Half-day excursions from Rome.



Tivoli	Roman Castles	Ruins of Ostia	Home

Rates for these tours include: pick up and drop off at the hotel, full-day excursion (4 hours), driving guide, vehicle, VAT (value added tax, 10%), motorway tolls and fuel. Additional time: past the 4 hours, each additional hour will be charged 1/4 of the total of tour's rate. Rates do not include: Lunch, drinks, personal purchases or any thing not specifically listed as included.

Tivoli - Visit Villa D’Este and, eventually, also the ruins of the Emperor Hadrian’s Villa.
	Tivoli is closed on Mondays
Tivoli is a beautiful little town located on hill about 20 miles north of Rome, a forty-five minute drive. In Tivoli the Cardinal Ippolito II D'Este, once he was elected governor in the 1550's, had an incredible villa built for himself as his residence with the most admirable gardens liven up by almost four hundred fountains. On the way to Tivoli, time permitting; also a visit can be paid to the ruins of Hadrian's Villa, which used to be the winter residence of the Emperor built in the second century A.D.. Also a short stop can be made to admire the quarries of the Travertine marble, used by Romans to build the Colosseum and most of their other important buildings.
	Rates per vehicle for this excursion: sedan (1/4 persons) 290 €; minivan (4 persons) 310 €; minivan (5/6 persons) 350 €; minivan (7/8 persons) 370 €.	Driving times: Rome to Tivoli: 40' Tivoli to Rome: 40’
Rates include VAT (value added tax 10%). Each additional hour will be charged 1/4 of the total of tour's rate. Rates do not include: entrance fees, meals, drinks, personal purchases or any thing not specifically listed as included.

Roman Castles

Rome's wine country, Castelgandolfo (Pope’s Summer Residence) Nemi, Frascati.

You don’t really see castles in the area called “The Roman Castles”; that's the a hilly area south from Rome with few enchanting little towns, famous for producing the refreshing white wine Romans like to drink. Many of those little towns where already villages before Rome was founded but than became Roman colonies. In the middle ages they were strongholds of the nobles of Rome and the castles they once built to defend their land, were later made into gorgeous palaces, where their descendants used to spend the summertime away from the heat of Rome. The beauty of the area is such that the Holy Father chose, way back in the 1600's, to make of the castle of the Gandolfo's, his Summer Residence. Two pleasant lakes exist in the area. They were originally craters of volcanoes active five million years ago. It is enjoyable to have lunch in one the many good restaurants in the area, which is what the Romans go there for today.

For those who may be interested, a visit to one of the many wineries there can be arranged.

Rates per vehicle for this excursion: sedan (1/4 persons) 290 €; minivan (4 persons) 310 €; minivan (5/6 persons) 350 €; minivan (7/8 persons) 370 €.
Driving times: Rome to Roman Castles: 40' Roman Castles to Rome: 40’

Rates include VAT (value added tax 10%).

Each additional hour will be charged 1/4 of the total of tour's rate.
Rates do not include: entrance fees, meals, drinks, personal purchases or any thing not specifically listed as included.

Ruins of Ostia - Ruins of Rome’s ancient port-city and the Castle of Pope Julius II
		Ostia is closed on Mondays
Located at the mouth of the Tiber river, only a half-hour drive from Rome, the visit of Ostia is like the visit of Tivoli and the Roman Castles: a relaxing trip. The ancient Roman writer Ennius says king Ancus Marcius founded Ostia in the seventh century B.C., in the fourth century was a military fort, called Castrum, that guarded the river mouth against sea borne invasions. Ostia later gained prominence as the domestic landing for cargo boats. According to ancient sources it was the oldest Roman colony. Ostia is easily comparable to Pompeii: you walk through the ruins of a city that was abandoned in the fifth century A.D.. It is in fact a magical alternative to the crowded, and far from Rome, Pompeii as well as it is complementary to it.
Ostia was for one thousand and five hundred years a ghost town, covered by marshy swamp and infested with malaria. In the early nineteen hundreds, the Italian Government ordered the first systematic archaeological excavations, and to this day, with every unearthed stone, they add to our knowledge and understanding of a city that once stood next to Rome in grandeur.
Rates per vehicle for this excursion: sedan (1/4 p.) 290 €; minivan (4 p.) 310 €; minivan (5/6 p.) 350 €; minivan (7/8 p.) 370 €.	Driving times: Rome to Ostia: 40' Ostia to Rome: 40’
Rates include VAT (value added tax 10%). Each additional hour will be charged 1/4 of the total of tour's rate. Rates do not include: entrance fees, meals, drinks, personal purchases or any thing not specifically listed as included.