Need help planning Rome activities please.

If you want a tour of the colosseum you can call to book that. You'll also need to purchase entry tickets. You don't need to book a tour in order to bypass the long ticket lines, simple entry tickets allow you to bypass the ticket lines.

http://www.coopculture.it/en/colosseo-e-shop.cfm

For the Vatican, I wouldn't go on free day. They don't conduct tours of free days so you wouldn't be able to do that. Also, there is no way to bypass the lines on free days so you'll wait, possibly for hours, to get inside. If you wish to visit the museums either do it on the day you arrive or before your departure.

Donna

Well, my reasoning for booking the Colosseum tour was it's the underground access and only 9 euros more. Also, on the chance that we are later and they are at capacity, we would not have to wait. Those tours do not go on sale for a few more weeks. The Vatican website shows that they are doing the tours on World Tourism Day and the cost will be just the cost of tour minus entry fee. They are not for sale yet so I'm not sure if that is really true. I don't know if any of that makes a difference, but thanks for your thoughts! :)

Do not go on a free day and the earliest times are best;
11 am is a bad time crowds. You have to pay more to circumvent long lines and crowds.

Okay, so a clarifying question and follow up Jazz....
if we go on Tuesday afternoon arrival day, or Thursday (not first thing in the morning), booking the tour group directly through Vatican website will help us avoid delays? Or would we need to book a much more expensive tour through an outside agency to avoid delays (like Viator) ? If you had to choose would you do arrival day or departure day at the Vatican? Thanks!

Departure day for the Vatican. Things happen (my arrival was delayed 13 hours).

We aren't flying into Rome, we are taking a train from Florence. It's 1.5 hours trip. I don't anticipate any sort of delay. Are there generally delays with the Italian railways? Thanks for your input.

If the colosseum reaches capacity they don't let anyone inside, tour or no tour. They hold the lines as only a certain number of people can be inside at any given time.

For the Vatican, it's unusual for them to conduct tours on free days. They don't do them on free Sundays so I can't imagine them doing it on world tourism day. They haven't updated the site beyond September 25th so it's impossible to say if they will conduct tours. I'm not sure where you read they will conduct tours and only charge for the tour. I can't find that information anywhere on the official site. Can you post a link?

Booking a tour will allow you to bypass the long ticket lines, just as entry tickets do. A tour will not get you past the long line ups of people waiting to get into the popular galleries or the Sistine Chapel. You'll wait along with everyone else who wants to enter them. Tickets and tours allow you to skip the ticket lines but don't help you to avoid crowds or congestion once inside the museums.

Donna

biglietteriamusei.vatican.va/musei/tickets/do?action=booking&codiceLivelloVisita=4&step=1

Scroll to the very bottom. It says when booking for September 27, you will only pay for the guide.

Sorry that didn't post as a link. Trying to use my phone. But if you go to the site and choose individual tours, it's lists all the types and that note is at the bottom. Thanks for your answer. That was the kind of info I was looking for. What's your opinion on the itinerary as a whole? Which days would you do each? If you don't mind giving an opinion.

Sorry, missed the train arrival part. Even if a train is delayed, you should be fine.

if we go on Tuesday afternoon arrival day, or Thursday (not first
thing in the morning), booking the tour group directly through Vatican
website will help us avoid delays? Or would we need to book a much
more expensive tour through an outside agency to avoid delays (like
Viator) ?

No need to use Viator or other 3rd-party booker.

OK, we've established that you should not go on World Tourism Day and frankly, crowds will be heavy whether you book a tour on Tuesday afternoon or mid-Thursday morning. IMHO, with the little time you have, what I'd do is be a "morning person" for one day and book an early-access tour on Thursday so that you can at least see the Sistine in relative sanity, and I would not expect any "delays" accessing the chapel.

I haven't done this one personally but many RD posters who have speak very, very highly of Walks of Italy's "Pristine Sistine tour"; note that it also includes St. Peter's basilica:

https://www.walksofitaly.com/vatican-tours/pristine-sistine-chapel-tour

Otherwise, book the Vatican's 3-hour tour of both museum and basilica for Tuesday afternoon or Thursday AM.

https://biglietteriamusei.vatican.va/musei/tickets/do?action=booking&codiceTipoVisita=74&step=2

Thanks for your help. I will look at some early morning entry tours at the Vatican and see what I think. It's not that I am completely trying to avoid early mornings, we just already have quite a few days where we are travelling super early so I'm trying to plan in a few days to sleep in. The problem with going first thing Thursday morning is then we have ALL day there. The plan if we did Vatican on Thursday was to check out of the hotel and take our backpacks with us...then fly out in the evening. Not sure I want to be there all day.

Thanks everyone for your opinions so far. It's been helpful. :)

I did the Walks of Italy Pristine Sistine tour in March. It was fantastic. The Sistine Chapel is your first stop.

FYI, I just booked the Vatican Sistine Express entry through Dark Rome for 7:20 entry to the Sistine Chapel and then Vatican. It will just have to be an early morning. :)