Colosseum tours

Posted by Brenda on 10/27/22 07:52 PM

Reading lots of great responses to the questions posted so I hope you have some thoughts… We are heading to Italy next month so I’m trying to get a couple of tours planned. I think we’d miss a lot of details to explore the colosseum/ forum/ palatine hill complex on our own. What tours/companies have you used or would recommend? I’m hoping for a longer in depth experience rather than cheap and cheerful.
Thanks in advance!

Update
We had a fantastic tour with That Roman Guy that included the underground. Our guide was excellent, and gave us so much insight into the archeological history of the Forum and Palatine Hill before we ventured in to the Colosseum. It was a great experience.

Thank you for all the suggestions.

Posted by ChristineH

Gettysburg PA

10/27/22 08:34 PM

7240 posts

At this late date your options may be limited

Here’s a few
Walks of Italy
Through Eternity
Roman Guy

Or a tour thru the Colosseum itself

Do a search, there are many threads addressing this topic that will also have links to the various operators
It’s been difficult getting Colosseum tours in the past few months especially if you want the underground

Posted by veryspecialquilts

10/27/22 08:40 PM

97 posts

I agree.

A tour of the Colosseum explains what you are looking at, the historical significance, and makes it all more interesting - and fun! I took the one with the underground included. I resisted tours for a long time and after mine with That Roman Guy, I'm convinced they are a must. I also had one with them at the Vatican and it was excellent.

Any knowledgeable guide will have teaching props like maps, photos, and diagrams, which help greatly. They also know where the restrooms are!

I have no association with them other than being a happy repeat customer.

Enjoy your trip!

Posted by davisnut

10/28/22 04:52 PM

15 posts

We were just at the colosseum two weeks ago, booked with The Roman Guy. I took RS advice to pass on the ground floor of the colosseum, opting for the tour of all three sights, just not down inside. At the last minute the tour company offered us the “upgrade” of the tour seeing the ground floor. I assume they didn’t have enough signed up for our tour, so I accepted to be helpful. I kinda regret it-heavy, heavy crowds, exhaustive stairs, and I think the view from above was very illustrative of the inner workings, far mare than bring down in them. So I advise to skip. It’s an exhausting tour anyway, but the ground floor just makes it exponential. (We are fit in our 50s with no physical problems, so we had no problem with walking, it’s just a long tour. Just sayin.)

That said, the rest of the guided tour was awesome—we would have been completely lost in the forum were it not for our guide!

Like the commenter above, we too used them for the Vatican/Sistine tour and we were really happy with them. It’s true about being herded thru the Sistine—the guards seriously command you to march and don’t let you stop. However, I’d you can miraculously scope out and snag a tiny piece of bench on the walls, your golden for as you want!

Posted by babyboomer

Calgary, AB

10/29/22 10:59 AM

155 posts

We did our own 3pm unguided tour of the Colosseum on Wednesday (ticket included the Forum and Palantine Hill) and I don’t think that we missed anything significant. We did read the RS Guide before doing the tour. The Colosseum has a lot of very good information panels everywhere and we could take our time to read them. There is also a series of panels outside that you can read free at your own pace. Why pay extra to get herded around? Note that there are lots of stairs up and down and the weather was sunny, blue shies and very warm.
We had previously done an impromptu guided tour of the Pantheon which was very good but there were no information panels there. Also Pantheon is smaller and we found the 3 in 1 ticket for Colosseum, Forum and Palantine Hill was just too much to take in and keep it straight. Reread the RS Guidebook info on CFP back in the room.