We had decided to spend three days in Rome after the end of our Windstar Cruise and chose to make use of Mundy Carte Blanche services to really make the most of a particular aspect of our stay. (Point of order – Carte Blanche Private Tours can be taken before, during or after your cruise – providing of course that you are sailing with Mundy Cruising).

Now there are parts of Rome, such as the Palatine or the Colosseum, that we can tour ourselves, armed with but a trusty guide book and a determination to walk hard, (not as easy as it reads, being as we were in the middle of 100 degree plus temperatures). But the treasure house which is the city of Rome is so vast as to be unmanageable in a single visit, and we just wanted to make the most of our time. Our priority was the Vatican City, so we called the experts at Mundy Carte Blanche and asked them to put a tour together for us. They thought the ideal duration without going into total art treasures overdrive was half a day. At about £300 per person our proposed half day was not cheap, but then Rome itself is not cheap and Mundy Carte Blanche prices are obviously a reflection of the local economy : but was it worth it?

We met our guide at the hotel at nine in the morning, and were whisked away in a comfortable car to the door of the Vatican Museum. The last five minutes of our journey were spent driving past a long queue : “They have been there since six o’clock this morning” Rosella said “and they will be waiting for another three or four hours. But we? Only a two minute queue”. This, given the heat, was welcome news, and almost seemed worth the price in itself.

She was proved right, and in a jiffy we bypassed the hordes and were inside. There is no space here to record the wonders we saw, including of course the Sistine Chapel; St. Peters; and the stunning treasures and artworks of the Vatican Museums. The collections are overwhelming, so what a vast difference it made to our understanding and pleasure not to be tagging along with a big group, but rather walking at a leisurely pace in the company of an expert with whom we were able to converse. Rosella gauged exactly our ideal pace, our interests, and our level of knowledge and lead us capably through the galleries and gardens, avoiding the scrimmage, ensuring we weren’t trying to take in too much at one time, and making sure every minute was well spent. Whilst we knew it would be impossible to see everything, we felt we had seen all the highlights, enjoyed ourselves, learnt a lot, and retained a memorable experience. We saw a number of large tour groups all around us : and we know that our experience of the Vatican was a very different indeed one to theirs. (Not least because at the end of the tour we were not forced into questionable gift-shops for thirty minutes or more, but instead were right back in our car and thence to the hotel).

There are of course some places where such personalised services will simply not be needed. But who knows when, or if, we will ever go back to many of the places we visit? Isn’t it essential therefore to make the most of that short time you have available? So was our tour worth it? Yes, most definitely the only way to travel.