Colosseum - Walks of Italy or Pierreci ?

Old Mar 16th, 2012, 02:36 PM
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Colosseum - Walks of Italy or Pierreci ?

Will be in Rome end of May. Trying to find information regarding underground / 3rd floor tours at Colosseum. I believe, it is still closed at this time and waiting to hear when it reopens. Any opinion on choosing Pierreci or Walks of Italy when booking ? I've heard Walks of Italy has less people and more English speaking guides, but not sure if that's accurate. Any one with experience ?
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Old Mar 17th, 2012, 12:59 AM
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We did the tour with Walks of Italy last Summer and loved it. Perfect English and really made the stories come alive. I can't speak about Pierreci guides personally, but as far as I understood their groups are twice as large and since they work just for the Colosseum they do that tour over and over every day, rather than guiding all over the city. That's what our guide said, anyway. I also saw recently a tweet from Walks of Italy that the Colosseum will now be allowing tours to go on the arena floor of the Colosseum, where the gladiators actually would fight... something that my underground tour did not include at the time. Good luck!
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Old Mar 17th, 2012, 07:17 AM
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Our tour guide in May, 2011 with Pierreci was just great and spoke excellent English. The size of the group was 15 people.
I assume you have compared the prices of each tour.
Have a great trip.
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Old Mar 17th, 2012, 07:57 AM
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Pierreci is the official designated booking for the Colosseum which is why their prices are less than resellers.
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Old Mar 17th, 2012, 10:21 AM
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The advantages of Pierrici are that the group size is limited, the tour takes you to areas that other guides cannot, and the cost is so reasonable.
It is a great tour, just as good as a very expensive private tour of the Colloseum I took the previous year, and with access to views of Rome from high above, and of course at the arena underground level as well. I cant think of any disadvantage.
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Old Mar 17th, 2012, 10:25 AM
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If there is any reason to plead mobility issues, tell the guide. She or he will give access to the glass lift. Mum and I took the lift up, and it was great to zip up to the third floor.
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Old Mar 17th, 2012, 02:20 PM
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Dark Rome is really quite good. They have Skip the Line tours and great English speaking guides. They are one of only two groups that allow their tours to get onto the floor of the Colloseum. The also offer a lot of other great tours. Very small group size too. Check it out on TripAdvisor. Here is their URL: http://www.darkrome.com/
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Old Mar 17th, 2012, 03:23 PM
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I highly recommend Pierrici. We booked the underground tour at the end of last October, and although disappointingly we weren't able to access the bottom level due to very recent flooding, the guide was excellent, very informative, and we had extra time up on the top level (where the general public is not allowed) to make up for it.
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Old Mar 17th, 2012, 03:51 PM
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I don't think the underground tour is currently available.

>>>I can't speak about Pierreci guides personally, but as far as I understood their groups are twice as large and since they work just for the Colosseum they do that tour over and over every day, rather than guiding all over the city.
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Old Mar 27th, 2012, 05:51 PM
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Imont, we'll be in Rome in 2 weeks. Have you heard if the underground tour is open yet?
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Old Mar 28th, 2012, 06:20 AM
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I just booked the Walks of Italy (WOI) tour for our upcoming trip in May. I believe the reason that I ended up picking WOI over Pierreci was due to Pierreci's poor description of what is included in their tour. Also, it appeared from their website that the tour was only 45 minutes so I assumed that the tour did not include the Forum or Palatine Hill which WOI's tour does include. The Pierrecci website also said that max tour size is 40 people (Wow!) Where as WOI's max is 12 people. That is a big difference. WOI includes walking on the arena floor in addition to the third tier & underground access (if it's open by May).
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Old Mar 28th, 2012, 07:41 AM
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Thanks Amyla - Did WOI say anything in regards to if the underground is open presently or just that it would be included if it is ?

We are also going in May. I heard the same numbers regarding tour size. If the content of the tours is the same, I'd favor chosing the smaller group too.
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Old Mar 28th, 2012, 08:41 AM
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As far as I know, it is still closed and there is no ETA on when it will be re-opened. Crossing my fingers that they will try to have it opened by May.
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Old Mar 28th, 2012, 11:59 PM
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I have been looking at the Colosseum Dungeons and Upper Level tour offered by Tickitaly. Has anyone compared this tour with WOI or Pierreci tours. I have tried to look at the Pierreci tour but find their website not user friendly.
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Old Mar 29th, 2012, 05:53 AM
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Tickitaly looks like a good tour too and at a very good price. The reason I chose WOI over Tickitaly was due to two reasons. One, the times the tour was offered on our date from Tickitaly were 10:30am and 3pm and WOI offered an 8:30am tour. We preferred the early start. The second reason was the max group size for Tickitaly is 25, WOI's max size is 12. But honestly, if you don't care about the time or size of the group, I would probably choose Tickitaly. You can't beat the price.
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Old Apr 24th, 2012, 12:45 PM
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I was just on the WOI website and it says the Underground Dungeon Area has reopened. Yay!
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Old Apr 24th, 2012, 05:11 PM
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Can any of these tours be booked while in Italy for next day or same day? It would bum me out to pay in advance and get rain.
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Old Apr 24th, 2012, 05:41 PM
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When I just opened this page there was an ad for underground and 3rd level tours. We went on the Pierreci tour last spring. The guide was amazing, the tour was great.
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Old Apr 25th, 2012, 07:03 AM
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AJPeabody, I don't think it's possible to book same or next day as they get booked up pretty fast during season. I'm looking at the WOI's website right now and it doesn't have anything available until May 3rd. However, I believe there are tour guides that stand outside the Colosseum looking for people to fill their groups (Although, I don't know if it would include underground or 3rd level.)

I know WOI will reschedule the tour for you if it is closed due to rain, strike, or other reasons.
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Old Apr 25th, 2012, 07:40 AM
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Do you still need to purchase a ticket to the Colosseum in addition to the charge from WOI or Pierreci for the third tier and the underground?
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