How to Hire a reliable driver? How much will it cost?

Bob, where is it that you wish to go? If you are looking for tours of cities or some of the usual day trips then a driver might not be the way to go. They are very expensive and cities in Italy have a lot of pedestrian areas where a driver won't be able to go. If you taking day trips to neighboring cities it's often much more cost effective to take the train to the city and then hire a private guide to take you around. If you let us know where it is you're going we can help with more indepth answers. Donna

I used Tripadvisor reviews for a company called Italy Limousines as a starting point. I emailed several of the clients who posted reviews, asked a lot of questions that they graciously answered, emailed the company with my ideas for an itinerary, we corresponded and settled on a price. Previous clients raved about their drivers - professional, engaging, informative. Not inexpensive, but we have booked a 9 hour private drive along the Amalfi coast, allowing us to go whever we choose and to stay as long as we like for 300 euro.

I have hired two private drivers during our upcoming trip in October and feel confident they will be good. It is expensive, but for our particular situation it will be the best method for us to see several areas. I found them by using a google search for transfer tours along with the two towns I want to transfer from ie. "florence to rome transfer tour". A number will come up. From there I used trip advisor as well as emailing them to discuss what I'd like to do. The ones I did hire were extremely helpful by going back and forth by email and they provided alot of helpful suggestions but also being extremely flexible in wanting to know what we'd like to see and do. You might also want to contact hotels you are staying at for suggestions on drivers.

Several private tour guides/companies are listed in Rick's Florence & Tuscany and Italy guidebooks. I started with that information and also searched for recent comments on this website as well as on the Trip Advisor website. I then corresponded (by email or via their respective web site) with 3 of the companies to obtain quotes for a one-day, round-trip excursion into Tuscany from Florence. I told them the towns we wanted to visit, so the companies knew exactly where we wanted to go. However, in the end we ped one of the towns at the recommendation of the guide (he thought it was not doable in one day - "too much time in the car"). All 3 companies quoted approximately 500 Euro for a full-day (8-10 hour) private tour by car or mini-van. The price was for our group of 4; i.e., not per person. Based primarily on Traveler's Helpline comments, price, expressed interest by the person who replied (one company did more "off the beaten path" tours and was very honest in not wanting to just shuttle us to several hill towns), and promptness of reply, I ed Florence Tour (www.florencetour.com&#59; info@florencetour.com). Guiseppe Aulisa and his wife, Paola Migliorini, own the company. I worked out all of the arrangements with Paola by e-mail two months before we left and Giuseppe was very punctual in meeting us at our hotel in Florence on the arranged day in a very comfortable 8-passenger mini-van. The way it worked was that Giuseppe ped us off at the center of several towns (Volterra, San Gimignano, Monteriggioni, and Siena), and then we arranged for a time to meet him to go on to the next town. Based on our experience in March 2011, I highly recommend Florence Tour if you are considering a day trip into Tuscany from Florence! We will definitely take a future tour with them if/when we return to Florence. So, that is how I went about researching our private tour and how things went.

Regarding my reply above, I don't know why, but the word dropped appears as 'ped'. They dropped the drop!