Leave on Tues and trying to decide if we should do Rome on our own or book tours. Enjoy Rome has Vatican and Ancient/Old Rome (Forum etc) tours. Anyone taken these? Worth it? Thanks.

Leslie, <BR>I took both of these tours in March 1999 and found them an excellent (and cheapish ! in contrast to other companies)introduction to the city. I found the Ancient Rome tour better than the Vatican, due to the fact that the Vatican offers free tours of St Peters each afternoon (enquire at the tourist office near St Peters) and so the Enjoy Rome was not really necessary, although it did include the Museum and the Sistine Chapel. In contrast to the quality of the Enjoy Rome Turs (and Scale Reale) there are real rip off merchants in Rome offering tours. Last November with my parents-in-law we took a bus tour with Carrani and that was a rip off. The Enjoy Rome tours last about 4 hours and the Ancient Rome tour involve a fair amount of walking so be prepared and bring some good walking shoes. <BR> <BR>Hope this helps, <BR> <BR>Cathy

There's a group that does free tours of the forum, and then takes tips $. The guides are not full-fledged tour guides yet, but are either working towards it, or are in Rome to study History. I was there last October and took one of these. They started at the 'Temple of Antonius and Faustina', near the entrance coming in from the Colloseum. They pitched the tour to the people in the area for about 15 minutes and then started out. It was a very good tour, highly recommend them! FYI average tip was L5,000 pp. <BR> <BR>They also offer tours of Rome by night, etc. These are fixed cost tours.

We tried to hook up with a tour company while in Rome and had nothing but troubles. We ended up stubling across a couple young gentleman who gave wonderful tours and really made for some of the highlites of our trip. They too worked simply for tips and were very reasonable. I would highly recommend them. Especially the Colloseum tour. <BR> <BR>They can be reached at [email protected] <BR> <BR>Jeez, I wish I could go with you! Oh, to be back in Rome marveling at the sights and burning up film likes there's no tomorrow. Have a great trip and if you do hook up with these tour providers say "hi" from the turnip for me.

As a general rule I see little need for conducted tours in Rome, presuming you do a bit of reading ahead of time. <BR> <BR>Certainly for the Vatican things are marked well, tours on CD are available (recommended) and excellent guidebooks for sale on site. <BR> <BR>For the Roman Forum (and Palatine) ... this is such a complex area that IF you really have an interest in it an informed guide can be quite helpful. Buildings and remains in the Forum and atop the Palatine reach over 1200 years between the earliest evidence and the last construction. It's quite difficult to distinguish much what you're looking at in many areas. Enjoy Rome is a good company, ScalaReale as good or better, though a bit more expensive. <BR> <BR>Rome.Switzerland.Bavaria <BR>www.twenj.com <BR>