Carlo from Limoinrome?

[hondar]

Based on excellent reviews on this board, we contacted Claudio from limoinrome. He personally was not available, but offered to book us with Carlo, his "associate" driver. Has anybody used Carlo and what was your opinion?

 

Thanks.

[Jack1]

We had Carlo for 2 of our 3 tours in Italy this summer. We really enjoyed spending time with both of these gentlemen. Carlo is very knowledgable, courteous and personable. He is a bit younger than Claudio. Every bit as much a professional as Claudio. I wouldn't worry about trusting him (either one) with your tours. We were not disappointed. Faye

[Billie H]

There is also a "Carlo" at Rome in Limo who is one of the owners of the company. "Duman" his partner took care of us in Rome and was excellant! He also hooked us up with other drivers in Florence and the Amalfi Coast. All of them were excellant as well. Do yourself a favor and at the very least contact them. You won't be sorry you did.

Billie H

[hondar]

Faye,

Thanks for the info. I did a "Search" and couldn't find any info on Carlo. I feel better now.

[dsawyer]

We hired Claudio for a guided Vatican tour and for transfers to Civitavecchia to meet our cruise ship. It was disastrous. He had agreed to go to several hotels to pick up various people in our group. We knew in advance that he would not be our guide but he failed to inform us that he was brokering us off to some other tour company. The driver that was sent knew nothing of the details of going to the different hotels, or even how to get through the streets of Rome. We had the same driver for both experiences and he had several hit and run accidents along the way with parked cars.

 

Hire Claudio at your own risk. :eek:

[joan24]

We used Claudio out of Civitavecchia and had made an itinerary ahead of time. He told us that he was very flexible. Claudio is a gentleman and very nice, but he did not do as he promised. When we were to go to the second of three places, he informed us that we would have to chose one or the other,because we wouldn't have time for both. The others in our group chose a town which was completely shuttered due to the time of day. The park would have been good to go to first. We arrived back at the ship almost 2 hours ahead of the planned time, so we would definitely have been able to see everything we had planned for. If you use Claudio make sure you let him know exactly where and when you want to tour. It was not a good day.

Joan

[Crescoia]

Joan24,

 

I haven't toured with Claudio yet, although I do have him booked for several trips on our upcoming cruise. Your experience w/Claudio is the first one I've found someone to be disappointed. As a thought could the time limit have been a tour limit. On some of the excursions we've booked he has priced out an 8 hour tour and on other a 10 hour tour, even though the ship is in port for 12 hours. He has indicated that additional hours can be 'purchased' if your time schedule permits. Could the constrait have been the tours length? In any case I agree it is a must to come to an understanding of what your tour expectations are and the driver should indicate ahead of time if they can't be meet.

[KruzinAl]

We sailed Galaxy Eastern Med and had 2 nights in Rome postcruise, home last night Oct 9.

We had Roberto Brunetti and his brother from limousine in rome. http://www.limousinrome.com

Picked us up at the port to Rome then Rome to FCO airport yesterday. Great job, clean cars and like all drivers in Rome, Formula 1 drivers in training !!!

No problem, would recommend them again.

Al

[dsawyer]

Did you read my revew of Claudio? He did not tell us he was outsourcing our tour to another company. He could do the same to you and the new company won't know any of the details of your contract with Claudio. That's what happened with us.

[joan24]

Crescoia,

We hired Claudio for an 8 hour tour and he brought us back to the ship shortly after 6 hours.

Joan

[jrcooper]

We just returned from a Med cruise last week. I had arranged a 2 hour Illuminations tour of Rome with Claudio, and he sent Carlo as the guide. Carlo is a sweet, talkative man, but I found his English a little hard to understand. Some other people in our tour group had used Carlo earlier in the day for a tour outside Rome that was supposed to last 4 hours, but ended up lasting 7 hours with outrageous charges! On their suggestion I showed Carlo the email print out I had received from Claudio stating the time for the tour, etc., before we started the tour so there would not be any confusion as to how long the tour would last. Even at that, the tour lasted a little over 3 hours. Part of that was our fault, however, as we did not get out of the restaurant where he picked us up until 30 minutes after the agreed upon time.

 

I was also on the Vatican tour Dsawyer mentioned above where Claudio sent a driver who was clueless about what was going on. That tour was unbelievable! I agree with Dorothy--if you book a tour thru Claudio, be sure you keep everything he sends you in writing and show it to the driver BEFORE your tour and hope that they arrive within 2 hours of the time they were supposed to be there. Book at your own risk!

 

Someone who knows Claudio told us that he was a really nice man and great guide, but recently he has tried to overextend himself too much and may be outsourcing too much of his business, and it is getting him into trouble. This was obvious with our experience on the Vatican tour.

[dsawyer]

Jan is correct. However, not only do you need to have all emails and all addresses with you, one needs to pray, the driver who shows up knows his way around Rome and how to find the addresses you are going to.

 

To the benefit of the driver - he did know where the Vatican was! :D

[Crescoia]

It sounds like Claudio has slipped off a bit lately. I was leaning toward him in part because of a similiar thread I read about driverinrome the other company I was considering. It sounds like outsourceing has become a problem with a couple of these larger outfits. Other than getting them to promise they aren't going to outsource, which it sounds like Claudio doesn't like to do, does anyone have suggestions on how to make sure you are getting what you contracted for? Is there a bureau or agency that licenses these people?

[dkingdom]

I'm sorry to hear you have had a bad experience with Claudio. We just returned from our Med cruise and used Claudio for our tour of Pisa and Florence. We were fortunate enough to have Claudio himself because I booked him a year in advance and asked for him specifically. We also had him arrange our transfers from the airport to hotel, hotel to cruise and cruise to airport. Everything went very well and all drivers were on time every time. I can't speak highly enough of Claudio. We had a wonderful day. He picked us up at the specified time and took us everywhere we had planned to go. He was very accomodating, extremely knowledgeable and a very kind man. I know he mentioned how he likes to get back to the ship in a timely manner because you never know when an accident can occur and interfere with getting back in time. We were with him from 8:00 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. and there was never any mention of being charged over 8 hours. Like I said I'm sorry you had problems with your tour. I just know that I would not hestitate in using him again.

[hondar]

Thanks for the info about tour length. The website states 10 hours, so I will be sure and print that out if we use them.

[leighuf]

I, along with 5 others, toured Rome with Claudio of limoinrome.com on Oct. 26, 2005. We booked him 1 month in advance. He confirmed via email that he would peronally meet our group at the pier at 8am for 450 E. We requested to see all the major Imperial sites of Rome and the Vatican City. He arranged a licensed guide for our Vatican City portion of our day at a rate of 50 E per hour for 3 hours.

 

He arrived ontime at the pier with his shiny new VW van. He was professionally dressed and his English was quite good (tho, he revealed that he plans to holiday in the USA during the winter months to improve his English).

 

We were ontime throughout the day and saw the Colosseum, Palantine Hill, Forum, Panthenon, Trevi, and Spanish Steps. He allowed photo opts at all the major sights and we had a 40 min break for lunch at Campo Fiori. After lunch, we met up with our licensed historian at the Vatican Museum. We skipped the line and were immediately ushered through security. We spent a little over 3 hrs in the museum, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peters with our guide. Claudio met us outside for the ride back to the pier. We arrived back at the ship with an hour to spare. It was a long, exhausting day but Claudio made sure we saw all we wanted to see. :D

[leighuf]

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[virgenia]

leighuf,

 

We also used Claudio in September for a day tour of Rome and found it to be one of the best tours we were ever on. He also told us of his plan to vacation in the US this winter so he could improve his English, etc. Did you ask him where he intended to go???? I did, and he said Charleston, SC!! I had to laugh and tell him that Charleston and its people are lovely, but that the town was not really typical of the US, nor was the accent he would find.

[dsawyer]

As I've indicated in previous posts, its a hit or miss with Claudio. If one actually gets him, its a hit but if he decides to pawn you off to some other agency, it could be a a big miss (more like a mess). That's what he did to us and it was a very unsatisfactory experience.