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Touring Rome in Style
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TESTIMONIALS OF OUR TOURS TO ITALY
Here is a selection from the reviews about us: we hope you find them interesting!
Touring Rome in Style
From Martha Bakerjian
http://goitaly.about.com/b/a/257627.htm
Guide Rating - 
As hoardes of tired tourists trudged by us in the hot sun of Rome, we were riding in an air-conditioned car enjoying a private Rome tour provided to us by Miles&Miles, Private Guides and Tours. If you have limited time in Rome or trouble walking long distances or just want a good overview of Rome to start your visit, this is the way to see Rome. Our driver/guide picked us up in our hotel lobby. We then had a delightful four-hour tour of the highlights of Rome.
How Is This Rome Tour Different from a Standard Tour?
Normally I stay away from guided tours but this Rome tour is different. You are in a small van with just your group instead of in a big bus full of other tourists. You can stay at each stop as long as you want without having to follow the timeline of a large group and the car is waiting for you when you are ready to leave. Your van can get to places in Rome not accessible to a big tourist bus. Your guide can personalize the tour for you and talking with the guide is easy.
The Miles & Miles Rome Tour was especially good for us as our group of four included my mother-in-law who has limited mobility. She never would have been able to see all this without such a fabulous tour. The tour really enhanced her visit to Rome.
What Was the Rome Tour Like?
Our guide, Luca, started by spending a few minutes talking with us about what we wanted to see and making recommendations. Luca did an excellent job of explaining what we would see at each stop, then he stayed with the car and we toured at our leisure. He answered any questions we had when we returned. If we wanted to go in somewhere that charged admission, like the Colosseum, he helped us buy our tickets, avoiding the long ticket line.
The four hour Rome tour covered most of the major sites of Rome, including all the top ancient Rome sites within the city, although we didn't go into all of them. Some places Luca would stop near the site and let us look from the car if it was something easy to see. Luca also had an interesting Rome book with overlays that allowed him to illustrate to us how something would have actually looked in ancient times.
Although I have been in Rome many times, he took us to see several interesting places where I had never been. We visited the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli, St. Peter in Chains, where he told us to look at Michelangelo's statue of Moses. We peeked through a special keyhole for a great view of Rome and St. Peter's Church and Luca even helped us get a good photo through the keyhole.
Touring the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Church
Normally the Vatican tour would be done on a seperate day, but since we had only one day we had a quick snack at a pricey tourist cafe near the Vatican where we met our second guide, Caron.
Caron gave us a tour of the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, and the Church of St. Peter. Although you can visit these places yourself, our visit was much better with the guide. I would have been overwhelmed on my own, but my guide knew the best routes to get around the huge crowds and where to see the highlights. Best of all, our highly knowledgable guide gave us excellent explanations of what we saw making our visit much more valuable and rewarding.
Essential Rome and Italy Tour Information
Rome City Tours include lunch in the countryside or near the Vatican in a restaurant frequented by Italians, not tourists.
The guide starts the tour by talking with the clients to determine what they want to see and do. Each guide likes to personalize the tour a little, too. The usual sites include the Pantheon, Colosseum, Forum, Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain. The guide adds other stops to please the client. The client pays for any admissions and lunch.
Miles&Miles offers guided day trips from Rome, including Amalfi Coast, Tuscany and the Roman countryside. Francesco, one of the guides, told me "The Amalfi Coast is a fantastic day trip where we organize the tour in Pompeii with one of our local guides and then drive through Sorrento and stop in Positano for lunch and some shopping. Back in Rome at the end of the day."
Although they don't book hotels, Miles&Miles can offer help with choices and prices. They also offer airport and port transfers or a private car and driver.
As is common in the travel industry, the writer was provided with a complimentary tour for the purpose of review. While it has not influenced this review, About.com believes in full disclosure of all potential conflicts of interest. See our ethics policy.
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Touring Rome in Style
From Martha Bakerjian
http://goitaly.about.com/b/a/257627.htm
Yesterday as hoardes of tired tourists trudged by us in the hot sun of Rome, we were riding in an air-conditioned car enjoying a private tour of Rome provided to us by Miles & Miles, Private Guides and Tours. If you have limited time in Rome or trouble walking long distances or just want a good overview of Rome to start your visit, this is the way to see Rome. Our driver/guide picked us up in our hotel lobby. We then had a delightful four-hour tour of the highlights of Rome.
Normally I stay away from guided tours but this one is different. You are in a small van with just your group instead of in a big bus full of other tourists. You can stay at each stop as long as you want without having to follow the timeline of a large group and the car is waiting for you when you are ready to leave. Your van can get to places in Rome not accessible to a big tourist bus. Your guide can personalize the tour for you and talking with the guide is easy.
In four hours we were able to see most of the major sites of Rome, including all the top ancient Rome sites within the city, although we did not go into all of them. Our guide did an excellent job of explaining what we would see at the places we did go into, then he stayed with the car and we toured at our leisure. He answered any questions we had when we returned. Although I have been in Rome many times, he took us to interesting several places where I had never been.
Following the morning tour, we had a quick sandwich at a cafe near the Vatican where we were met by another guide who gave us a tour of the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, and the Church of St. Peter. Although you can visit these places yourself, our visit was much better with the guide. I would have been overwhelmed on my own, but my guide knew the best routes to get around the huge crowds and where to see the highlights. Best of all, our highly knowledgable guide gave us excellent explanations of what we saw making our visit much more valuable.
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Terry Brooks,
best-selling author of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace says;
"What would we have done without the services of Roberto Miglio while visiting in Rome? He was our guide to another world, providing help with cultural barriers, transportation, interpretation, and suggestions at every turn for wonderful experiences. He organized our outings and saw us safely through each one. When we go back, we will be counting on him." |
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Carlson Wagonlit Travel
 "UPON RETURNING FROM ITALY, MY CLIENTS ALWAYS TELL ME THE VERY BEST THING I DID FOR THEM WAS TO SET THEM UP WITH ROBERTO!!!!
HE KNOWS EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE IN ROME, SO HE GETS YOU INTO ATTRACTIONS THAT WOULD NORMALLY TAKE YOU HOURS OF STANDING IN LINE.
HIS KNOWLEDGE OF ROMAN HISTORY IS EXTRAORDINARY AND HE PERSONALIZES EVERY TOUR TO EACH SPECIFIC CLIENT.
HIS WIFE, CARON, IS ENGLISH AND HAS AN EXTENSIVE BACKGROUND IN ART HISTORY, HER TOURS OF THE SISTINE CHAPEL ARE EXCEPTIONAL.
ROBERTO AND CARON CAN PROVIDE YOU WITH EVERYTHING FROM TIPS ON WONDERFUL RESTAURANTS TO CUSTOMIZED GUIDED TOURS OF ANY PART OF BEAUTIFUL ITALY."
MARY RAYBORN - CARLSON WAGONLIT TRAVEL |
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Hi Roberto!
Just wanted you to know that we had a spectacular time with you as our guide in Italy. The things we were privileged to do would have never happened without your assistance. The spiritual uplift I felt at the Vatican cannot be described on this earth. Thank you friend....we will be forever in your debt.
Thanks again for the wonderful tour.
Sincerely,
Jackie Maxwell Wilkerson & Jerry Brodhead |
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Article from: IDAHO SENIOR NEWS May 2001
'Bathroom View of Rome's Ruins Revealing'
By James Gaffney
 ROME - It was Roberto's idea. My wife and I huddled inside the cramped bathroom of the street corner trattoria and peered through the grimy window screen above the toilet. Just minutes earlier we had stood on the sidewalk down the block, pressing our faces against the locked glass doors to glimpse one of the city's chief attractions - a subterranean archaeological excavation of ancient Rome dating to the days of Tiberius. The problem was, it was closed except for a few hours each Tuesday. Guess which day of the week it wasn't? "Follow me," veteran guide Roberto Miglio said leading us into the trattoria a few yards away, "use the bathroom whether you need to or not." Inside, we glanced through the window, as instructed. The expanse of marble columns and arches adorned with friezes and accented with bas relief dating to the first century filled the length of a football field. It also filled our imaginations with scenes of Nero fiddling with burning insanity and Marc Anthony telling locker room stories of Cleopatra's lust. Exiting the bathroom, we saw a grinning Roberto leaning against the gleaming counter with a trio of celebratory cappuccino's. If it hadn't occurred to me how ridiculous the gesture might seem to someone raised in this 2,600-year-old capital, I would have high-fived him on the spot. Still, for Roberto, who leads small private tours of Rome through his company Eurolimousines, toga parties were more than about bed sheets in this ancient city that grew from a small farmers' village on the Tiber River into a great empire. As he steered his people-carrier through the rain in the city's Saturday traffic-clogged streets, past the imposing Arch of Constantine built in 316, it became apparent that he had something up his sleeve, "I will show you things few visitors to this city ever get to see," he said. It was hard not to be intrigued by Roberto's transatlantic fax two weeks before our departure on a seven-day western Mediterranean cruise aboard Orient Lines' Marco Polo. "I am the best guide in Rome," he stated in his letter. The math made sense and the deal was sealed long-distance. He meet us at the cruise ship dock in Civitavecchia. His whirlwind tour included the l6th century Trevi Fountain, where Anita Ekberg frolicked in Fellini's 1960 film "La Dolce Vita", the dank and eerie Callisto catacombs; the Roman Forum built by Julius Caesar; the 2,000-year-old Pantheon, where Renaissance painter Raphael is buried; the Coliseum; and even the recently restored home of Mussolini, Palazzo di Venezia, located next door to Napoleon's palace. Later, the only sounds inside the Sistine Chapel were my just-audible sighs as I gazed up for the first time at the Creation of Adam painted on the ceilling. To admire the sacred fresco of God's finger arching to touch Adam's with life is to marvel at the beginning of the universe as seen through the eyes of Michelangelo. Vibrant colors, particularly the blue paints mixed from lapis shavings, are as radiant as gemstones following completion in the 1990s of a monumental restoration effort. Once dusky eggshell-cracked figures now feature creamy skins, lustrous hair and brightly hued robes. "It's overwhelming even to me," said Roberto, "and I've been here hundreds of times." If pictures are worth a thousand words, even a million can never do justice to the Vatican's main chapel whose ceiling Michelangelo painted over four years, after sculpting "David" and "La Pieta" in the twilight of the 15th century. To contemplate what historians consider to be the world's single greatest artwork was a joy for this American whose passing interest in Renaissance painting had blossomed in midlife into a passionate love affair. The words of renowned New York artist Leslie Dill echoed in my head: "Great art will "touch" your eyes." And your soul. But even the world's finest art took a backseat to the celebration of love unfolding here in one of the world's most romantic cities.To escape the afternoon rain we ducked with other drenched sightseers under the arch of the Palazzo Senatorio, Rome's city hall situated in the balustrade lined Piazza del Campidoglio, designed by Michelangelo for Pope Paul III in the 1530s. "Look!" someone shouted in English. Two beaming brides in shimmering white-satin gowns exited city hall, following separate civil ceremonies. Standing under the marble arch they posed for photographs, their flawless, Mediterranean complexions illuminated by the flash of cameras. The respective grooms and attendants tried without luck to keep the brides' wedding-gown hems from getting wet. "This is my city," Roberto said, smiling as tourists mingled elbow-to-elbow with the wedding parties. "How do you like it so far?"
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