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Tickets & Tours Roman Forum

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We are 3 adults wanting a private tour for my wife who is handicapped. Main interest is the Forum itself even if the coliseum is included. We saw the coliseum 2001 and we'd skip the coliseum. We'd tour one of these 2 dates April 30 or May 1st. We are in Rome for 3 nights. we arrive 11am on 29th so not that day.

In '01 we self-toured the Forum and learned very little without a guide. So an English-speaking guide would be great. And we want to see it in better lighting than mid-day. I like to take pics in best lighting possible. Plus the place feels better in lower lighting IMO.

I'm unsure of the hours the Forum is open but I'd prefer to go in either very early morning (7am -9 latest) or in the evening 5pm-7pm ideally but not pitch dark for more interesting lighting. If our ticket included it I'd also see another ruin other than the coliseum.

Open to any and all suggestions to enhance our experiencing ancient Rome.

thank you
Craig
Twin Cities MN

Posted by
1052 posts

Contact your hotel. Most hotels in Rome can set you up with a guide, transportation and since your wife has mobility issues items to help her.

Posted by
14 posts

Thanks Ed, we're doing a rental and I'm doubtful she be much help. One of the drawbacks of renting is not having a hotel front desk :).

The Roman Forum ticketing options seem very confusing, Who's a scalper, who's the official site. I "think" I found the official site and it shows NO tickets available in April. Might be I'm trying to buy them too soon? I can't tell from the site. Hard to believe they'd already be sold out??? The scalpers look quite expensive and the entrance times they offer are mostly mid-day. And, if its a tour we can't do one with a group of able-bodied people.

I hate to jump at scalper offer and find out I can a better time slot from the official ticket office and a much better price in a week or so. Or find out its a tour with 8 able-bodied folks we joined.

So, I'm unsure what to do next? Should be simple but it seems complicated thanks to a confusing array of greedy scalpers.

Posted by
16973 posts

Hi Craig,
One of your problems is that the official ticker for the park (https://ticketing.colosseo.it/en/) doesn't offer a guided tour of the Forum or Palatine, only the Colosseum. At a quick glance, I'm not seeing that the tour companies most often recommended on the RS forum (Walks of Italy; The Roman Guy; Through Eternity; Context; etc.) offer a tour only of the Forum either. There are some which include the Colosseum (which you said was acceptable) that might work, such as this one:

https://www.througheternity.com/en/colosseum-tours/private-colosseum-tour.html

So you'd have to scroll through their offerings but most are also small group tours versus completely private. You might also take a look for a guide on the "Tours by Locals" website? There have been mentions from posters whom have booked private tours through that one that they'd enjoyed. They are quite expensive, as completely private tours tend to be.
https://www.toursbylocals.com/tours/italy/forum-romanum?lng=12.4864378&lat=41.8920906

Another challenge is that May 1 is a BIG national holiday; I'm seeing that the tour I'd linked above is unavailable on that day as, I'd guess, are most other tours. It appears to be available on the 30th however.

And yes, your desired tour hours may be an issue too. As you've been to the Forum and Palatine before, you're also confident that your wife can handle the terrain? I will assume she's not in a wheelchair?
https://www.sagetraveling.com/Roman-Forum-Handicapped-Access

"Scalper" tickets generally are not available online so no worries there. What most of us do not recommend is booking through a 3rd party consolidator, such as Viator or Get Your guide, as they're just clearing houses for tours offered by independent companies versus conduct any of their own, and at a mark-up.

Touring at your own pace with an audioguide is also a possibility. Would that work?

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