Walking tours in Florence, private tours in Rome to the Coliseum and Vatican.

Check out the website for Walks of Italy - they have all kinds, all prices. We did three of them (would highly recommend the Sistene Chapel after hours) and each was fabulous.

I did the Artviva 3 hour tour of Florence on my first morning in the city - this was 4/5 years ago. I was very happy with it, it gave a good overview. www.italy.artviva.com.
Katy

In Rome, we used the same private guide for the Colosseum (including underground, and supposed to be third ring, but rain prevented entrance to that), and the Roman Forum for one day and the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel the next. She was pricey for two, but probably about average for the service provided for JUST US. And I would not hesitate to do it again. We had her complete attention,,, lingered where we wanted and moved on from things that didn't interest us as much.
For six the cost would be more bearable.

She lives in Rome and has for years, but is American so there is absolutely no language barrier.
www.rome-tours.com.

We are big fans of Walks of Italy for the Vatican, especially their Pristine Sistine tour.

As to Ancient Roma, Sonia Tavoletta (a colleague of the hard-to-book Francesca Caruso) does a fine job of the Colosseo, Palatino & Foro Romano. She will design a tour with your interests in mind. Reach her at [email protected]. I believe 50 Euros per hour is the going rate for a private guide, but it may be 55. Four hours will give you a fabulous tour.

We just did a Colloseum tour of the underground and third tier which was excellent. I got the tickets through the official Colloseum website and I think they were about $48 total for the two of us, and that included entry. It was a small group and the young man who led was very knowledgeable, and polite. The tours were well-organized and it was easy to find where we needed to be to join our group. Hope this helps.

The underground tour is sold out through the end of June on the official site. If you book with a private company be prepared to pay at least 125 euros per person for this tour. If you are going in July, August or September you will be able to book the official tour starting around June 12th. This will cost 25 euros per person for adults. Kids under 18 get free entry so will just pay the 9 euros tour fee and the 2 euros booking fee.

Donna

Just returned from Florence where Alessandra Marchetti (http://www.alessandramarchetti.com/) gave us a rich, memorable, and entertaining walking tour. With a 7 year old in tow, we were apprehensive, but Alessandra engaged our daughter from the get go. Very impressive and worth every penny.