Do you think it necessary to pre-book tours in Rome? If so, how do I go about booking? We are there in July and presume it will be quite busy. We are only there for 3 days and are going to follow the 3 day itinerary in Fodors book. Any ideas?

We prebooked for EnjoyRome walking tours. We confirmrd and paid once in Rome. WE did ancient Rome, Vatican, tratervere tour. I love them!!PJ

I also pre-booked with EnjoyRome for the ancient Rome tour - the Trastevere was a last minute decision - I called their office and was told where the meeting place was. I paid for both at the time of the tour. And this was the beginning of February. So in July I would think you should definitely pre-book since you only have a short thime there.<BR>Mara

Steer clear of Vista Tours. We did a &quot;Rome by Night&quot; tour and the office told us it was English. Reality it was English/Spanish/French/German/Italian spoken at the speed of light as you whizzed past places you had to keep track of what you saw and wait for your language to roll around.<BR><BR>Not at all worth it.

Since you mentioned the Easy Rome site, has anyone here taken the bike tour? I mean, do you have to be a very avid bike rider to do this? Is it a tough ride? Is it worth it?

If you decide to use Scala Reale (I highly recommend them; we took the Vatican tour and the orientation hike), definitely pre-book as far in advance as possible. They allow only up to six per walking tour, and are a fairly small operation.

I highly reccommend Scala Reale; check out their web site. You must book in advance (MAX tour size is 6, but even if you are the only ones, you will get your own private tour). It's more expensive than other walking tours, but TOTALLY worth it! The guides that we had were a internatioinal freelance journalist of major architecture magazines, a seminarian specializing in art history and church history(perfect for our Vatican tour), and a doctor of Archaeology specializing in ancient Rome. We took 4 tours during our week in Rome last November, and they were definitely highlights of our trip. I would request Darius Arya if you can get him; he was awesome! They also give you a lot of &quot;Insider&quot; info on hotels, restaurants and sites. They will even help make reservations.

Stay clear of GreenLine Tours as well-like the previous poster they spoke several languages, depending on what passengers were on board and the 2 guides we had had such heavy Italian accents they were barely understandable. They did take credit cards though.