We will be in Rome for 3 days and would like to take a tour of the Vatican and possibly the Colosseum. Is it best to take a group tour or a private tour. The costs seem quite high to book a guide for a private tour.There are 4 adults in our party. Is there a particular company that anyone recommends? We are also staying in Siena and plan to go to Florence for a one day tour as well and will be looking for a guide there.
Posted by
Los Angeles
1825 posts
Adria,
I don't think you have received replies because this forum is mostly people who rely on Rick Steves guidebooks instead of hired guides (although RS does endorse many tour guides in his books). Having just visited Rome and Florence for the first time I recommend you read and use his books for everything, especially restaurants. The tour guides I saw at the Vatican were less useful that the rented audio guides. I sat next to some discussing business across the street from the Vatican and have a pretty slanted view. I'm sure there are some good ones out there.
Posted by
kitchener, ont, canada
22 posts
Adria: My husband and I used Presto tours a year and a half ago while in Rome. We took 3 different tours (vatican, forum/colosseum, and evening walking tour) They only take a maximum 15 people. We never had that many in a group. The evening tour there was only 4 of us. We found them to be very informative, professional, fun and really enjoyed the tours. We really enjoyed our guides and felt they gave us a lot of extra little tidbits about the city that we would never have found out if we had just used a guide book or an audioguide. For us the costs seemed to be quite reasonable. We regretted not booking one of their tours in Florence when we were there.
Posted by
OP
Los Angeles, california, usa
15 posts
Thanks, Robert and Darlene for your answers to my question regarding tours in Rome. I appreciate both of you taking the time to respond to me.
Adria
Posted by
Kansas City
56 posts
http://www.aboutrome.it We took a tour last year with this lady, Micaela, and she was fantastic. My parents went a few months later and hired her for 2 days. The history of Roma is complicated and she helped put it in perspective and really set the tabe for the rest of the week, we met her on our first day. It wasn't cheap but well worth it. Real relaxed and kind of a loose agenda. I remembered reading abouta chuch with amazing art work and we walked right by, I mentioned it to her and she adjusted our schedule to see it. She is really cool, well educated and speaks great english. Just my two cents worth.
Posted by
Frankfurt, Germany
9212 posts
There are a whole bunch of reviews for tours in Rome over on the Graffitti Wall. For even more information and reviews, check out the tour lisitings on Trip Advisor. You can even send a personal message to the person who wrote the review to get more information.