Rome decisions. I need advice ☺

Hi Chani

This is Robert one of your tour buddies from the RS Alps My Way 2years ago(???)

I have done the Walks of Italy food tour and enjoyed it ans was fun. The stops are right around the Campo.
My brother and I did the Walks of Italy twilight walking tour and we did one of their's around the Forum. We enjoyed them all. Great guides. I would use them to take any of their tours.
"Walks" as been around a number of years and they just started "Walks of Paris".

I used Through Eternity for their Vatican art tour and was happily mind-blown and body-exhausted by the end of the day, just in time for the late afternoon Mass in St. Peter's. The guide was insightful and a touch attitudinal, in a good way..

If you get off the Metro at Cipro you can use the facilities at Santa Maria delle Grazie/Trionfale before getting into the entry line, which will save you some tension. You'll also have a better idea of what you're up against regarding the line, because it runs along the wall in that direction, so you're walking towards the end of the line, whereas from Ottaviano you're walking towards the entry door.

If I was going this year I would seriously consider that Villa d'Este and Villa Adriana tour.

I'm a big fan of Context Travel tours, as I've shown, and you should take a look at those, although my sense of you, Chani, is that you might not have the patience for their type of presentation. I say that with love. :P

I am sure you have seen the many recommendations for the eating italy food tours.(http://www.eatingitalyfoodtours.com). We took the one offered for the Testaccio and it was great! Lots of delicious food served at several stops, lots of wine, lots of interesting, if brief, history of the area and introductions to some of the places we were seeing while walking. I have also heard wonderful things about the tours of the Trastevere (especially the nighttime tour) but have not taken that one-yet. Whatever you decide, you'll have a great time! Real Italian food...ummmmm. My favorite!

We did 2 of the Eating Italy Food tours as mentioned above and we were very impressed. Great food and good history of the area.
You can read reviews and see photos on TripAdvisor - but if you book, go straight to their website to book, no need to use a 3rd party booking like TripAdvisor/Viator.

Look closely at the Villa Adriana tour to find out if significant parts are open or closed for restoration.

For Tivoli, I would go tourless and have time to see some of the other parts of the town (bridge, waterfall, view of castle, Villa Gregoriana).

The food tours and pizza class sound great.

Robert - hello there! Nice to see you again

Avi - you have (very gently) pointed out my weakness. I love to sit in a classroom with slides and listen to in-depth lectures, but when I'm on a tour, I am too distracted by everything there is to look at and enjoy and take photos of, that in-depth info goes through my head without registering. Cipro is the one I was thinking of. Thanks. I'll be arriving straight from the hotel and hoping that on a Thursday or Friday in February, there won't be much of a line first thing in the morning.

Zoe - The Hall of the Philosophers and the Maritime Theatre are indeed closed for restoration and they are about the most popular/important parts. But I don't know when I'll be back in Rome . . . The tour starts at Villa Adriana, so I imagine I could choose to stay in Tivoli at the end of the tour and make my way back to Rome on my own, they can't force me back on the bus after Villa d'Este. Going on my own would seem to waste a lot of time on public transportation.

I just looked at Tripadvisor for reviews of the Tivoli tour. Viator is selling the tour (operated by Enjoy Rome) for €58 (prepay) while the Enjoy Rome website wants €67.50 (cc guarantee, pay in cash on the day). With the dollar gradually dropping against the euro over the last week or so, I'm tempted to lock in now.

Thoughts? BTW the reviews were almost all excellent.

Chani, you can take the bus or train back to Roma on your own.

We took the Walks of Italy food tour in Trastavere last June. It was a highlight of our trip. You get a sampling of sit down, nosh on your feet at venerable establishments and street food. We took the tour on our first night in Rome and it was a great welcome to the city (and environs in this case). We met a lot of fantastic people and it helped us feel 'at home' right away.

I haven't gone on any of those specific tours, but I have done my own day trip to Tivoli - it is VERY easy, and Tivoli is so fantastic that you will want to have the freedom to wander. It's basically a matter of taking the metro to the bus station and a ~45 min bus ride.

I'll cast another vote for the Eating Italy food tours. I took the Trastevere for Foodies tour last summer and loved it. It was a great way to find a dozen local, delicious places and meet new people. You have a lot of great choices, though!