In article
,
Giovanni Drogo wrote:

On Mon, 23 Feb 2004, cb wrote:

Here's where I would disagree with the others and fully recommend a
guided tour.

I believe it depends how competent are the guides.

I often travel with organized tours, even within my own country (Italy),
but almost exclusively with a very serious association like the Italian
Touring Club (unfortunately for you, it arranges things only for
members). That means the guide is either a very professional one, or an
expert, like an archeologist or museum director.

I would be reluctant to travel with occasional guides, or those of the
sort which drop you in some souvenir shop.

I've been twice to Pompei (and both times long ago) and always on my
own, and both times it was real fun, we wasted no time and saw
everything we wanted, the first time I was a child, but I'd read a guide
book in advance and was the guide to my parents.

With a tour you'd certainly see less, specially in a large place like
Pompei.

On the other hand I'd been three times to Villa Adriana (a nice site
close to Rome), two on my own, and the third with a TCI group, and I
enjoyed all of them ... but the TCI guide was a graduate student in
archeology !


the guides at most tourist stops are generally full of silly anecdotes
of dubious historic value -- they are used to entertaining shallow
people -- or those with minimal interest in the site

I am sure that an excellent anthropologist or historian would be
fascintating to tour with -- but that isn't what one gets when hiring a
guide generally

If one wants a quick tour and does have minimal interest then a guide
might be the way to go -- I prefer a really good book that allows us to
go at our own pace -- and to go as deeply as we wish