Sure, you'd think that as a travel agent I'd know enough about travel services to avoid the most prosaic pitfalls. I usually do, but personnel present a particular challenge compared to lodging, dining, transportation and other more "tangible" elements of your visit. Most of Sicily's licensed tour guides are technically competent in that they are knowledgeable of history and culture, and many (though in my experience only a slim majority) are actually engaging and willing to enhance your experience. But after many years in the field I have come to believe that tour guides, like every other element of your visit, should be selected with extreme care. (I've even proposed that the editors of this site publish a page listing guides who they have carefully reviewed and consider worth recommending.) It should be mentioned that in Italy becoming a licensed tour guide requires passing a fairly rigorous examination; in Italy guiding is a profession comparable to teaching high school history.

Recent implementation of European Union free-trade laws is changing the guide profession because in the future a guide licensed in London or Berlin will be able to work in his/her profession in Palermo, Siracusa or Agrigento. It's all part of "de-regulating" the professions in Europe, and part of the general trend toward globalization. This, of course, has impacted the careers of some local guides in Sicily, who in the current economic climate (and the resulting decline in tourism) may already be finding things difficult. Large tour operators are cancelling tours and certain cruise lines are cancelling Mediterranean cruises having Sicilian ports of call.

Some guides seem particularly sensitive to the new legal situation. A few months back, I was in Palermo on business with two of my New York friends, both having Sicilian grandparents, who decided to tag along when they heard I was going to Sicily --each having visited other parts of the country but never that which (in my opinion) is the most interesting and the most hospitable. Peter, Lou and I were in for a surprise when, during a visit to a medieval church, a tour guide lecturing a group of tourists began "reprimanding" one of us who she thought was working as a guide and therefore usurping her profession. That this kind of thing would occur in a place of worship was slightly unsettling because at Saint Patrick's Cathedral back home decorum is the order of the day. My friend Peter is a decorated Vietnam war veteran and a Manhattan lawyer, so I don't think he was intimidated by a little Sicilian girl making threats in broken English. There's free speech in Italy and we hadn't done anything wrong but, needless to say, none of us were in Palermo to get into a nasty scene with somebody who has a personality issue, and a heated argument in a Catholic church wasn't on our schedule that afternoon. The main conclusion from all this is that there are guides and guides, and not all of them are especially 'simpatico' or even competent. I can hardly believe I'm actually writing this, but it's the truth.

This and other experiences leave a bad taste in my mouth because they mean that I must promote Sicilian travel characterized by annoying shortcomings in service and infrastructure. Without delving too deeply into sociological intricacies, let me just say that the crux of the service problem is that Italy is fundamentally a quasi-socialist "welfare state" in painful transition to something healthier. For now, labor and management are still at odds (witness Italy's frequent strikes). Many professionals, including some tour guides, think that a credential or paper certification is in itself sufficient for them to work, and many expect the customers to seek them out, sans the need for advertising. The idea of quality of service is sometimes lost in this bizarre mix, yet for those of us in the travel industry it is the essential ingredient. Simply put, who wants to work with incompetent or rude people? Worse yet, why be forced into working with them if there are other choices?

In Italy there are additional complexities because a legal distinction is drawn between tour guides, whose work is essentially cultural, historical and localized, and tour escorts (group leaders) whose work is most typically dedicated primarily, though not exclusively, to accompanying a group and dealing with transportation and other logistics. (Both require proficiency, if not fluency, in a foreign language.) In some ways this compartmentalization is ridiculous, for numerous reasons, but it seems to be slowly changing with new legislation. Let's just say that the whole situation, with personalities thrown into the equation, can be like walking through a mine field. Pity the travel agent who has to plan a tour in Sicily thinking it'll be logistically similar to what she has organized for Germany, Russia, India or Japan! As far as guides are concerned, it's high time that some kind of selection were made based on quality, instead of having some Sicily-based tour operator make your choice for you.

I almost forgot another detail. Most of the people you see based at certain historical sites, and who sometimes take visitors around the site explaining things, are not licensed guides or escorts qualified by examination but monolingual "site guides" hired at low wages to work specifically at those places. In Sicily many are part of the Fondazione Federico II, an outsource paid by the public agencies which administer these sites. The problem, from my point of view, is that few speak English.

In my field we often have to select either tour guides or group leaders. Obviously, there are some who my office would never dream of employing, and neither should you. Americans, of course, are accustomed to choices and unafraid to make them, but I believe that this applies to most people regardless of where they live. My point is that certain aspects of "tourism" are too frequently overlooked in the rush to book the best hotels and schedule visits to the most interesting sights. It seems to me that the person who chooses a local guide, even for a small group for one day (for example a shore excursion during a cruise) could benefit from applying the same rules that we follow who work full-time in the travel industry. It's almost comical that I might have a problem with a tour guide that I'd never have with Alitalia flight personnel, who are highly trained in customer care, but I guess that's just part of the world we live in.

Unless you've worked in the travel/hospitality industry, it may seem to you that historical knowledge alone makes a good guide, but if you think about it, your vacation experience entails much more. Think of it this way. An airline pilot doesn't just fly the plane, important as his technical competence is, he reassures the passengers too. When you eat in a restaurant it's not just the food that is important, but the place where it is served. The same principle applies to every aspect of travel: transportation, lodging, dining, potential emergency services, and of course things like tour guide services. When it comes to dealing with clients, most of Sicily's tour guides have had virtually no training at all, and it shows. Even in Sicily, some tour operators are beginning to rebel against such a mentality.

I would like to reiterate that the great majority of Italy's licensed tour guides, and certainly most of Sicily's, are highly competent. I do not wish to discourage your hiring one just because of a few bad apples. The field seems to be in a phase of evolution, so let's focus on the positive.

Hiring Your Guide: Find out which languages the guide speaks. If you actually speak to him/her you'll be able to get some idea about competence in your language. Unfortunately, English ability is sometimes mediocre. I wouldn't presume that Sicilian-born guides all speak foreign languages as well as native speakers, but I must say that those who speak English (or French or Russian) as their mother tongue are true gems because they also understand the culture, interests and needs of Americans, Brits, Germans, Japanese, Russians, etc. Try, either via email correspondence or a telephone conversation, to get a feel for what there is to see. A good guide will try to determine what you want to see and do. For example, if your Sicilian visit has a culinary theme you'll want to see the street markets of Palermo or Catania. While I don't wish to dwell on essentially subjective matters such as personalities, it is important that you feel comfortable with the guide you eventually hire.

Remember to enjoy yourself. Sicily is worth it.

About the Author: Andrea (Andrew) Russo has worked on the 'American' side of the Sicilian tourism industry for almost twenty years. This previously-published article appears here by permission.