dahlie

Last year my husband and I went to Rome and are heading back this year. We really enjoyed our (short) Forum tour and would like to have a much more in-depth tour of the Forum, Pallantine Hill, Domus Aurea and so on. Any suggestions of the best tour guide for a very in-depth look?

Thanks!

travelhorizons

I know people who really enjoyed Daniella Hunt. See her webpage here: http://www.rome-tours.com/guide.shtml

JeanneB

We used Sonia Tovoletta (sp?) for 3 days in November. She was really terrific...charming and knowledgeable. We told her in advance what our interests were and she tailored the tours to that. Her fee is 50eu per hour.

I'm at the office and don't have her email with me. But if you search "Rome and tours and Sonia" I bet you can find it.

MomDDTravel

We used Context travels and had a private tour with atrizia Sfligiotti
Patrizia Sfligiotti has a master's degree (specializzazione) in Medieval archaeology and has studied at the Vatican and at the University of Aix-en-Provence. She was an excavator at the Crypta Balbi in the 1990s, arguably the most significant archaeological excavation in central Rome in the last century. A dual citizen (USA and Italy), Patrizia is currently writing a guidebook about Rome and leading walks for us.

dahlie

Wonderful! Thank you all so much! I'll check out all three.

MomDDTravel

dahlie - not sure why that funny face came up - but her name was Patrica and she was without a doubt the best tour guide we have ever had. period. any place. Delightful, smart, engaging, full of knowelege, perfect English with a delightful accent.

I fully recommend Context tours period.

dahlie

Thanks MomDD. Did you specifically request her?

MomDDTravel

No, but I would again. I got lucky. Seriously. We also enjoyed the FoodCrawl with Emily Wise Miller in Florence and recommend it but I would go out of my way to have any tour again with Patrizia. She has a delightful energy about her and is so knowelegable without being boring. Extremely engaging.

dahlie

Thanks all! We just booked Sonia.

JeanneB

Wonderful...you will have a wonderful tour. Tell Sonia you were referred by the twin ladies from Alabama.

JeanneB

PS:
We started our "forum day" with Sonia at San Clemente. As we descended through the centuries-old layers of the church, she made history come alive. It was our favorite part of the tour.

We then walked from there to the Forum area.

dahlie

Jeanne, I'll tell her hello for you. We didn't do San Clemente last time, so it will be a treat to see it this time.

I'm really excited about going back. So much to plan! I think I almost like the planning as much as the traveling!

ILUVPARIS

Hi Dahlie,

Here's another vote for Context Travel. I did not have the same docent as MomDD but, ours was excellent as well. We took the Roma Antica tour. It felt like an intese college class. I believe our tour lasted 5 hours and covered all the things you are looking for.

JeanneB

We had told Sonia in advance that we wanted to learn more about what Romans' day-to-day lives were like (and how they differed) in the different centuries. San Clemente was the perfect place for that, with it's layers of history.

She did a great job of fitting interesting cultural tidbits in with the historical context.

I'm so jealous! I want to do it again!

randknew

here is yet another guide who was wonderful last week on our tour of Vatican, he has other tours of Rome as well.

http://www.sacrasorgente.blogspot.com