tours in Rome and Sorrento

Look at Context Tours in Rome.

For the Sorrento area, check out the Mondo Guide Shared Tours. They offer these tours at a deep discount via an arrangement with Rick Steves. We took their day tour of the Amalfi Coast (only 50 Euros per person), which I highly recommend. Basically, they drive you (in a comfortable minivan) from Sorrento to Positano, Amalfi, and Ravelllo and drop you off near the town center. They arrange a meeting time and you are off to the next town. From Sorrento, you also can easily day trip to the island of Capri, either with Mondo or on your own via the hydrofoil. If you aren't afraid of heights, go to Anacapri and take the chair lift up to the top of Monte Solaro for an amazing view. The San Michele Church in Anacapri is also worth a visit to see the amazing tile floor depicting Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Naples are all also within an hour of Sorrento.

I took the RS Rome tour in May and our RS guide pointed out the LONG lines waiting to enter the Colosseum and said that the Colosseum now limits the number of people inside at one time - 3,000 I think. He said that one LONG line was folks just waiting to buy a ticket to get in. The other LONG line was for people who already had tickets. He said that those folks not yet having tickets had no chance of getting in that day. Some of the folks in the ticketed line might get in. Neither line looked like it was moving. It was hot outside that those folks in line had no shade. Our guide said that the only effective way to get into the Colosseum was to be part of a guided tour whos members do not have to stand in lines. There were numerous folks advertising guided tours standing around the Colosseum trying to sell spots on their tours. You might also want to invest in a RS Rome guide book - for sale elsewhere on this web site. It is full of very useful information especially places to eat.

We just returned from Italy in mid-June (group of 6) and for Rome, we opted for a private tour of the Colosseum and Vatican in a single day as our group wanted to see just the Colosseum, not the Palatine Hill or the Roman Forum. We took the tour from Miles & Miles (https://www.milesandmiles.net/tours/rome). Grace was our guide and she did a great job of bringing history to light. With our Colosseum ticket, we could go back and see the Forum and Palatine Hill the next day and my husband and I went separately.

The other tour that I would recommend, in fact, it was one of our favorites on the entire trip was the docent-led tour of the Galleria Borghese: http://galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it/it. Bernini masterpieces in an Italian villa. Because they have timed tickets, the museum is not ever too crowded and the docent-led tours are led by art experts. Even my friend, who is not an art lover, loved this place.

The last tour I would recommend is a food walking tour the Eating Italy Twilight Trastevere tour: https://www.eatingitalyfoodtours.com/rome/tours/twilight-trastevere/. This was a great introduction to some of the small family owned restaurants and shops (vegan bakery, cheese) and remarkable experiences like drinking in a wine cellar of a restaurant that was older than the Colosseum. My only recommendation is to take this early in your trip. We went on a Saturday and my girls wanted to go back on Sunday to get the Supll, it’s a fried ball of rice with meat and tomato sauce and a filling of melted mozzarella. ..., at one of the best places in Rome and they were closed.

Rome is a delightful city, enjoy.

Sandy

We used Walks of Italy when we went to Rome at the end of May and Emma was a fantastic guide for the Colluseum, Paletine Hill and the Roman Forum. She is a Roma, and an Archeology major, so she gave us all kinds of great information. We loved our tour.

In Sorrento we did Mondo Guides down the Amalfi Coast, and that was a great tour as well. Do not plan on driving in Sorrento, Amalfi Coast or much of anywhere in Italy! It’s crazy!

We have always had good luck by checking with the TI for local guides. In Rome we were pleased with Angel Tours.