Please sign in to post.

Coliseum Tour Change- what to do

Posted by on

We are scheduled to do the Underground Colosseum Tour next week and I just got the following email. Any advise or thoughts would be appreciated!

“We are contacting you with important information regarding your VIP Colosseum Underground tour you have scheduled with us on June 27th.

We have just received official notification from Colosseum Management (Coop Culture) that they will be unable to honor our June 27th reservations for the Underground portion of the Colosseum. Unfortunately, as noted on our website, the Management reserves itself the right to change their reservation procedures at any time.

Thankfully, our team has been able to negotiate that your tour will still run on that same date and at the same time. You will still be able to visit the first two tiers of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill. However, instead of the Top Tiers, we will be visiting Case Romane, an underground archaeological site of Roman houses full of beautifully preserved Roman frescos. We know sudden changes in travel itineraries can be difficult, so if this does not fit your schedule we would be more than happy to try and find a suitable alternative.

We know how important your holidays are to you and feel terrible for not meeting your expectations. That's why we would be more than happy to extend a tour credit of 50 Euro per person for you to redeem with any of our markets worldwide. This includes Athens, Italy, Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, London, New York, San Francisco, New Orleans, and any future markets we may open. This will be valid for the next 5 years. To redeem this tour credit, please contact our Guest Experience team directly via email at [email protected] and they will be happy to assist you. Please save and/or archive this email for your records so as to present when you’re ready to redeem.

In addition, we would also like you to join our Papal Villas tour free of charge (subject to availability). Please note this tour only runs on Fridays. On this tour, you get to visit the Pope’s Summer Villas and spend free time in Castel Gandolfo. You can find further information on this tour here.

Due to the nature of this change of plans, it’s important that you understand it and acknowledge receipt of this notice. Please reply to this email to let us know you’ve received it.

We hope you have a wonderful time in Italy and we look forward to hearing from you!

Warm regards,

The Walks Team

Posted by
257 posts

Sorry that the tour got changed but it sounds like they are bending over backward to make amends. They seem to be giving you lots of alternatives to take care of a problem they didn't cause.

Good luck!!

Posted by
18 posts

Yes, I totally appreciate that. Just don’t know wht those other places are. Any thoughts?

Posted by
1662 posts

In addition, we would also like you to join our Papal Villas tour free of charge (subject to availability). Please note this tour only runs on Fridays. On this tour, you get to visit the Pope’s Summer Villas and spend free time in Castel Gandolfo.

Amanda,

Here is some interesting info on

Castel Gandalfo - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castel_Gandolfo - [Is a town located 25 kilometres (16 mi) southeast of Rome in the Lazio region of Italy. Occupying a height on the Alban Hills overlooking Lake Albano, Castel Gandolfo has a population of approximately 8,900 residents and is considered one of Italy's most scenic towns.

Within the town's boundaries lies the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo which served as a summer residence and vacation retreat for the pope, the leader of the Catholic Church. Although the palace is located within the borders of Castel Gandolfo, it has extraterritorial status as one of the properties of the Holy See and is not under Italian jurisdiction. It is now open as a museum.]

Posted by
16687 posts

Here's some info on Case Romane; it's not far from the Palatine:
https://www.caseromane.it/en/
https://anamericaninrome.com/wp/2017/10/ancient-romans-lived-visiting-case-romane/

Looks pretty interesting to me plus you'll see a piece of ancient Rome that - unlike the Underground anymore - fewer rather than more tourists have been to! You'll be able to see down into the Underground of the Colosseum from above so it's not as if you won't see it at ALL, and you'll be given information about it. Anyway, my guess is that they'll take you to Case Romane either before or after the Forum/Palatine.

Castel Gandolfo would hold less interest for me personally but if you were in Rome on Friday and had nothing else going on...

The way the note from your tour company reads, this tour can be done IN ADDITION to the Colosseum/Palatine/Forum/Case Romane tour but I'd clarify that with them.

Edited out some text above as there was initially some confusion about the company Amanda booked with.

Posted by
438 posts

I did the underground tour and the Case Romane actually sounds more interesting. In the underground you see some of the construction and a replica of how they got things up to the main level, but not too much more than you can see from above. It sounds like a smaller and less empirical version of Nero’s Domus Aurea, which was also spectacular.

Posted by
18 posts

Thanks for the feedback! Kathy, our tour is with Take Walks, not Walks of Italy. We will embrace our visit to Case Romane and see this as an opportunity to see something unexpected and different! Unfotunately we won't have time to go to the Papal Villas but look forward to using the credit for another tour some time in the future.

Posted by
16687 posts

Ah, that's why the email address was different. Thanks for clearing that up, Amanda, and I'm sure you'll enjoy your (revised) tour!

This topic has been automatically closed due to a period of inactivity.