Has anyone used new rome free tour?

If you want a good answer it might help to tells what it is or what you are asking. My gut reaction is that you get what you pay for. A "free" tour has to have angle of some type. Never heard of them - which means nothing.

I've heard of them and they get good reviews on TA but the majority of those reviews are by one time, new posters. Most seem like plants to me and I take them with a grain of salt. TA doesn't really regulate reviews, all you need is to answer an email asking if you wrote the review. I do agree that you get what you pay for. Anything that is free has a string attached somewhere. You might be better off using an audio guide. RS has some really good ones. There are others on the net as well. I like the ones from pocketvox.com. Donna

The question was very straight forward, has anyone taken the New Rome Free Tour. Maybe should have added that it is a walking tour that starts @ the Spanish Steps around 5:30 pm.

Frank's just trying to be helpful. This is a perfect example of the importance of using capital letters. There's a world of difference between "the new rome free tour" which could mean any new free tour in Rome and "New Rome Free Tour" which indicates that it's the actual name of the tour.

We did the tour on our arrival day. It was okay. We did it as a way to keep moving and get oriented. It was a good overview. We returned to places on our own later in our stay.

There was a recent thread on TripAdvisor from a woman who showed up for one of their tours, didn't find them, and then sent them an email saying how disappointed she was that she didn't find them. They sent her back the most incredibly rude and sarcastic response, mocking her and the country she's from (Brazil). Then the same NRFT people found that TA thread and proceeded to do the same thing on the that thread. It was so outrageous that TA took the thread down. Although the reviews that they get from the people who do take the tours are apparently positive, you might want to factor this into your decision.

For sure there was a misunderstanding and a pvt question became a diplomatic case! I cannot recomend enough new rome free tour and their guides and I would be quite suspicious about this matter;
it seems to me so disguised; I can simply immagine how many travel agencies are jealous of their success

I have to say that I'm very suspicious of those two postings about New Rome Free Tours by "anthony" and "frank". They both appear on the board at the same time. They both have only two postings. Both are typed in lower case, first name only. Their grammar is not quite right for English speakers. And the only topics they have posted to are about NRFT. Color me skeptical.

You read my mind Michael. Very suspicious.

Well, I enjoyed my experience with them immensely. I don't remember the guide's name but he was a local, and licensed, and gave some great insight into Roman life as well as showing the sights on the tour. This whole recent thing with the TA thread was strange, but I wouldn't hesitate to take the tour again and happily tip.

I agree with Michael and Andrea - this thread had been asleep since April.

Anthony does work for NRFT. You can read his response to some bad reviews posted on the TA site. He is rude and insulting. He is now trying to do damage control because I believe his company is seeing the result of his rudeness. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187791-d1549786-Reviews-New_Rome_Free_Tour-Rome_Lazio.html#REVIEWS Those responses are the same type of response that he gave to a poster who told of her experience in not finding the tour and emailing them to let them know she was disappointed. The response she received was so disgusting you need to read it to believe it. http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g187791-i22-k5692627-o70-New_Rome_Free_tour_be_aware_the_rudest_staff_ever-Rome_Lazio.html#43205650 He actually came on the thread and started posting insulting responses to our questions and comments and as you can see, all his posts were removed. Not only were they not within guidelines for rudeness, harassment and attacks but he also refused to admit he works for this company. So not only is he rude- he's a liar as well. I think we are seeing the same thing here and can only suggest that people who are considering this tour read these posts before making your choice. You may very well want to change your mind. I know I will never recommend them again. donna

Then again, how screwed can one get taking a free tour???. If it really sucks, just saunter off after a bit. They may be getting commissions from restaurants, shops, etc. they recommend. There are some really fantastic guides in Rick's book. I have used Francesca Caruso on several occasions and she is extraordinary. But...if you just want a walk and a bit of an intro on your first night, might be grand. I will be in Rome again in February. Might check them out myself. Have a great trip Thomas!

Dear Donna I am feeling so sorry for you but I have to tell you one thing: I really did a tour with New Rome Free tour, at 5,30 at the spanish steps feel free to contact me and you can ask me all the questions you want about this tour
I was and I am still glad to share the positive experience I had with other travellers and all the good comments you can find on TA and Ricksteves' graffiti wall

Anthony, you don't need to feel sorry for me. It's not my business that has been damaged.
I will continue to warn people about the staff at NRFT as they are rude and abusive. I experienced this for myself on the TA forums when I posted comments about an email sent by NRFT. There was no need for the email or the responses. As for the reviews on TA, I don't believe most of the reviews posted for NRFT as anyone can post a review without any proof they have actually done the tour. They can be done by anyone (including staff) as long as they respond to an email confirmation. Not convincing enough for me to even consider recommending NRFT and combined with the abuse there is no way I would ever recommend this company. Donna

please Donna, stop feeling the Jeanne D'arc of the global forum of Tourism who are you to judge if the comments that are posted on TA and Ricksteves' are fake or not?
tell me , tell us who is behind you? what is youl goal and personal interests in keeping attacking NRFT?

"Anthony", each of your responses is only confirming our suspicions. Your responses are identical in tone to the responses from NRFT that the OP on the TA forum received.

very suspicious that your comment and donna's have been together , instantly posted ! do you work together, do you have the same business or even better are you the same person?

Oh, dear. I've been found out. "Donna" and I have cumulatively over 6000 postings but that was all done by one person who created these two identities years ago specifically to be able to point out some suspicous posting about NRFT. <rolleyes> "Anthony," meglio spendere il suo tempo su un'altra cosa. Ha perso, e i suoi messagi servono solo per rinforzare che lei fa finta di essere un'altra persona.

Dear Michel, first of all you should not write in italian because I do not understand it at all, even if I would , than because this is an international forum and you should be more accessible to those who, like me, do not understand this marvellous language and then let me tell you something I have noticed something strange in Donna and in your posts... you said you do not have interests in attacking NRFT as you live in USA but then you write in italian and we know that New Rome free tour operates in Rome - Italy so...
"One is an anomaly, two is a coincidence, three is a trend"

I see. Because it's impossible to take Italian lessons in Seattle. Got it.

Ummmm.....I don't write or speak Italian. Oh yeah....I've also never met Michael. Oh oh yeah....We both post a lot here so us posting on the same thread is not unheard of. If you would bother to check you might find that we answer a lot of the same threads. One last thing...if you didn't work for this company you wouldn't be so upset. Donna

For sure there was a misunderstanding and a pvt question became a diplomatic case! If you don't work for the company can you explain how you know this? Donna

I just think that there may be good guides working with NRFT trying to make some money but the e-mail I got show the true colors of the people running this business.
Now, judge it for yourself if these guys deserve your money.

Thanks for posting that, Adriana. The writing style in that email from NRFT sure sounds familiar, doesn't it? :-)

simply because you posted the link
Dear Donna, alias Dbabe, alias Michel are you so involved in this situation that you have even forgotten what you have written on 8/29/12 at 6.01 pm?

I thought that perhaps because of the blatant advertising and the behaviour of this company the Webmaster would have pulled the thread. I'm really glad that (s)he hasn't as it shows the standards of nrft.

not at all ! just paste and copy....

Nigel, I agree. I hope this topic stays up for the exact same reason. Signed, Donna (I mean, Michael) Oh, darn. :-)

do not worry Michael nobody is perfect...

Hi Thomas! I am the lady the other posts are talking about... Here is what happened: I went to New Rome Free Tour site, read the instructions about the free tour and followed them. We were at Spanish Steps at 5:30 pm on july 26th and found nobody there. Them I wrote them the following e-mail and got the answers you can see in the nexts posts Da: "Adriana Vivoni" xxxxx@yahoo.com.br A: info@newromefreetour.com Cc: Data: Thu, 26 Jul 2012 09:59:39 -0700 (PDT) Oggetto: rome free tour > I just got back from spagna were there was supposed to be a rome free tour at 5:30. We were there exactly at 5:30 but there was nobody there. > I am really disapointed and will write a review on TA about it. > thanks a lot
> Adriana

First reply email PART 1
Hello Adriana, welcome back from Spagna were supposed to be a rome free tour. Unfortunately 35 people today found a "supposed to be" tour, they found the tour, the guide and they did it. I don't know where you were waiting for and 5:30pm, hope you mean italian 5:30pm not brazilian 5:30pm, however the guide was at the meeting place at 5:25pm (italian pm, of course ) and tour started at 5:32pm ECT, yes two minute late due guide had to explain to some ladies in the group the way to follow the dress code in order to visit the Churches included in our route, this is Italy, not Switzerland. I know 7 minutes on the spot is not an eternity, anyway long enough for you, If you were there, to see the guide in a range of about 65 cm from you. In simply words more than 30 people were on the spot on time and did the tour, but you and some more ( I understood you were not the only one seen that on your email you wrote "WE" and I believe you are not the Queen of Brazil due as far as I know Brazil has a President ). Anyway reading your email I understand you are disappointed. It is human to be and we thank you because that's a good point for us. To be disappointed means you missed something, you can't be disappointed of something do not exist. Means the tour was on the road but you didn't find it. Today you missed a great great free walking tour. Today tour was longer than usual, guide finished at 8:10pm CET or 20:10 CET if you prefer, by the way CET means Central European Time, not Central Ecuadoranian Time.

First e-mail replay PART2
Just in case we have photos of today happy travelers who were so "foolish" to find the guide when you were so "cleaver" to be not able for it even if he was closer to you than any mosquito in town. I find also you to be a little bit arrogant to pretend to know there was not a tour. Lets honestly say you didn't find it, why do you want to pass like Wikipedia of lies? We are offering the free walking tours since more than 1500 days in row, every single day God d, more than 60.000 people were part of it. So who are you Adriana to say "there was nobody there"? God's boss? But the worse of all is that we find you to be very mean. Do you really believe you terrify us writing " I will report on TA". It is a menace? You act as you are the chief of the new Corleone family! Do you believe we will cry asking you please don't do it? You're just foolish, we are waiting for your review on TA and look forward to reply in public, not privately as this email is, in public in english, italian, french, spanish and portuguese. We really want you to be part of our "Hall of Shame" on TA, so far only 4 people are there and only 3 deserved a reply. Believe me, be part of it is better than get a Gold medal at London's Olympic Games. Probably reply will be just a paste and copy of this email, hope you can understand we have better things to do than waste time.

PART 3 Sadly I have to tell you that menacing anyone makes you more than mean. However that's not your fault, it is place were you live fault. Your Country's fault. Live in a place where ex-President and actual President are protecting a killer, criminal, terrorist, murderer, bloody man who killed people in the name of himself arrogance, for the money, leaving kids without father, wives without husbands, creating new orphans, mother who have to groove children on a wheelchair instead to see them run, a country which consider Cesare Battisti a lovely good nice elegant educated gentlemen to be protected can't make good people. It is normal makes you mean due you have no sense of justice, sense of honor, respect. Not you personally, your country influence. Adriana it is time for you to break the spell. Make yourself a favor and make this world's favor: try to be better. Ciao Toni
New Rome Free Tour

Second e-mail replay Cara Adriana! I'm the supposed guide of the supposed tour of the supposed place of the supposed time of the supposed city of the supposed woman coming from the country of the supposed "ordem e progresso" . I rarely perform, I do a couple of tours per month, anyway every time I pray Jesus to make me invisible to people from Countries I don't like, Countries which protect CRIMINALS. Today I did the tour for more than 30 people, no one from China, Cuba and Brazil. If today you were there and you din't see me probably because you come from a Country that protect "assassinos", if so don't complain to New Rome Free Tour, it happened because Jesus listen my prayers. Stammi bene, sento che hai sangue italiano ;) Vito Messaggio originale Da: info@newromefreetour.com Data: 27/07/2012 1.17 A: <naddeovito@libero.it>
Ogg: I: rome free tour

Adriana, I'm glad you posted your experience on this forum. It clearly shows, along with Anthony's ravings, the type of people you'll be dealing with at NRFT. Donna or am I supposed to be Michael...... I get so confused being accused of being so many different people.