When I was planning a family trip to Rome, I knew I wanted to experience the city like a local by zipping around on a Vespa.
However, once I saw the congested city’s chaotic traffic firsthand, I also knew I didn’t want to take my children’s lives into my own hands by driving one myself.
Instead, I looked for a Vespa tour where someone else did the driving and easily found one led by locals. It cost 125 euros a person, which came to about $400 total for the three of us with the exchange rate.
Even though it wasn’t a typical city tour that involved long stops at notable sites, our Vespa tour wound up being a highlight of my visit to the Eternal City.
Safety was the most important factor to me.
Vespa Sidecar Tour, operated from just outside my hotel, Aratara Palazzo Naidai Rome. I appreciated the convenience, but I also wanted to be sure the company had a good safety record.
Because I had two of my children on the trip, safety was the most important factor to me. Our hotel concierge assured me the company was reputable and the online reviews looked good, so I looked into booking a tour.
We visited at the height of the summer tourist season, and many slots were already filled. However, I eventually found one that worked for us toward the end of our trip.
We visited several sites but didn’t stay long.
The Vespa tour I selected stopped at 12 different places in three hours.
Our guide described what we were seeing as we dashed past sites like St. Peter’s Square, the Presidential Palace, and Santa Maria Maggiore.
He often slowed down to allow me to get a good look at a church or plaza, but we rarely stopped.
We were able to take a few photos along the way.
Luckily, the tour made a few short stops for photo ops, including at the Trevi Fountain and the Colosseum. Although I’d already been to both spots, I appreciated that my guide knew the best places to stand for photos and offered to take them.
I’m rarely in any photos with my kids so having a built-in photographer who included me in some pictures was great.
We even stopped at a couple of places I wouldn’t have visited on my own, including Gianicolo Hill, which has stunning panoramic views of Rome.
The tour also included a delicious gelato stop and a longer rest break near the Pantheon.
Seeing the sites wasn’t the point of my Vespa tour.
I knew the tour wouldn’t be an in-depth look at Rome, but I didn’t mind. I was after the local experience of riding through the city on a classic, colorful scooter.
I wanted to feel the wind in my hair like Audrey Hepburn in “Roman Holiday.”
We got pretty close, too — even though the tour company required helmets and the drivers maintained reasonable speeds at all times.
Plus, we learned some new Roman facts from our guide, which added to my experience.
I wished I could’ve booked the tour earlier in our trip.
My children and I loved our Vespa tour — it was more than worth the price. If I did it again, I’d just book it earlier in the trip.
I think getting my first taste of Rome from a Vespa sidecar would’ve been a great introduction. The driver also had some great insider tips — including where to find the best pizza — but it was too late for us to take most of his advice.
Even so, I liked that my daughter and I could trade off sitting on the back of the scooter and riding in the sidecar throughout the tour. And my 9-year-old son felt like a star riding in his own kid-sized sidecar.
Taking a Vespa ride through Rome was one of the most memorable experiences my family had in Italy. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
The post I paid $400 for my family to take a Vespa tour of Rome. It was worth it, even if we just swung by all the major tourist attractions. appeared first on Business Insider.
