Miles and Miles Private Tours of Rome - Tour Review

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.