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My friend Roberto and I, Paolo, have been
in this business for many years and we realized that
though our guests were always very happy with our
service, when we took them around Rome in our cars, we
instead felt some frustration, like something was missing,
as if we didn't do what we were supposed to. In fact, we were showing them all the
famous
attractions like the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain and
St. Peter's, but we weren't really showing them the real Rome.
We could not include in
our tour the areas of Rome that make it the very special
city it is and which remain undiscovered for most
tourists. The characteristic narrow streets and the evocative little
squares in the historic center of the city which, maybe
more so than places like the Colosseum or the Trevi
Fountain, represent Rome and help the foreigner
understand Rome and its millenary culture because that's
where the present Romans live their lives!
When we drive around Rome in our cars,
cumbersome minivans really, we can never walk away from
them. We have to stay with our car when we take people
to a site and let them go visit it. We try to stop as
close as possible to make sure they find us when they
come back after their visit and we're always afraid that
if we have to move the car for some reason, than they'
won't be able to find us.
Sometimes it happens that we
understand by what they say that they'd be very
interested in seeing a little special something that's
nearby and we would love to show it to them but we have
to stay with the car and we can't direct them to the
place because they'd get lost and never find it. Or they
simply ask for a good place for an ice cream and we
would love to take them to our favorite place for that
but we can't because the street is too narrow and
there's no place where to park, so we take them to our
second choice which is generally a place we can park
near to.
All of this was
happening before we discovered
the street legal golf carts!
We rediscovered the freedom of driving
and parking almost anywhere we want to. We can take our
people to a fabulous out of the way ice cream place show
them a fantastic organ or a statue by Bernini in a
little hidden church.
The first time we took someone on a tour
of Rome, a person who could not walk too far because of
temporary physical problems, we realized the potential of these
little buggies. We rediscovered the freedom of driving
through the streets where we used to play when we were
kids and which we had almost forgotten existed. The freedom of
stopping the car for a minute and say: come and take a
look at this place!
For us the tour of Rome by golf cart was
an injection of enthusiasm and our clients said, their
words, it was:
my
best tour !!!
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