Tour Guide vs Self-Guided Tours

To add to the above, are there things I will see and places I will have access to with a guide that I wouldn't on my own? Thinking about the Colosseum specifically here, but any other attractions as well.

We did all of the above without any tours or guides although we did rent an audioguide here and there. Otherwise, we used guidebooks either brought along or purchased at the entry/bookshops of the attractions. It does help to do as much reading beforehand as possible, though.

As far as I know, guides/tours don't have access to anything the public doesn't unless a tour is mandatory for everyone in the first place (such as the Colosseum undergound) or the tour itinerary specifically notes special access.

I concur with getting a tour of the Vatican Museum, especially if it's your first visit. The museum is so big that it can be overwhelming. I think the Rick Steves self-guided tour of the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's is a good supplement. As for Rome, I think the Colosseum Underground tour is great, but I wouldn't get an official tour for the Colosseum. In Florence, i think you are fine doing everything on your own. Make sure you download the Rick Steves Audio Europe app for your smart phone and download the walking tours. They are really good.

I think it is very worthwhile to book a tour. The places you want to visit are massive and full of so much history. We used Walks of Italy for Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill and the Vatican and felt it was money well spent for our limited time there. Plus we had to time afterwards to wonder around on our own if we wanted to. No you don't "need" a guide, you can use a book or audio guide, but for me, I love to learn, to hear stories, to get an insiders view on things. One thing I learned from my guides is that there are Romans and there are Italians, not the same. Plus we met some fabulous people. Another walking tour I would highly recommend is a food tour from Eating Italy, a fabulous way to see Trastevere and eat some very local food.

We took our daughter to Italy after she finished 6th grade and she much preferred the guided tours we took
of the Vatican Museum and Uffizi to the museums we saw without the guide.

We did not do a guided tour of the Forum and wished that we had. It was confusing to follow along in the self-guided tour.

I would go with the audio tours; if you think you will be overwhelmed on your own, my thought is that you may feel overwhelmed by the pace of the tour for the Vatican Museums, and the things that get very short shrift, if not ignored altogether.

My husband and I are very well-educated in history and classics. Nonetheless, we find it very worthwhile to take guided tours, on occasion. Diocletian's Palace in Split is an example that pops to mind. Often, it's hard to comprehend what you are seeing. A good guide provides context, points out details, and over all makes the experience much richer.

...you may feel overwhelmed by the pace of the tour for the Vatican
Museums, and the things that get very short shrift, if not ignored
altogether.

That's exactly why we tend to do our sightseeing on our own. Along with being able to pick and choose what we want to see and for how long (I'm a bit of a putz), at the same time we can be more nimble with just the two of us than in a group. LOL, we've run the other way when we've seen the BIG, noisy bus-tour group heading into a church or towards us in a museum, and circled back later when they're gone. Not that it was possible at the Vatican, of course. :O)

There's no right or wrong to it; whatever suits your style!

If you're booking a guided tour for the Vatican Museums, consider taking one that goes early in the morning or in the evening, because the mobs of people during the day can really ruin the experience. One early tour that gets recommended here often is the Pristine Sistine by Walks of Italy, but there are others.

You spend hundreds if not a couple thousand dollars to get there but bulk at spending money for a guided tour that will enhance your experience. Guide tours have one big advantage - you can ask questions and you don't get lost. And other people ask good questions that you might not think to ask. The one thing we often do is to take a guide tour and then come back with our self-guided tour to linger in areas that we wish to photo (if permitted) or just to look longer. We always recommend guides.

And not every tour is a big, noisy bus tour. In fact we have never been on a noisy bus tour. We have been on many tours that are small and almost private. We are a big fan of the show and go tours.

We have a lot of guests and I always recommend two sites where a guided tour is worthwhile: Ancient Rome (Colosseo, Palatino & Foro Romano) and the Vatican (Museums, Sistine Chapel, Saint. Peter's).

The reasons are similar for both tours: faster entry, ease of getting around, best use of time, clarity around the subject matter.

At the Colosseo lately, the line to get through security has been in excess of an hour even with a "skip-the-line" ticket. Arranging a tour in advance will get you in much faster. A small group tour here -- better yet private -- is a wonderful experience as the tour will be tailored to your group's needs, even if your group is only 2 people. Rick Steves recommends some private guides in his book. I like Sonia Tavoletta (friend of Francesca Caruso). Contact her at [email protected]. 3-4 hours is a good tour length to cover all three sites.

At the Vatican, the early entry tours (Walks of Italy's Pristine Sistine) ensure some of your tour is during the less-crowded early hours. I think I would get lose there without a guide! And you cannot get in so early on your own. Walks of Italy's guides are art history or architecture grads who impart a lot of great knowledge. I took their tour for the 3rd time last week with visitors and it is still excellent.

At the Borghese Gallery, I recommend the audio guide. It is very good. Rick Steves' guide to Ostia Antica is excellent and you can easily self-tour there.

Thanks for the great advice, everyone! So far, we have booked the early morning Pristine Sistine tour and an underground Colosseum Tour. I think we're going to do a self-guided audio tour at Borghese Gallery and Ostia Antica. Still undecided about whether to do a tour in Florence for the Accademia and Uffizi Gallery. I think I remember more about Renaissance art than I do ancient Roman history, so might do okay without a tour at those two.