So i am visiting Rome with myself and a couple others including a 79 year old.
I was wondering if we should get a private tour guide so we can go at our own pace.
But i have a couple questions.
1) can you still visit the the underground?
2) Do they buy the tickets for everything?
3) what would be typical cost
and of course does anyone have a recommendation on a guide or at lest where yo find one?
Thanks
Posted by
Minnesota 🎒
15863 posts
Hi Douglas -
The trouble is that a "best" question could have different answers depending on who you ask.
Do I see a need for tour guide for this attraction? No. I've done it twice without one BUT I've also read up in advance and used a guidebook. You also have the option of renting an audioguide there, or downloading Rick's free audioguide to your own devices.
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/audio/audio-tours/italy
Do guides buy tickets for everything? Not sure what that means but guided tours can encompass everything from just a basic tour of the public areas to more in-depth tours that include the arena and underground. The most cost-effective tours are available through the Coopculture website (the official ticket seller for the Colosseum/Forum/Palatine) BUT are also the most difficult to land given the very attractive price point. They sell our very, very quickly once they become available, and that can happen in the middle of the night for those of us in the U.S.
Can you still visit the the underground? Yes, IF you can get tickets. They are THE most in-demand tickets of anything in Rome. Even the companies that sell tours for considerably more than Coopculture can't always get their hands on them. My personal thoughts on those? You can see down into the underground from the areas above that don't require a tour. It's not necessary to pay a premium price and/or stay up all night just for the short amount of time those tours spend below. You stand a better chance of getting tickets that do NOT include that part, and do so economically.
Cost:
Coopculture: explore the options from general entry to full experience...the latter being the most difficult to get. You could also try for tickets that include the arena - the floor extending over part of the underground - for an "extra" experience without the headache of trying to land underground tickets.
https://www.coopculture.it/en/poi/colosseum/
Where I think a tour is well worth it? One that combines the Colosseum, Forum and Palatine. The Colosseum itself is not that difficult to get one's head around but the other two sites - which are right at the Colosseum's doorstep - benefit from educated narration and guidance as they're important, and more of a challenge to understand without help. Coopculture doesn't offer one of these.
Your issue is that these tours tend to run 3-4 hours, and I'm unsure if your eldest member can go that amount of time? A couple of recommendations based on past forum posts:
https://www.walksofitaly.com/rome-tours/roman-colosseum-tours/
https://theromanguy.com/tours/italy/rome/complete-colosseum-tour
https://www.througheternity.com/en/colosseum-tours/colosseum-tour-ancient-rome.html
You can explore all of the options offered by these 3 companies that i've not included. :O)