What is a driving guide? What does he do?

Will the driving guide tour us inside museums and churches?

Are your vehicles air conditioned?

Coming to Rome by cruise ship, can we use a driving guide to tour the city?

How do you pronounce Civitavecchia?

How many passengers can you take in a your minivan, the Mercedes Viano?

How do we find you at the airport?

How do we find you at the seaport?

How do we find you at the hotel?

How do we find you at the train station?

Can we change the itinerary of the tour?

What is a driving guide?

A driving guide, also driver-guide, is very knowledgeable driver specialized in driving tourists around his city and his country. Differently from a local guide, who only operates in his city or area of competence and has a deep knowledge of it, the driving guide can give his clients information just about any place in Italy or even other European countries.

Naturally a driving guide speaks well at least one foreign language, usually English, but it would not be rare to find one who speaks more than one.

The driver guide would therefore be able to accompany his clients throughout all of Italy and be able to assist them in any situation.

A driving guide will always have at least the basic information about the places that his clients want to visit, and which places should be visited when they don't know where to go. knows where the nearest good restaurant is, where to find the nearest restrooms,

In other words if, for example, it is in your intentions to visit the excavations of Pompeii you need to plan to hire a local guide once you get there, but you would want to hire a driving guide to get to the place. Should your visit of Pompeii be a day trip from Rome, the driving guide will constantly be giving you information and plan a good day for you. He would narrate of the areas you pass while driving on the motorway, introduce you to a good guide of Pompeii that he knows and take you to a nice restaurant after your visit. He'll also take you for a drive on the famous Amalfi Coast and continuing with his descriptions all along.

Will the driving guide take us inside museums and churches?

Some driving guides are also local guides and therefore they can also act as guides in their own area and they can therefore accompany their clients through any site of interest, but if you hire a driving driver guide in Rome to take you on a day trip to Florence, you cannot expect him to guide you through the Uffizi museum. He would not have a good enough knowledge to be able to do that and the Florentine guides would not like the interference.

Are your vehicles air conditioned?

Yes they are. Though we don't think you can buy a car that's not air conditioned, especially if it's a Mercedes, people keep asking this question.

Coming to Rome by cruise ship, can we use a driving guide to tour the city?

Yes, and that's probably the best solution to see Rome in the few hours that a cruiser can spend ashore. Taking out the time it takes to commute from and to the port, a cruiser normally ends up spending 6/7 hours in the city.

Surely this isn't enough for a thorough visit and hiring a driving guide who meets you at the ship, takes you on a whirlwind tour of the highlights of Rome and then back to the port is surely the best to do.

How do you pronounce Civitavecchia?
Civitavecchia is pronounced chee vee ta vek ya or if your are familiar with phonetic symbols, Chē’vē-tä-vĕk’yä and if you want to hear it, click here: Civitavecchia
 

How many passengers can you take in a your minivan, the Mercedes Viano?
The Mercedes Viano accommodates comfortably seven adults plus driver.

Seats are on three rows, two in the front and three on the middle and the last rows.

You'll be met at the airport upon arrival of aircraft as you will specified.

After you collect your luggage and clear customs, you'll finally have access to the public lounge where people wait for passengers to come out.

We cannot come and meet you in the baggage claim area, where the carrousels are, you’ll have to exit that area to meet us!

Once in the public lounge you’ll have to look for your driver who'll will be posting your name. Make sure to have our cell phone number with you, you never know what can happen in a crowded and chaotic airport!

Usually it takes about 40 minutes from when the plane lands until you exit onto the public lounge. If you see that it will take longer, for example if your luggage is lost or simply takes a long time for it to come out, please call me from one of the public phones, or better from your own cell phone, or ask the customs officer to let you come out for a second to tell your driver you have arrived you'll be late.

When you call from your cell, please make sure it can also receive calls and caller's ID is visible so that we can call you back if necessary.

We normally start getting restless after 45 minutes and we don't wait any longer than one hour from plane’s landing time. There's no way of we can find out if you were actually on the flight or if you missed it! This is why we give up hope and leave after one hour or so .

If we are sure that you are there we will wait for you, but we'll also charge you for waiting. One hour past plane's landing time you'll be charged 20 Euros per hour for waiting.

In any case, you can always contact us on our cell phone, from any Italian public or cell phone:

Andreas +39-348-782-0844

Roberto +39-335-525-2852

If you call from a public phone, you just dial the number without the international prefix +39. Also if your phone has registered with an Italian carrierou just dial the number without the international prefix +39, but if your phone is still on a USA or Canadian operator you need to dial 011 first and the  the international prefix without the '+' and finally the number.

So, as an example, if you want to call Roberto from a cell phone that's still on an American carrier you need to dial the following sequence:00139335-525-2852, otherwise, if the name of a local carrier shows on your cell's display you simply dial 335-525-2852.

In case your cell operates on a European carrier you have to dial the number inclusive of the prefix +39 and therefore still to call Roberto, you dial +39-335-525-2852

When you call from your cell, please make sure it can also receive calls and caller's ID is visible so that we can call you back if necessary.

At either one of the ports, Livorno, Civitavecchia and Naples, you'll find the car or minivan, right on the pier where the ship docks, parked as close as possible to the footbridge (gangplank), with your name posted on its windshield.
If parking close to the footbridge (gangplank) shouldn't be possible, we'll be standing near it posting your name.

In any case, you can always contact us on our cell phone, from any Italian public or cell phone:

Andreas +39-348-782-0844

Roberto +39-335-525-2852

If you call from a public phone, you just dial the number without the international prefix +39. Also if your phone has registered with an Italian carrierou just dial the number without the international prefix +39, but if your phone is still on a USA or Canadian operator you need to dial 011 first and the  the international prefix without the '+' and finally the number.

So, as an example, if you want to call Roberto from a cell phone that's still on an American carrier you need to dial the following sequence:00139335-525-2852, otherwise, if the name of a local carrier shows on your cell's display you simply dial 335-525-2852.

In case your cell operates on a European carrier you have to dial the number inclusive of the prefix +39 and therefore still to call Roberto, you dial +39-335-525-2852

When you call from your cell, please make sure it can also receive calls and caller's ID is visible so that we can call you back if necessary.
 

It surely isn't a problem to meet our clients at their hotel, though that's easier when they stay at a small hotel rather than a big one.

The concierges of the small hotels know each and everyone of their guests so when we walk in and ask for our clients they immediately address us to them.

At the big hotels it's less easy, the concierge normally cannot match a room number with a face, you could be standing right next to him and he would know, he would just call the room ...

In this case it's a lot easier for the clients to spot us than it is for us to spot them.

You can recognize us from the pictures on this website!

Big hotels always have enough space outside the entrance where we can park our cars, therefore if we ask for you at the concierge desk and he cannot spot you immediately, we walk back out and wait by the car.

Absolutely! We are flexible!.

When you contact us and ask the price for a tour you pick from our website, you get a price that has been calculated on hours and mileage base, therefore as long as we do not have to extend time or mileage to please you, we will be happy to accommodate you. For example, you could change the itinerary of our tour to Assisi, Deruta or Todi and visit Assisi and Perugia leaving Todi and Orvieto out, mileage would be the same and also it would take the same time.