Walks of Italy Colosseum and Pristine Sistine

The only reports I have read on the forum are that the Underground tour has been cancelling on people due to lack of tickets. It doesn’t mean every tour has been cancelled, but I have not heard any reports of a successful one…….

Warning: My opinions are a bit different from many of those on this forum. In 2019, we booked Colosseum Belvedere tour tickets through Coop Culture and Pristine Sistine tickets through Walks of Italy. Everything came highly recommended.

As we entered the Colosseum, we were informed that there were no Belvedere tours. Most of our ticket was refunded and we were let into the Colosseum on our own without a guide, audio tour or map. Disconcerting but we saw what we wanted on our own and moved on. It was fine.

The Pristine Sistine tour was okay but long and the Sistine Chapel was very crowded when we went there Nothing pristine about it. The tour took four hours and we were exhausted at the end.

We were in Rome last week. We passed on the Colosseum this time but walked on our own through the Forum.

This time for the Vatican, I book entry tickets and audioguides through Vatican. We went at noon and spent the rest of the day there. We were not part of a tour and saw pretty much everything all by ourselves. We moved quickly, efficiently and to places where the crowds weren't. It cost a quarter of the Pristine Sistine tour and we were more satisfied. We saw some beautiful Etruscan pottery in places where tours never go.

Personally, I hope to never go on a flat-following tour again. However, there are pluses to being in a tour and you need to decide if this works for you. Getting to cut through the secret door to St. Paul's that is reserved for tour groups IS a nice perk. In the weeks prior to our visit, I listened to Rick Steves guides while walking through my own town. This gave me a good idea of what I would be/should be looking for.

Unless your guide is a dynamic, native English speaker and the tour is not too long, I'd pass but that is me. Good luck!

Getting to cut through the secret door to St. Paul's that is reserved
for tour groups IS a nice perk.

Except that door has been closed since COVID onset. For that reason, WOI states that they no longer include the basilica with their Pristine Sistine Tour:

Previously, many Vatican tours visited St Peter's Basilica. Following
the pandemic however, routes and access have changed, making this
impossible. The Basilica remains a must-see on any trip to Rome
though, so your guide will give you the tips and context you need to
get the most from an independent visit

The Roman Guy's similar, early entrance tour description states this:

As of June 23rd, 2021, the Vatican has closed the "licensed guide
entrance" to St Peter’s Basilica for all tour companies and tour
guides. Therefore a guided visit to the Basilica won’t be possible due
to the distance between sites. Not to worry! Your awesome guide give
you a detailed introduction of the church and will explain how to
visit on your own at the conclusion of the tour.

The Vatican itself does not offer a combo museums + basilica tour. I haven't read that there have been any cancellation issues with WOI's Pristine Sistine Tour. The same has not been true for their Colosseum tours which include the underground (and which they're currently not even selling). I would contact them via their chat function with your question.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/walks-of-italy-vip-colosseum-underground-tour-with-roman-forum-palatine-hill

Thank you CT....we've never been one for tours but we did a phone consult w/RS travel guide and both these tours were "must do"...so we went for it....lots of second guessing now on my part for sure! What you're describing does not sound like what I'm looking for (tour is long, no real benefit as far as early access or special access, could likely be just as happy w/audioguides on our own, etc)...
We are contacting WOI of course but what they say vs what real people have experienced recently could be very different...they are still selling the Underground Tours - just limited - there are tickets available for 3 days from now so that must be reflecting their last minute allotments...

I Just know that when we went on both the tours you mentioned, we were able to cut HUGE lines and that alone saved us hours. The Vatican tour was before the public was let in and we had whole areas to ourselves (and other tour groups but not hoards of people). I can't speak to the audio guide but I did find our guide to be very knowledgeable and gave us good insight. It was long and there was parts I zoned out on, but I am sure others in the group where engaged.

We were at the Vatican last week with just the entry tickets we purchased on the Vatican website. We went just after Noon and got in quickly. This was after the morning crush and the crowds were good. There's a few hoops to jump through like Security, redeeming your ticket voucher and picking up audioguides. It took next to no time to get into the museum.

I wish you best of luck with your Pristine Sistine tour. I think our tour was not the norm but Walks of Italy would never admit to that.

I did the Pristine Sistine tour yesterday morning and the VIP Colosseum underground tour this morning. They were both fantastic. I enjoy long tours, much to the chagrin of my family!

I was very nervous about the VIP Colosseum underground tour today, due to what I had been ready on this forum, but it went off without a hitch.

I just wanted everyone to know that at a minimum, if you have tickets already, they are still doing the tours as of today.

@JC. That is great news that you were able to go on the tour! Maybe there is hope for me yet in Sept…….

@jcmeehan that is excellent news....so for the Sistine Chapel did you feel you got the benefit of being there before crowds or was it already crazy by the time your tour entered? and after the Pristine Sistine did you go over to the Basilica? If so, how did that go?

Virginia- Never having been there before it is difficult to say how crowded it normally is. We had to wait to get through security and it was quite packed in that lobby. Once we started going through the museum it wasn’t too crowded.

The Sistine Chapel was quit full, but i was able to walk around. After the tour we went and ate lunch and then we walked over to St. Peter’s. It was almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit at the time so the line was non existent. We walked right in.

We did the underground tour of the Colosseum 2 weeks ago and it's amazing. Our guide said it's difficult to get tickets for the underground, but we reserved ours last early fall. If you get a chance to see it, definitely go for it!

I just did both for a 2nd time last month with WOI. The Colloseum underground, forum and Palantine Hill was better than in 2015. Our guide last time was very good, but this one was fantastic. Her name is Camilla and she gave so many more little tidbits. I would have loved it just as much even without the underground. They are planning on enclosing the entire underground in, so they have work to do and may be why they’ve stopped selling tickets. Both guides used a picture book to show you what you are looking at now and what it looked like.

Pristine Sistine was a disappointment this time. I booked mine 2 years ago before Covid and did not realize we wouldn’t be going to St. Peter’s. The 4 hours just in the Vatican was very long and the guide not as wonderful like in 2015. We were all very bored and tired the last 90 minutes and I wish we would have figured out another way to do it vs. WOI. We walked over to St. Peter’s square at the end and the line looked like there were 1000 people waiting.

It was nice seeing the Sistine Chapel before throngs of people. There are a lot, but it wasn’t shoulder to shoulder. One couple just left after 3 hours, I wish we had done that.

thanks everyone! @lulu - we might have to bail early on the Pristine Sistine too - will have to see how my 15 year old son is handling it lol....WOI has not responded to emails...haven't been able to get anyone on chat function yet but will keep trying....so nothing to report there but for now we plan on sticking with our reservations and seeing what happens...will report back early July!

We just got a message that WOI canceled our tour tomorrow morning at 8:30 am with less than 12 hours notice. And we’re not seeing any tickets options before later Monday which would give us about an hour and 15 min before the sites close. Beyond disappointing.

So sorry they left you high and dry at the last minute. I had a similar experience with a Yellowstone guide who started ignoring emails, and cancelled the second we got to the 48 hour cutoff for a refund.

I'm planning a 2023 or 2024 trip to Rome. Not likely to use Walks of Italy.

We just got a message that WOI canceled our tour tomorrow morning at
8:30 am

That was for the Colosseum underground tour, correct? If so, that one has been a bit of a beast for more than just WOI; read the text on The Roman Guy's tour page as well, under "Can my tour be canceled or moved to a different day?" and "Is it possible The Tour Guy will change this tour time?" It''s just really hard to get these tickets so they hope for the best and have to pull the plug if that best falls through.

https://theromanguy.com/tours/italy/rome/colosseum-dungeons-tour-with-roman-forum-palantine-hill

I've not heard that there have been cancellation issues with others of the WOI tours, such as their "Pristine Sistine" tour, but maybe I've missed something.