Guided Tours of Colosseum/Forum/Palatine Hill and of St. Peter's/Sistine Chapel/Vatican Museums

Hi there,
My husband and I had a wonderful trip to Rome and Assisi in November of 2024. We used LivTours for a first entry Colosseum tour that was "semi-private" which meant the group max was 6 people. We really enjoyed it. The guide was wonderful, very knowledgeable, and spoke excellent English. Here is a link to the specific tour we did:
https://livtours.com/tours/first-entry-semi-private-colosseum-roman-forum-tour-arena-access/

We also really enjoyed a small group tour we did called "through the holy doors", which was a walking tour with stops in many beautiful churches. Roberto is the owner/guide and he is so very knowledgeable about SO much of these churches. As Catholics, we loved this tour. I just recommended this tour to friends and they loved this as well. https://treasuresofrome.it/between-holy-door/

We did not do a formal guided tour of St. Peter's, but I must recommend the dome climb there. My notes say we arrived at 6:30 for 7 am opening. Go directly to dome climb first. Then see rest of basilica and papal crypts below. The view from the dome was fantastic. Be sure there is no papal audience that day or the Square will be full!

Here is the trip report I posted on it. You may find other ideas that may be useful. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-assisi-and-rome-italy-2024-part-2

ENJOY
Joanne

Thank you Joanne. This is really helpful.