Colosseum Underground?

The underground area is well worth it - in fact it was a favorite part of our visit to the Colosseum. It's pretty spectacular to see the original spaces and details under the floor of the Colosseum.

Thanks. That's what I wondered. Ugh, I'm not sure what to do. I hate to cancel someone who I'm sure is a great guide for this reason. But I also hate to miss out on part of the experience because she has lack of access.

My daughter and I had a tour that included the Colosseum underground which we found very interesting and worth visiting. But if I had to choose between a great guide and the underground, I'd choose the guide. The underground tour will be but a small portion of your overall tour if you are bundling it together with the rest of the Colosseum, Forum, Palatine, etc.

... I discovered she does not have formal tour guide status

Hmmm. I'll defer to the others who are authorities on this subject but it was my understanding that anyone acting as a guide - meaning imparting historical, artistic, archeological, etc, information - MUST be formally licensed to professionally perform that role in Italy?

Just asking the question as there was a long thread about that subject last year:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/difference-between-a-tour-manager-a-tour-guide-requirements-in-italy

I just returned from a 15 day tour in Italy. While in Rome we did the Colosseum night tour with Walks. We met near Capitoline Hill and walked past the sites down to the Colosseum. An additional Colosseum guide met us and brought us through the Underground Dungeon area. A brand new walkway has been added that allows you to walk through the area of the dungeons. We then went onto the Gladiator floor. It was a beautiful September night and there were only about 12 of us on the gladiator floor inside the Colosseum. A very memorable night indeed.

I had asked the guide we have booked next month if she could guide us through the underground tour, and she said she could but that we should get a free guide ticket for her at the time we book our tickets. I've been checking daily and it looks like they are only booking 30 days in advance and the underground tickets seem to go quickly.

I discovered she does not have formal tour guide status, so we need
to purchase her ticket.

In some sites, formal guide status is needed to do a tour. Not sure of how that works at the Colosseum. My guide at Pompeii yelled at someone acting as a guide without the official Pompeii guide credential, creating an uncomfortable moment for the guide and her guest.

Kathy and Dave, that is exactly my concern. This guide is a RS tour guide. But from what I'm gathering, she's one that tours a group through their whole trip but hands the group over to a specialist when they get to a site that uses a specific guide. Know what I mean? Thanks for the link, Kathy. I'll take a look.

Your Colosseum tour sounds amazing, Catchulater!

Diana, I asked our guide about that free guide ticket and she said it's not for her because she isn't licensed.

So I think I'm going to cancel with the one we were going to use. I contacted another one RS recommends who I know does the specific tours at sites around Rome. He is licensed to go into the various sites as a guide. He said the tickets are released one day at a time, 30 days in advance, and that guide companies scoop them up quickly to sell at huge rate hikes. Tomorrow we are 30 days out from the day we want to do this tour. He is going to try to grab tickets for us first thing in the morning and then we will use him. I just feel better about using a real licensed guide in a venue like this. I'm sure the other guide is great for a general tour through the city, but that's not what we need.

Thanks, all, for helping me think this through!

I think you are making a very good decision.

So the guide wasn't able to grab tickets for the underground tour this morning. Crazy that they allow the guide companies to grab them all! We could buy a tour from a group like that for 125 euros plus each, but I'd rather stick with this new guide. That's definitely a huge markup! We bought the tickets that include the arena floor. He said you can see down into the underground from there. I think that will be good enough, and I feel much better about having this type of guide!

I know it sounds like a lot but considering this $120.00 p.p. tour....

https://www.walksofitaly.com/rome-tours/colosseum-underground-tours/

... is a nearly 4-hour, small-group tour of the Colosseum, underground, Forum and Palatine - including tickets that cost € 34.00 on coopculture JUST for a 75-minute Colosseum + underground tour - is not such a bad deal.

But I'm really glad you got the arrangement you wanted! I saw the Colosseum twice before the underground was even available and was fine peering into it from above! :O)

I think if there were only two of us, it would be a better deal to do a tour like this with a group. But since there are four of us, it comes out cheaper to hire a private guide for 4 hours. I think either way would be great, so neither choice will be bad.

I do like traveling with 4 rather than 2 for prices of guides, cabs vs bus, etc.!

Sounds like a great plan. We will be in Rome next May with a group of 8. Please let me know who you are using as a quite.

I do like traveling with 4 rather than 2 for prices of guides, cabs vs
bus, etc.!

For sure, guide and driver prices spread over more versus less can be a good deal!
Have a great time in one of my favorite cities! :O)

Hijacking here rather than making a new topic. Thinking of booking this underground tour, plus forum, in a small “VIP” group whatever that means for $200 ish for two. Is Viator a reputable site, hard to know who to use because there doesn’t appear to be a site sponsored company. Thanks!

Hi there, Dan (guessing you're a Dan)?
As you didn't include a link, we don't know what exactly "this underground tour" is. And personally? I don't recommend booking through Viator for multiple reasons. One of those is that they often do not tell you the actual name of the business you'll be working with, and another is that if things go awry, you want to be working with the actual company and not a 3rd-party middleman. Oh, and be careful of language like "VIP", line skipping and the like which may not be unique to ANY tour for a particular attraction.

Can you provde a link to what you're looking at, and can we help you find a quality, non-Viator option? What exact dates are you looking at, and is including the Forum a must? If so, I'd do one that includes the Palatine as well as they're essentially connected.

(And yes, it would probably have been best to start a new thread; depending on her settings, our OP may get reply notices for posts that don't apply to her trip but maybe she'll forgive us. 😉)

Hi, Dant. I work with newborns/kids and see a lot of creative spellings of names these days, so I'm going to take a shot at a more creative interpretation of your name (or perhaps a silent "t"?).

Anywho... I traveled with a friend who reserved a couple of Viator tours for us. The tours worked out fine, but Kathy is correct... you don't always know who is providing the tour. Also, Viator collects a big "finder's fee," ripping food from the mouths of the guides and their children. I like booking direct where I can. And I agree that a new thread may get you more Dant-specific answers.

Ha, fair enough! I am indeed a Dan (updated profile name lol). This is the one I was looking at, I like the idea of a small group and underground access, etc… helpful to know viator is a reseller site. I’ll start a new thread as needed. There are so many for the underground! And yes, forum access and what not is of interest. The last time I went to Rome we did the sites quickly without a tour. Did not get to Palatine Hill proper, just a “drive by”

Would be for next week either Monday or Tuesday the 8th or 9th.

I like that it seemed to be a small group, I’d pay extra for that for sure!

https://www.viator.com/tours/Rome/Small-Group-Ancient-Rome-and-Colosseum-Underground-Tour-with-Third-Tier/d511-16631P14

Cheers!

Would be for next week either Monday or Tuesday the 8th or 9th.

Yikes, it's sort of late in the game to be booking the highest-demand ticket in Rome (Colosseum Underground). Coopculture is sold out for those dates but try Walks Of Italy? Their tours have often been recommended on these forums, and this tour also includes the Forum + Palatine:

https://www.walksofitaly.com/rome-tours/colosseum-underground-tours/

The Roman Guy also may have openings, and is also an often recommended resource:
https://theromanguy.com/tours/italy/rome/colosseum-dungeons-tour-with-roman-forum-palantine-hill

There may be others if either of these don't work for you; let us know if that's the case! :O)

Thanks I’ll check those links, we haven’t booked a thing because we were sure this trip would end up cancelling again. Just winging it, and happy to travel again in our favorite place!

Edit update: I booked The Roman Guy full tour, great price, exactly when we wanted, and Rick Steves (and Kathy) recommended. Seems like a win!

Darn. I was so hopeful I was correct on the name. If you look under "Additional Info" on the link you provided, you will see that the tour is done by "Tours of Rome." Sometimes, the operator's name makes it easy to google them; sometimes the operator's name does not make it easy to google them. In this case, it does not. However, in scrolling through some of the (mostly great) reviews, I found a complaint to which the company replied with an e-mail address that has the companies web domain as part of it.

So... the website for the tour operator is found at https://www.toursofrome.info

The page with their Colosseum tours (including the VIP tour) is located at https://www.toursofrome.info/category/colosseum-tours/

Edit: When I scroll to the bottom of the page for the tour, it says:

TOUR NOT OPERATING DUE TO THE CLOSURE OF COLOSSEUM PANORAMIC TERRACE
AND THE III, IV, V TIERS

Sweet thanks Dave! Ultimately opted for a more known tour group “The Roman Guy” as recommended on this post and others! Great price and had the time slot I wanted!

Glad you were able to work out something. Hope you have a great time in Rome!

Hi there, Dan ! Thanks a bunch for letting us know how it all shook out, and that you've been able to book directly with a guide service versus through a 3rd party. Come back to us after your tour and tell us how it went for you? Hope it's great!

I'm back from Italy, and haven't the energy for a full trip report but figured I'd just respond back here and say that the Colosseum Underground Tour with "The Roman Guy" exceeded our expectations. It was nearly 4 hrs, the guide "Donata" was phenomenal. 16 of us in the group, and everything was very smooth. I learned a ton!

Dan! Thanks for short but entirely sufficient report on your tour! It's great when we hear back that a recommended resource was indeed a good choice. 👍

Hope you're resting up after your trip; a long nap after turkey today?