow you to go in it and in such case you can use the time to take the bus to Anacapri, which you would not have the time for, if you went to the Grotto by boat.

Touring by taxi is a better alternative, you can go all over quickly and comfortably. You save time skipping the trip by boat and the wait outside the Grotto's entrance on a rocking boat.

My favored taxi driver on the island is Paolo, yes same name, who has been able to perfectly upkeep a Vintage FIAT from the 60's, also a Stretch Convertible, which is very cute and much better suits the "Dolce Vita" atmosphere of the island, rather than a newer car. He also speaks some basic English, and is a nice courteous person. All the other Taxi Drivers use a special FIAT Stretch Convertible New Car, car for 7 passengers.