My daughter and her husband are meeting us in Rome the after noon of 4 July, 2015. Our plan was to walk around a bit in the neighborhood of the apartment we rented near Piazza Navona, go to dinner, then call it a night. Sunday, we had planned to take a tour of the Colosseum including the 3rd tier and underground, and the ancient area, and Monday we have an early tour of the Vatican, and then will leave for Florence. We will be back later for a day from our cruise, and were planning to spend the day in North Rome, visiting the Villa Borghese, and the Galleria Borghese for a leisurely day. The problem is that July 5th is a "First Sunday" free day at the Colosseum and the Borghese among others. It appears that here are NO tours of the colosseum available on that day, and we fear that the lines will be too horrendous to even get in. We could be at the colosseum at 7:30 if that would help.
My questions: Has anyone ever been to either of these places on a free day? Do we have a hope of getting into one or the other without waiting in line for hours? Is there any way to get a tour of the colosseum on that day? What do they do at the Borghese that day? Would it make sense to swap our plans and go to the Borghese on the 5th and the colosseum on our later day? Our itinerary is set -- we have pre-paid apartments and tours -- and those cannot change. Any other ideas? Thank you in advance for your help!