My husband and I just returned from our trip to Italy where we visited Florence, Rome, Naples and Pompeii. We had a wonderful time and travelling was made even more interesting and easy by reading and heeding advice given here on the travel forum. We utilized Viator and Walks of Italy tours and all tours were wonderful. In Florence we used Viator for the tour of the Accademia and Uffizi Gallery. Our guides were professional, knowledgeable and very personable. I would highly recommend these tours especially for first time visitors. Their in depth knowledge of the subjects provided wonderful insight into what we were seeing. In Rome we took the Pristine Sistine tour which allowed us to go straight to the Sistine Chapel and avoid all the crowds. Our guide was wonderful (Eleanora) and we visited the Vatican museums, St Peter's Basilica as well as the Sistine Chapel. Wear comfortable shoes, you will be doing a lot of walking! We also used Walks of Italy for our Colosseum tour and were lucky enough to have an anthropologist for our guide which provided even more insight into our tour. One of my previous concerns was transportation from our rented apartment to Fiumicino Airport for 6:55 am flight. I got a lot of good advice from readers of this forum. I would like to add one more company to the list to use RomeTransfer.it. They arrived at our pre-arranged time of 4:15. The driver was courteous and professional. We arrived at the airport with plenty of time and all our worries were for nothing. Everything was wonderful with our trip and I hope all of you enjoy your trips as well.
Posted by
Forest Grove, OR
11329 posts
Congrats on a successful trip! Now you have to start sharing your wisdom here on the Forum.
Posted by
Washington DC Region, USA
7049 posts
How did you spend your time in Naples? How long was your overall trip?
I used Viator in Croatia (twice) and once in Mexico, and it depends on which local tour group you get for that trip, since Viator is just a consolidator (not the actual operator). All three of my experiences were more than satisfactory, especially considering the price.
Posted by
TX, USA
528 posts
I hope you enjoyed Naples, as it gets such a bad rap. Thanks for the information on the transportation company. I will have to bookmark their website for future trips to Rome.
Posted by
OP
16 posts
Our trip was only 1 week. We spent 3 nights in Florence and 4 nights in Rome. Our trip to Naples was a side trip as a means to get to Pompeii. We took the high speed train from Rome to Naples and met up with our tour group for trip to Pompeii. We had a few hours on either side of the tour to see just a very small part of Naples. It seemed like a busy, bustling city. But everyone we encountered there was very pleasant and helpful.
Posted by
Washington DC Region, USA
7049 posts
We had a few hours on either side of the tour to see just a very small part of Naples
What part did you see? Most folks really don't spend that much time there at all (less than a full day), so they typically have strong (and more or less negative) impressions. So I'm wondering if you visited the Archeological Museum, or just stopped for some food, etc. I rather enjoyed my time there many years ago.