Hello
First time visitor to Rome and Florence in September! Can anyone recommend a good tour guide for the Vatican and Coliseum? I was thinking of just using the tours offered by the Vatican but the Coliseum only offers an entry pass. Thank you! If you have any other tour suggestions, please let me know. Happy travels!
Posted by
Minnesota 🎒
17318 posts
Welcome to the RS Forums!
Yours is a VERY popular subject that has seen oodles of threads on the Italy forums so rather than reinvent the wheel, sort of speak, this is what a search of the topic brought up over the past year:
Narrowed down to the past 6 months:
https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&date_range=6m&filter=Travel+Forum&query=tours%2C+Colosseum%2C+Vatican
You should find good suggestions among those previous discussions but DO come back with questions, should you have them?
Editing to add, the Colosseum definitely does provide tours of that structure but not one that also includes the Palatine and Forum. As those are important excavations which are more complex than the Colosseum, I highly recommend a tour which includes all three. In regard to the Vatican Museums, there is benefit of a tour which also includes St Peter's Basilica and which accesses the church through an interior passage between the two (except on Wednesdays and some special services). The Vatican itself doesn't offer one of these so look for that option among the tour companies suggested in the links above.
Posted by
California
61 posts
It all depends on your budget. How much are you willing to spend? Personally, if this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, I'd splurge on it and get a private tour before/after the crowds. The Colosseum rules.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
I don't really have a budget. This is probably a one time thing so would pay for the best?
Posted by
Greeley, co, usa
2779 posts
In the past I did a tour with Walks of Italy but it included the Forum and another site as well as the Colosseum. It proved too long for my wife.
In May we just went nto the Colosseum on the ordinary ticket. It was fine. A guidebook might be advantageous but we didn’t use one. The ticket also allows entrance into the Forum which we didn’t do.
Posted by
75 posts
We found the crowds inside the coliseum proper were just miserable - kind of breathing-room-only. Luckily we had purchased tickets for the Attic, and that was fantastic. You have to buy them online as soon as they go on sale, but once you have them you get to be in a section of the coliseum where you have it near to yourself and get a birds eye view of everything. I highly recommend it.