We will be looking at tours for Rome as well as Florence for September. We have been looking at one company Through Eternity and just wondering experiences anyone would like to share for tours. We want to do the Colosseum Tour as well as the Sistine Chapel tour. There are 4 of us and are pricing private tours.
Are tours in Florence necessary at that time of year?
Thanks,
Diane
Hi Diane -
I'm a little confused: tours of either Rome or Florence aren't necessary at any time of the year at all. If you prefer a formal, guided tour to just creating your own, that fine but I'm not sure why you think they're necessary?
We are trying to avoid large amounts of lines.
You can buy your tickets in advance and avoid the longest lines even without a guide.
With that said, we passed many groups during our week in Rome. Just listening in for a few moments as we passed I really enjoyed the interesting details I heard from the Walks of Italy tour guides. I can't say that we passed any "Through Eternity" groups that I recall so I can't comment on them.
Rick has several private guides listed in the books that can be hired as well and they are a great value especially with a group of 4. You might check and see if they are available on your dates.
I used Through Eternity for a tour of the Vatican Museums and Saint Peter's Basilica. It started at 7:30am and ended at 1:30pm with a break of about 30 minutes. It was very good.
We used Walks of Italy for two tours each in Florence and Rome and were very happy we did. They guarantee groups of no more than 12 or 14, and everyone has their own headphones. The guides were not only very knowledgeable, but very enthusiastic. They each brought insight and anecdotes we would not have gotten on our own. In Florence, we did the Academia- David and walking tour of Florence in the AM, and the Uffizi tour in the PM. They can be done separately, but for us, the following day was a holiday so we wanted to see the highlights in a day. In Rome we did the Underground Colosseum tour for an afternoon, and the Pristine Sistine which gets you into the Vatican museums and Sistine Chapel before it opens to the general public. It wasn't cheap, but we felt it was definitely money well spent. That said, we did listen to Rick Steves' podcasts of each thing before going so we had background knowledge. Www.walksofitaly.com is recommended by Rick, and you can get a 10% discount by entering "ricksteves10" in the promotion code box.
OK, knowing that it's queues you want to avoid helps.
There are usually ways to do that, and the choice depends on the type of traveler you are? My husband and I almost never do tours: we pre-order tickets/buy passes, and use books and online research for our sightseeing. We are dawdlers who like to explore on our own schedule and don't like to be moved along until ready to do so. I knew I couldn't do a 2-hour tour of the Uffizi (needed at least 5 there) or the Louvre (3 visits) or Westminster Abbey or Pompeii (spent 5 hours at both of those and that was the 2nd time) or any number of other must -sees. I've spent hours in churches which maybe got just a couple of lines in guidebooks!
But everyone has different interests and comfort levels. There's no real right or wrong; it's all about what makes YOUR experience enjoyable. Not a reader? Then an audio or guided tour may be right for you. Have a passion and background in history or art? You may do just fine with a book in hand. Just don't book a tour simply to skip a line.
