Tour guide recommendations

Check out Hotel Smeraldo, in Rome, and Hotel David, in Florence. Both are wonderful places.

In Roma, the Residenza Cellini is WONDERFUL. In Firenze, the Pensione Alessandra and Hotel Pendini are both beautiful, attentive, relatively inexpensive, and very centrally located. Buon viaggio!

In Rome, we stayed at Residenza Argentina and loved it. Very small and personal - but security is excellent and the location can't be beat - 5 minute walk from Campo dei Fiori, Pantheon, Piazza Navona. 10 minutes from Trevi Fountain and Trastevere, 15 minutes from Colisseum. Price was 140 Euro including breakfast and Internet service. Very small boutique hotel with only 6 rooms - and the desk staff are wonderfully helpful, friendly and accommodating. In Florence, we stayed at Hotel Alba. Great deal - only 90 Euro for a very clean, bright, recently renovated hotel including breakfast and Internet service. Two minute walk from the train station and well located near main attractions in Florence - which is a small town anyway so walking is easy.

We love the Hotel Aberdeen in Rome and Hotel La Scaletta in Florence. Aberdeen is in Rick's book, LaScaletta no longer is but it's still our favorite.
For guides I would suggest looking on the Graffiti Wall under the heading "day tours".

I would recommend to everybody the Hotel St.George located at 2 minutes walking from Piazza Navona. For your tours in Rome and Florence try Miles&Miles they were great with us and very professional.

Hopefully I read your Post correctly, but I'm assuming you want recommendations for a personal tour guide as well as lodgings?

For tours of Rome, you might consider Francesca Caruso (listed in Rick's book). She's an outstanding Guide and provides enthusiastic and interesting tours. Her fees are well worth the cost!

I haven't use any of the guides in Florence, but there are lots of listings in the Guidebook.

Happy travels!