Colosseum Tour or no tour? If yes, any tour company recommendations?

This is a very complicated area historically. On our first visit several years ago I determined I did not want to have my head in a guidebook trying to figure it our, so we hired (Rick Steves recommended guide) Francesca Caruso. She was fabulous! We covered the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Roman Forum in just under 4 hours. Since then we have hired Francesca's recommended colleague Sonia Tavoletta when Francesca was not available. More recently we have used Tony Polzer of Thee Millienia tours, who is also well-informed and entertaining.

A private guide will cost from €55-75 per hour, but with group tours costing €54-70, the private tour is a bargain for 4-6 people and not out of reason for a couple that wants the personalized experience.

I have not done the Underground tour, but every guide and company will offer the option.

You can book a tour of the underground section of the colosseum directly with their official site. Since you are using the romapass for entry the tour will cost you 9 euros. This tour lasts about 90 minutes and takes you to the arena floor, the underground section and the third tier. After the tour you can stay inside the colosseum as long as you wish. The tour is limited to about 20 people since the area underground is small. The information given on the structure is the same information given on the regular tour of the main areas of the colosseum.

If you want a tour of the forum or palatine hill you can book those for 5 euros each. these tours last about an hour.

If you wish to book the underground tour you'll need to call as it cannot be booked online. Call during Italian business hours.

011 39 06 399 67 700

Donna

In doing some more research, I am leaning towards doing the 3 hour Dark Rome Tour ($71/each). My question is this, we will already have a Roma Pass which we were planning on use for entrance, so we are able to take that amount off the price of our tour? Or do we still have to pay the full price of the tour, thus, not being allowed to use our Roma Pass towards this?

Tyler, I htink you need to ask Dark Rome Tours about using the Roma Pass and any discount. I know the guides I recommended above do NOT include tickets in the tour price. Can't say about Dark Rome.