forum

Yes. We didn't have a guide, and wish we would have, but don't have a specific one. You might want to edit your title to elicit better responses from those who know.

I used a guide once for the forum and while he was good I didn't like that I couldn't spend as much time as I wanted at the sites he was explaining. I've also done a downloaded tour which I much prefer. It was done in 2 hour blocks, one going up one side of the forum and the other going down the other side of the forum. I could stop and start when I wanted and skip what I wasn't interested in. You might want to check them out. pocketvox.com They also have some really good tours of the city as well as other cities. Their tours of the Dorsoduro area of Venice was wonderful. Donna

Lori:
We used Francesca Caruso ([email protected]) but she's often booked well in advance. She gives private tours, i.e., your group/family only. We loved Walks of Italy for the Vatican and would try them for other sites. You might look into their offerings here http://www.walksofitaly.com/. They hav very small groups, max 12.

Ditto Laurel's recommendation for Francesca. She is incredible and will make ancient Rome "come alive" in a way "regular people" can relate to and follow. We were fortunate to experience Francesca on a the Rick Steves' guided group Heart of Italy Tour two years ago. EVERYONE in the group gave her the highest marks. She speaks perfect English, has a very engaging and witty manner, and is extremely professional. She is the absolute BEST local guide we have EVER had, and we have experienced many good ones in many places.

Definitely! Without good guidance all you're looking at are a bunch of dead stones. A guide can bring them to life for you. We didn't have one and went with the audio-guide available at the ticket office. And that wasn't sufficient.

A different opinion than previous poster's: Don't miss the forum. Yes, it is a bunch of ruins, but with the right guide, it can be made to come alive. Had we just walked through it by ourselves or with a guidebook, I may have come away less than thrilled. But our guide (Francesca....already mentioned in previous post(s), really made the area come alive. We came away not only understanding what we were seeing, but also the many "layers" of civilization in Rome. We saw how buildings resulted with different entrances that layered over the years as the soil level rose (due to wash up from floods, etc). We saw how elements of one civilization were entered into the buildings of the next, etc. Since Francesca was our guide at the Coliseum, too, she tied in the Forum, and then walked us through a close-by residential area to see how ancient architectural pieces were "taken" from the Coliseum and Forum and used in the building of private homes later. Sort of the "Home Depot" of ancient Rome, as she described it. She explained that one area of the Forum had been a parking lot when she started guiding 14 years prior, helping us to realize that layers of civilizations are basically under everything in Rome. The reason the Metro lines are so limited in Rome is because future building would mean more excavations, etc. When we were just back in Rome (second trip) recently, I smiled as we drove by the Forum, recalling the fabulous time we had there. Like so many things in the world, things can be a pile of rocks or they can be fabulous representations of civilizations before us. It's all in how one "sees" and experiences them. The Forum is special; soak it in and learn from it. We are but grains of sand in time.

We did the Forum on our own, and I wished we had gotten a guide.

We took a tour with Through Eternity of the Forum (and then a Palatine Hill tour also with Through Eternity). We had the same guide for both tours & both were excellent. The price seemed reasonable and the guide (an American now living in Rome) was very informative. I would definitely recommend a tour rather than trying to tour it on your own.