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Report: Two private day tours with Sonia Tavoletta in Rome

Posted by (Pacific Northwest) on

We did two afternoons with Sonia - a Vatican tour and a Colosseum tour. Sonia is truly fabulous. Her English is excellent, she is low key and friendly, and her knowledge is endless. She ushered us through both sites and made them manageable - and despite the fact that I consider us to be pretty experienced travelers, I would have been lost - especially trying to enter the Vatican museums - it’s chaotic, crowded, and confusing.

She provides an excellent overview and is really good at tailoring the conversation to your knowledge level. One member of our group is pretty savvy at history and asked pointed and specific questions - which she readily answered.

And then, for me, historical dullard, she just as readily answered my questions about the floor tiles in the Vatican and the toilets and snack food sales at the Colosseum 2000 years ago.

I felt her fees were extremely fair - 70 Euros an hour for our group of 4.

She’s an awesome resource for making the most of a Rome visit!!

Posted by
2296 posts

We toured the Vatican with her in 2019 and she was wonderful. It was late afternoon and the 2 70+ yr old guys that were tired and jet lagged loved her presentation. She was gracious about their attempts at humor, answered all our questions and gave us a tour to remember. It was especially meaningful for 2 of us who had visited the museum previously in a chaotic crush, vowing never to come back.

Posted by
7937 posts

Sonia is wonderful. We’d booked a tour with her of the Rome Ghetto for last month, but after we’d gotten to Rome, it was determined that she’d double-booked that date, several months ago. She had to cancel us, and apologized profusely, then offered a free, short, 1-hour stroll through the Ghetto, and we met her on an evening that neither of us had other plans.

We met at the Piazza Campidoglia just before sunset, and walked over to a view of the Roman Forum, where she shared some explanations. We then walked down and through part of the Ghetto, including the theater of Marcello, and then across the bridges to Trastevere, where she led us to a great gelateria. We got cups of gelato, and bought her a special Italian soda, and her son then met her there, where we split up. We’ll try to book her if we make another trip to Rome.

If anyone wants to contact her, I’ll provide her e-mail address here in the morning, when I’ve got WiFi. I’m in a 500 year old B&B in Cortona right now, and it’s 3 minutes til midnight here.

Posted by
7937 posts

OK, so there’s her contact info - thanks Valerie!

Another quick thing from our Ghetto walk - she pointed out brass cobblestones in front of many doorways, inscribed with names and dates. There’s a German man who has placed them in places around Europe, giving the names and circumstances of people rounded up and shipped off to concentration camps during World War II. A different guide in the Ghetto never mentioned them. You’ll get a lot from Sonia as a guide in Rome.

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