Hi all

I will most likely sign up for a Context Rome tour for this, but, is it even possible to visit this without a guided tour?

thanks

I would like to know this as well. I'm going to search and I'll post what I find.

I've done this twice. As far as I know, you must be on a guided tour for this. I don't think you are allowed to wander freely through this place. go to

http://www.tickitaly.com/galleries/domus-aurea-rome.php

you can contact them for more information

Bookmarking; thanks, flygirl!

Domus Aurea? All you have to do is walk up the hill from the Colliseum, and go to the booth to buy your ticket!

Why would you think it more complicated than that? I did it in summer of 2005, and did not think it was worth the 8 Euro (I'm sure the price has gone up) at all. However, as many people may know, concerns about the safety of the Domus caused it to be closed at the end of 2005, and it only reopened last month-hopefully they did some more restoration work on it, because it was definitely a let-down when I did the tour, virtually no mosaics could be seen, it was basically, only cold grey walls. The 8 of us who were on that particular tour found it lacking.

In the past No and AFAIK even if you had a tour like Context you still had to go with the Domus Aurea's scheduled group tours.

flygirl, I thought I recently read that these limited tours (restorations are still going on) were going to stop in April?
But I could be wrong. Regards, Walter

I should explain-when I was there in August 2005, we walked up, bought tickets, and then the person at the booth said, "okay, you will be in the next tour group, and that tour will start in 30 minutes." So we walked around, and then got in line shortly before our tour was to start. So, yes, you do go in as part of a group, but you can go up and buy a ticket individually, and then wait for the next group tour to start.

Domus Aurea was closed in December 2006 because of heavy rains which caused flooding. I haven't heard that it has reopened yet.

Portions of it opened last month. Context Rome article:

rome.contexttravel.com/static/domusaurea.php

Selectitaly website, which confirms portions reopened in February 2007, says the visit requires climbing scaffolding and wearing a hard hat (provided) at all times. Doesn't sound like anything you can do on your own

You don't do it on your own, you go in as part of a group-but you can buy your tickets individually, or at least you could in 2005, and then wait for the next group tour. But it sounds even less attractive a site to visit now than when I saw it in 2005. I personally wouldn't bother.

Hi flygirl,

I went in Sept 05 and just walked up and bought a ticket. I chose to go on an English speaking archeologist tour and found it very interesting. I waited about 45 min for it to start and while I waited, I enjoyed a visit to the park above. Really enjoyed a moment of Roman life with the mothers and grandparents out with the toddlers and babies in strollers. Chatted for a while with a lovely young mom in my limited Italian and it was a real treat.

Yes, what's left of the villa is rather grim. You really have to use your imagination. Our archeologist did a good job of enabling that.

I would recommend it. Not too expensive or time consuming, but interesting.

Buon viaggio!