Viator tours

Viator is just a consolidator selling tours that you could book directly from the service providers.

I had bad experiences with them in the past so avoid them, but I do look to see what might be available at particular destinations. I had slightly better experiences with Isango which is a similar type of company.

You're saying you're going to be staying 8 miles out of Rome for a week? Will you have access to the Rome mass transit system? If so, take the train into the city, and forget renting the car until you're through touring the city. If you have time, a car would be nice to use outside Rome.

The suburbs of Rome are full of fantastic tourist sights often overlooked for those that concentrate on the center city. Check out Palestrina and the Castel San Pietro Romano (hill town) above it on Wikipedia. Other great travel sites outside Rome can be seen on http://www.olivetreehill.com/places-to-visit-outside-of-rome

When heading north of Rome, many prefer to take a train up to Orvieto and pickup a rental car at Hertz (across the street from the train station.) Orvieto and Civita (close by) are very popular cities to visit.

Assisi and Tuscany is best seen from behind the wheel of a car. Sorry, I have no knowledge of any tours.

... We have booked 3 different tours through Viator tours....... Has anyone else booked tours through Viator recently and how were your experiences?..... I don't mean to sound argumentative but shouldn't this question be asked before you book the tours? As stated, Viator is a reseller of package tours which means little control over who is actually doing the tour. In general, you probably will be OK but it would not have been my first choice.

It possible, I would rethink staying that far out of Rome. Is the hotel part of the package? We had a package last spring which include two nights in Rome but in actually was on the far south side. We had to drive about 20 minutes to a park and ride at the last stop of the subway to take the train into Rome. It was OK for one time but I would not want to do for a week. This was on the weekend when the parking garage was about half full, I am guessing it could be a real hassle during the weekend.

You also said, They really seem to cater to what our needs will be while in Rome. Could you elaborate a bit on what those needs are? Since you are leaving in a few days, we may be too late to offer much assistance now.

However, since you will have a car be sure to bring a good GPS with Italian maps. Absolutely critical.

David, it is more than probable that they will need the car to get access to public transit unless she knows for sure that the hotel is next to the train station.

I used Viator in Milan, Rome and Venice and all the tours were excellent.
As mentioned above - it is a consolidator and I have not been disappointed with tours I have taken
via this company...... also in other countries in Europe.