Hi all - My husband and I are planning on visiting Italy for the first time in September. We definitely want to book tickets for the Colosseum, Forum, Palatine HIll. We are also both individuals who would prefer a tour guide if possible to help us orient ourselves and learn about what we are seeing. Our questions: 1. What would you recommend as the best way to tour the Colosseum knowing our tour style? and 2. Should we do the underground portion?
Best,
MA
We visited the Forum and Palatine Hill on a separate day from the Colosseum, and followed the tour printed in Rick Steves’ book for the first two locations. For the Colosseum, though, we booked the Underground tour guide upon arrival at the Colosseum ticket window (this was December 2012 - not sure if the time of year made a difference or if tour booking tactics are different now, 7 years later), but seeing the Colosseum from below the arena floor, with its passages and drainage features up close, and looking up into the seating area (and standing near the Mussolini-era seat restoration attempt section) all were well worth the extra time and cost. We even got an elevator ride as part of the underground tour, which saved a bit of overall energy. They waited another 15 minutes after we got our tour booked for others to sign up as well, so we hung around the entrance for a bit before our tour took off. We got to stand on the platform at ground level, too, while other visitors were confined to the walking in the seating areas and passageways to the outside of those upper seating sections.
So I can’t give direct suggestions for guided touring of the Fourm and Palatine Hill, but can recommend that you do opt for the Underground, as well as the rest of the Colosseum!
For your interests, this is what I would book:
https://www.walksofitaly.com/rome-tours/colosseum-underground-tours/
Or this:
https://theromanguy.com/tours/italy/rome/colosseum-dungeons-tour-with-roman-forum-palantine-hill
Or this; it does not include the underground but is the most economical of the Colosseum + Forum + Palatine guided tour options and is offered by the official ticketing site for these 3 attractions. For that reason it's also the most challenging to land tickets for :
Regarding the underground, the jury is out of whether it's worth the extra $$ or not. You can see down into it from the upper levels and the tours don't spend a ton of time down there. I'd say it's not a big deal if you have to miss it. The tour companies linked above have other tours which don't include it. IMHO, it's the Palatine and Forum where one can make good use of a human guide as they are more complex sites.
You don't need to book through a private company in order to have a guide show you the underground of the colosseum. You can book from the official website and enjoy a guided tour for much less than private companies charge for the same tour.
More underground tour tickets will be released from the official site August 6th at 3pm Rome time.
The colosseum is well signed so a guide really isn't "necessary" unless you prefer to have one. The colosseum offers a really good 45 minute tour of the structure for 5 euros. This won't include the underground or upper levels but will give you the history of the structure and details about it's use.
Donna
Jessa, that must have been with a private company because there is no official tour that includes the underground tour and a tour of the forum/palatine hill.
There is a new SUPER ticket that will get you in to exclusive places on the palatine and in the forum but that is a different ticket.
Donna
I agree with Jess that the Underground portion of the Colosseum is worth the extra bucks to see.
...but I also took 3 years of Latin in high school and 4 semesters in college, so I may have had more interest than the average tourist.
We just got back from a 2 week trip to Italy, including Rome. We did a tour of the Colosseum, including underground with the Roman Guy tours and it was well worth the money. The underground is worth the extra cost, plus it was nice and cool down there which we really appreciated since it was 100 degrees Fahrenheit the day we did the tour!
Just returned from Italy. We reserved the Colosseum Underground tour months in advance through The Roman Guy. Personally, I don't think the underground portion of the tour was that great. Only lasted 10 minutes. May be a better tour when more areas are opened as they continue to excavate. The rest of the tour on the Colosseum floor, top sections of the Colosseum, Patatine Hill and The Forum were fantastic. Loretta, our guide, was very informative and personable.
Visited the Colosseum during day without guide a few years ago. Was great. Have visited other Roman amphitheaters in France and Croatia - also great. This year my wife and I did the night tour of Colosseum with The Roman Guy. Of the 4 tours we had in Italy, this was the only one that was a disappointment. I posted a review on the forum: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/vip-colosseum-at-night-tour-by-the-roman-guy-a-great-disappointment
