My young adult daughter and I are traveling to Rome and Sorrento in May. I would love suggestions for tour guides or companies for Pompeii and the Coliseum. Actually we are interested in guides for any area near Rome or Sorrento who can make the history of the city, architecture, and ruins come alive for us. I don't mind joining a group, but I know from experience, not all guides are created equal.
Thank you!
Congrats on your upcoming trip to Italy! For Rome private tour guides, I highly recommend Agnes Crawford (www.understandingrome.com) as well as Patrizia Sfligiotti ([email protected]). I have done multiple tours with each guide, and every tour continues to surpass the previous one. Most recently, I did a tour of the Jewish Ghetto and Trastevere with Agnes, focusing on medieval art, architecture, and history. One of the best tours I’ve been on.
For tour companies in Rome, I highly recommend Context Travel (www.contexttravel.com). All of their docents (guides) have advanced degrees in art history, architecture history, archaeology, history, and more. Their knowledge helps to dig deeper into Roman history, and I’ve had great experiences on 8 tours so far with Context.
Are you looking to tour any specific sites or areas in Rome and Sorrento? Any additional info can help tailor better to what you’re looking for.
Happy planning!
I'd like to see this topic added to the Travel Forum, perhaps in the "Tips and Trip Reports" section. A guide is a wonderful addition to the travel experience, and recommended guides would assist us all.
Based on our recent experience with private guides on RS Heart of Italy Tour, I'd go with any tour guides recommended in his book.
This past trip we used guides from Katie Parla's tour group: https://katieparla.com/
We took a Testaccio/Trastevere foodie tour -- very fun.
We also went on a Colosseum/Forum tour with The Roman Guy: https://theromanguy.com/
Have a great trip!
I'm looking into these today. Thank you! In 2015, I went with another graduating daughter as we used the Pompeii and Coliseum tours that RS has on an app. They were nice, especially if you had some prior art/history knowledge, but I found I had so many more questions eager to ask. I was envious of the groups with live guides. Additionally, I am directionally challenged and between my daughter and I we were not the best suited to finding the numbered sites easily. Now if my husband had been there... :)
Recently we hired a guide for a tour of a cemetery in New Orleans, and that experience has left me caution l to ever randomly hiring a guide as she was quite literally, insane. It was so bad, part of our group left mid-tour.
As for what we are interested in seeing... anything that is educational and interesting. We are wide open to anything highly recommended. The Jewish Ghetto and Trastevere both sound wonderful and we are staying at an AirBnB in Trastevere for our week in the Rome area.
I am off to check the sites you recommended. Thank you.
