I am considering taking two tours in Rome, one of the Vatican, and one of the Colosseum/Palatine Hill (I’m hoping the tours will both save me from waiting in long lines as well as offer a comprehensive education of the sites).
From the Rick Steve’s descriptions, the ‘Rome Walks’ company sounds nice, but I would really appreciate any recommendations or feedback anyone has to give about their experiences with tours in Rome. Thank you in advance!
We did the Rome Walks tour of Palatine Hill and the colosseum. It was really awesome and we were very glad that we did it! Our tour group was very small and our guide extremely knowledgeable. We felt that we had really gotten our money's worth.
Cannot recommend angle tours rome highly enough. They employ young art history students who are just great. They make the tours really interesting. They are also really reasonably priced. I met an American family when I did the Vatican tour and they had done the Colosseum tour the day before. They had been so impressed and enjoyed it so much they booked the Vatican tour. Their website is www.angeltoursrome.com.
I was in Rome recently and did a couple of walks with Context Rome http://www.scalareale.org/main/home/ Small group tours and the docents were great. I highly recommend them.
You might consider using Rich Brunn, an American living in Rome. He is energetic, very knowledgeable, and flexible--can do a tour of almost anything in Rome and structure it any way you want. I've used him twice with my college student groups for the Vatican and Colosseum/Palatime Hill/Forum and recommend him highly. His website is: http://www.rome-day-tours.com/
I did one tour with the Rome Walks, and one with Through Eternity. Both guides were very knowledgeable and spoke excellent english. BTW I recommend the twilight tour, amazing to see the sights lit up!
I used Through Eternity for their Colosseum Tour and the Rome at Twilight tour, really enjoyed both.
We just got back from Rome and used Through Eternity. My family had only one day, so we booked a private guide. She met us at the train, handled all logistics (cabs,where to eat, etc). We were able to visit the colosseum, St Peters, the vatican,the forum, the pantheon and more. If we would have been with a group we could not have moved at our own pace. She was very knowledgable and definately knew all the short cuts to avoid lines.
I recently had a group in Rome for whom I had hired Stephen Wheeler, a Brit who has been living in Rome for 13 years. The group was very critical and particular and rather demanding. The feed-back from them was: " Stephen was a real find!" If this group complimented him then I can only highly recommend him. Stephen can handle any kind of tour someone may want to do in Rome. He is also very familiar with Capri. His e-mail is: stephengeoffreywheeler@hotmail.com
Helga van Horn, Posh Journeys, Reno, Nevada, USA 5/23/09
Jenny,
I'd highly recommend Francesca Caruso! She's listed in the Italy Guidebook and her tours are fantastic. She's incredibly knowledgeable about the subject matter, whether touring the Colosseum, Museums on Palatine Hill or whatever. I learned so much on the tour.
Happy travels!
Ha, I just clicked on this post to answer it and realized it was my post from 2 years ago!! It must be Kent’s great instructions on how to find old posts that had it come up again. It’s also a reality check that I have been using this site near daily for about 3 years..
I ended up taking some advice from you guys and booked with Rome Walks for the Colloseum, and Through Eternity for the Vatican. I really enjoyed both of the tours. My Through Eternity tour guide was an art history professor from the US just giving tours for the summer, so that was extra special.
Part of my motivation for doing a tour was that I was traveling by myself, but I found that I learned so much from the tours that I would have just missed had I done it alone. This summer when I go to Greece with my boyfriend, we will use a tour for the Acropolis because of my positive experiences with these groups. Thanks again everyone =)
Francesca Caruso:
e-mail: chris.fra@mclink.it
06-7810633 home
339-2616482 cell
Fantastic tour guide!
People..this post is nearly two years old.......
Good catch, Frank II. Looks like Helga (a first time poster, a few posts up) raised from the dead a 2-year old post. Necromancy is not good.
I had an excellent experience with the Miles & Miles touring company in Rome. Their Rome Immersion and Vatican tours are outstanding. Family business, very accomodating, efficient and world class knowledge of Rome's history, sites and antiquities.
I highly recommend Context Travel (Context Rome). I've used them a number of times in Rome (as well as Florence, Venice, Paris, etc). Six or fewer participants, academically qualified guides, and they typically query group interests and adapt the tours based on interests. They are a little more expensive than some, but it so so worth it. With larger groups, it is so much harder to get around crowded sites (like those you mention) and you waste so much time is wasted waiting for the group to regather.
Come on people, this is now a five year old posting and some information above has to be out of date. Start a new question instead of digging up dead dogs.
