Ship Tours vs Private Tours in Rome and Florence

tkb · #15 June 28th, 2009, 11:09 PM

We just got back from our cruise on the Noordam and wanted to recommend two EXCELLENT private tour guides (one in Livorno/Florence and the other in Naples/Pompeii/Amalfi Coast). We found both of these guides simply by reading reviews online, so we wanted to add in our endorsements for both. You cannot go wrong!
Livorno: P. Guido Sarzani (http://www.tuscanyinmypocket.com/) was our tour guide in Florence and really made the city come to life. His family has lived in Florence for hundreds of years, so we cannot imagine anyone knowing the city better than him. But even better than the interesting information Guido provided us was the way in which he delivered it. He is surely one of the friendliest and most entertaining guides out there and extremely enthusiastic. He was waiting for us at the pier at 8 am and then we made a quick stop at Pisa. As he would do for the rest of the day, Guido somehow managed to park about 20 feet away from where we were going (in this case the leaning tower). Then we drove to Florence where we stopped to see the David (again Guido managed to park about 20 feet from the museum) and the main sights of Florence Several members of our family had been to Florence before but it is hard to describe how much better it is with a great guide! For lunch Guido arranged a private wine tasting right in Florence at a great wine bar—the food and wine were great and we all ate and drank a little too much. This was our first port on the cruise and Guido definitely set the bar high—everything went very smoothly and the day was better than we could have imagined. We will now always hire private guides when going on cruises—the price was very reasonable (there were 6 of us) and we saw so much more than those on cruise tours. In Florence, the tour buses cannot pull into the city so those on the cruise bus tours had to walk nearly an hour to get into the city (and had to walk a similar amount in Pisa). I was embarrassed to admit that we had walked about 3 feet!

Naples: Tony de Simone (www.amalfi-drive.com) was our tour guide in Naples and this was the perfect way to end the cruise. From minute we met Tony at the pier, we knew it was going to be a good day, as he was friendly, easygoing, and was a great driver and guide. We first went to Pompeii where Tony had arranged for a private tour of the site with a licensed guide (Franco, who was excellent as well!). We got there quickly and before the crowds had arrived and saw parts of Pompeii we had not seen on previous visits. After leaving Pompeii we headed for the Amalfi Coast. Tony’s driving was flawless, even as we climbed higher into winding mountain roads, and he was always offering to stop whenever we wanted a picture (we wanted quite a few). Next it was time for lunch and this may have been one of the most memorable of our cruise. Tony took us to a restaurant perched very far up in the mountains overlooking Positano. We had a table at the windows with unbelievable views of the town below and the beautiful blue water. We probably would still be raving about the lunch even if the food had been bad, but it was amazing. Fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, and a platter of grilled veggies (for the vegetarian in our group). Tony was very accomodating in helping all the picky eater sin my family get what they wanted. After lunch Tony drove us right down to Positano where we walked around for a bit before heading back for a quick stop at Herculaneum. This was the last day of the cruise but we all really felt like we ended on a high note. We have not stopped talking about Tony and the great day we had!