Should we do both a Vatican City tour and a Forum/Colosseum tour?

A tour of the Forum/Colosseum is not essential in the way that a Vatican tour can be. A lot depends on your knowledge level and interests. If you don't know much about the Forum/Colosseum and you enjoy learning about the ancient sites in more depth, a tour may be the way to go to get the 'inside story'.

As a history major and avid watcher of the History Channel, I already knew about 90% of what our private tour guide (included in the RS tour) shared about the Colosseum and Forum.

Especially if price is a concern, as I suspect it is with a group of 12, I would personally probably not take the Colosseum/Forum tour.

Other options include downloading Rick's free audio guides for the three areas, and I think that Angel Tours offers a free tour of the Pantheon at 7pm.

Andy,

Outside the Coloseum there is usually students who conducts tours and it includes the Forum. They are very good and informative. When I went in November we paid 20 Euro each, not bad.

You might also check out the hop on, hop off bus tours. The tickets are good for 24 hours and they were 15 Euro.

Andy, I hold it a little differently than the other 2 posters. I think a guide is a real plus at the Colosseum, etc. Look in the RS book or on his website for a guide whose name is Francesca. She is an Italian with American parents, who really makes the ruins come alive with the descriptions and facts she provides. With children in your group, my opinion is that someone with some energy, enthusiasm and a gift of being able to paint a picture is really worth it. Also, outside the Pantheon there is a vendor that sold a book about the ruins that had plastic pages that superimposed what things looked like "then vs. now." (about 7E 2 years ago) It was really worth it to share with kids, and give them an idea of what they are seeing, and really the miracle of it all. (can you tell I am a recently retired teacher???) As far as the vatican, having a guide is important to understand some of the art. I might suggest RS free down loadable recordings from his website as well.

Have a great time. We are going to Italy in Sept. for our second time...can't wait!
Denise

Thank goodness for those "two healthy active grandmothers". That's great!

When Hubs and I were in Rome, we did take a tour of the Vatican, which was great, very informative.
At the Colosseum, we got those audio-guide things and could move at our own pace, which we enjoyed. At that time (2 years ago) you had to surrender your driver's license to get the audio things, then when you returned them, you got your license back. Good way to prevent stealing, I guess.
We did the Pantheon and the Forum on our own also, and had no problems.
If you end up down in Pompeii, tho, do take a tour...we didn't and wish we had.
Be aware that Rome is loaded with cobblestone streets, hand-rail-less stairs, few places to sit down in a museum, and very very few public bathrooms.

Just got back from Rome in the past couple days. We did both tours through Angel Tours. The Colosseum / Forum tour is definitely worth it. Certainly the kids won't know what each of the buildings were even if the adults do. Our tour group also got into the Colosseum very quickly, even though it was a madhouse of tourists on the outside. The guides are also a wealth of information about the area as well.

You'll find that you have much more time to interact with a tour guide in the forum area than in the Vatican because of the length of the tour and the sheer number of people jammed into the Vatican.

The Roman Forum tour guide through Angel Tours (Kathrine) was fantastic. If I were going back, I'd probably use Angel Tours for this tour again, even though I've already done it.

I would do the Vatican tour and skip the colosseum. You can do the Forum on your own as it's free to walk through. You can follow the guide that Rick has in his book so that you know what you are looking at. As for the Collosseum tour, I took it last August and they give you a lot of history but there is not much to see as it is an old arena with no floor, no seats and as far as taking a few pictures, I was more impressed with the outside of the colosseum than the inside. It's up to you, but I'd save my money and take some nice pictures in front of the colosseum. Just my opinion!! Have fun!!!

Actually, there is now a charge to enter the forum. It's now under a two-day ticket that includes admission to the Forum and the Palatine Hill...cost is 11 Euro.

I was in Italy back in March with Rome being my last stop. All of the museums or cathedrals prior to Rome was done on my own. Going as a solo backpacker, I didn't see a need to spend extra on tours.
But I knew if there was one I needed it would be the Colosseum and the Vatican.

I went to the Colosseum with a friend but not with a tour. I do kinda wish I learned some informative stuff there.
As for the Vatican, I did do the tour, partly because I didn't want to wait 3 hours in the rain.

So I shelled out for the first and only time on my trip. I believe it was 25 euros. I ended up waiting maybe 20 minutes.
I'm glad that I did the tour for the Vatican. I did learn some things there. If I didn't do the tour, I think I might have speed walked through it since there was so much to see and I might have become a little impatient.

One thing to add for the Colosseum. When we first walked in and stepped to the inner parts, we were walking next to a group. The guy next to me had his earphones on loud and wrapped them around his neck. So I was able to listen in to the guide.
But I took off after their 2nd stop.

We used the RS audio tours for the Forum/Coloseum along with the "Rome Past and Present" book. My 2 teenagers watch a lot of History Channel, so we didn't feel the need for a guide. We bought the books used on Amazon before we went. This worked fine for us.

We were there this past May and the vatican tour thru the vatican was awesome...for the colleseum/forum/palatine hill I downloaded the RS audio tour and it was most informative.

I would agree about the book mentioned above. We purchased ours at the colloseum. It was maybe 10e. It had nice photos of the forum/panth/col/pal. hill sites with overlays of what things probably looked like. It was very helpful to get a feel for the forum.

We used the audio tour sold at the forum which I wasn't thrilled with, but my MP3 with the RS audioguide was on the fritz.

I would do the tour of the Vatican for sure. It is sooooo huge that it is a tremendous help to have a guide through the main corridors. We had Angel Tours there.

The issue with collosseum/forum is a different one. We were actually a bit disappointed that the ruins were truly ruins that needed a LOT of imagination to understand what the place might have looked like in ancient times.

The audio guide at the forum is one of the worst we've ever had. We wished we had a tour there. After that experience at the forum we took one of the tours offered just outside the collosseum and also included the Pallatine Hill. It was ok, not expensive but not extraordinary either. Angel Tours would have been more expensive for this one, but if money is not an issue I'd book them.

Just wanted to quickly thank everyone for their helpful input and advice...after some deliberation we've decided to self guide our forum tour, downloading the rick steves audios and referencing the rome past and present book that we have now purchased...

Absoultely do both tours! We were in Rome in early June. We had a fabulous guide for the Colosseum/Forum/Pantheon. Here name is Francesca Caruso. (Her email is: [email protected]) She made our tour "come to life". Kids will love her! I cannot say enough about her. She is recommended by Rick. Also did a tour of the Vatican/St. Peters with Federica D'Orazio. She was excellent. You can reach her at [email protected]