Built from years of exploring, studying and sharing Rome. Quadriga Experiences grew out of a simple question: is there a better way to experience this city? Rome isn't a collection of isolated monuments, even though that's often the way visitors are forced to see it. The Colosseum, Circus Maximus, Aventine Hill, Forum Boarium, Capitoline Hill and the ancient roads and neighborhoods surrounding them are all parts of a much larger story. The problem is practical. The distances are significant, Rome is hilly, and its streets aren't always easy to navigate. A walking tour can only cover so much ground, while a conventional vehicle tour can separate you from the very city you've come to experience. Quadriga grew out of the idea that there might be another way—one that gives us greater range without sacrificing the intimacy of actually being in Rome.

A DIFFERENT IDEA FOR EXPERIENCING ROME

The idea behind Quadriga isn't to move people through Rome faster. In fact, in many ways, it's the opposite. We want the ability to move efficiently when there's distance to cover so that we can spend more time where it actually matters. The Quadriga Explorer gives us the freedom to connect places that might otherwise require long walks, taxis, buses or completely separate tours. We can follow an ancient road because we want to know where it leads, climb a hill because the view helps explain the landscape, or leave the most crowded tourist routes behind because there's something more interesting around the corner. When we arrive somewhere worth exploring, we stop, park the Explorers and get off. At that point, Rome becomes the classroom.

MEET SCOTT SPINUCCI

I'm Scott Spinucci, the founder of Quadriga Experiences and a licensed tour guide in Rome. I've spent years guiding visitors through the city and considerably longer studying the history, politics, archaeology and culture that created it. My other professional life has been devoted to storytelling, with more than three decades working in media and communications as a producer, writer, filmmaker and educator. For me, those worlds have always belonged together. Knowing the date something was built is useful, but it isn't enough. I want to know why it was built, who wanted it there, what problem they were trying to solve, what happened inside it and how it relates to everything around it. History becomes much more interesting when it stops being a collection of dates and starts becoming a story about real people making decisions, solving problems, competing for power and leaving their mark on the landscape. That's the Rome I want to share.

YEARS OF GUIDING ROME

Working as a guide changes the way you see a city. You walk the same streets hundreds of times, but if you're paying attention, you never really walk the same street twice. You watch how people react to a place, which stories make them stop and look again, what generates questions and which connections suddenly make two thousand years of history make sense. You also become very aware of the practical limitations of conventional tours. There are places you want to show people that are simply too far away, hills that some guests can't comfortably climb and fascinating sites that get left out because the clock and the distance make them impractical. Over time, I kept coming back to the same problem: some of the best parts of Rome weren't being left out because they weren't worth seeing. They were being left out because getting there was too difficult or took too much time. That problem became part of the idea behind Quadriga.