About Me

I’m Rossella Sciara Della Monaco. I’ve been a licensed tour guide in Tuscany for over twenty-five years — listed in Italy’s national register of tourist guides held by the Ministry of Tourism under no. 09002663, qualified since 1998 — and a certified private driver for the last ten. Very few people hold both licences. Most companies send you a driver who isn’t allowed to guide, or a guide who can’t drive — so you end up paying two people, or waiting outside every museum. With me it’s one person for the whole day: I drive you, I walk you through the art and the streets, and I never hand you over to anyone else.

One guide, one driver, one day that’s yours

Every tour is private. You never share the van with strangers you’ve just met, and the day is built around what you want to see — not around a schedule set for fifty people. I take small groups, never more than eight, in a new-generation Mercedes minivan with air conditioning, Wi-Fi and room for your luggage. If Florence is busy, I know which piazza is still quiet at nine in the morning and which side of the Duomo doesn’t have a queue.

Because I hold a guide’s licence, I can take you inside the churches, museums and old towns and actually explain them. A driver without that licence has to wait at the door. I guide in Italian and English, and I’d rather tell you the one story about a fresco you’ll remember than recite ten dates you’ll forget.

No commissions, no crowds

I don’t do big-bus tourism — my work is the opposite of it. I won’t take you to a “recommended” leather workshop or a jewellery shop that pays me to bring you through the door. Where we stop for lunch is your decision; if you’d like a suggestion, I’ll tell you where I’d eat myself. The point of a private day is that it bends to you: we linger where you’re enjoying yourself and move on where you’re not.

If you’re arriving by cruise ship

A large part of my guests reach me by ship at Livorno, La Spezia or Marina di Carrara. If that’s you, the real question behind every other question is: will I make it back to the ship? Yes. I meet you at the pier, I keep an eye on your ship’s schedule all day, and I plan the route with a safety margin so we’re back well before the gangway closes. You set the return time — being calm on board matters more than one last photograph.

In a single day from the coast I can bring you to Florence, Pisa and its Leaning Tower, Lucca, Siena, San Gimignano, the Chianti wine roads, Montepulciano, Cortona or the Cinque Terre. We decide together what fits the hours you have.

Why guests choose me

People book me when they want Tuscany explained by someone who has lived and worked here for a quarter of a century, at their own pace, in a comfortable car, with no surprises on the bill. Families, couples and small groups of friends — the same people often write to me again the next time their ship calls at the port.

Tell me what you’d like to see, and I’ll build the day around it.