We booked Francesca Caruso for private tours of the Colosseum, the Forum and the Pantheon. I believe she also does the Vatican. She is AMAZING! E-mail her directly at [email protected]. I originally found her through Rick Steves, but several on Fodors website have also used her. She will try to accommodate your sightseeing requests. The Scavi tour is a must-see if you can get reservations. Our tour guide was from the U.S. and was very good.

The scavi tour was the highlight of our stay in Rome. The guide was well-informed, and although she did have an Italian accent, we had no problems understanding her. We didnt get confirmation of our tickets until a week before we were in Rome, so I was ecstatic when the email confirming our reservation came.

We also did a Through Eternity tour of the Vatican, which included the basilica and the museums. Our guide was excellent, definitely knew his stuff and made the tour very enjoyable with his commentary. We loved his sense of humor. We also wore headphones, so the commentary was very clear. Context tours are very highly regarded in this forum and have very good reviews, but they were a little beyond our budget.

We did the Scavi tour and loved it. We also used Context for a Vatican tour and thought they were excellent, we got so much more out of it than just doing it on our own. We took a Colosseum/Forum tour and a general Rome walking tour with Romewalks, and they were very good as well. What we liked about both of those companies is that the groups were small (6 people max), which makes a big difference, as you will always be able to hear your guide. Whoever you use, just check how many people they put in the group. You don't want to be stuck in the back of a group of 20 people, not being able to hear anything or ask questions freely.

Oldmyst...

I'm already looking forward to your trip report! Please post one.

anyone ever hear of discover rome wlaking tours?

oops...discover rome walking tours.

I have posted on several sites since getting home from Rome, but just wanted to let you know I took two Icon tours (Vatican and Forum/Colloseum). Both were very good, especially the Vatican tour. The Vatican tour was only 10 people at 25 euro a person and it lasted 4 hours instead of 2 1/2 as it was supposed to. It was the highlight of our trip to Rome. The Forum/Colloseum was pretty good too with 8 people on the tour, and we were given a 5 euro discount for booking another Icon Tour. I really enjoyed both.

I can't speak for other tour companies. I heard Context was very good, but it was a little too expensive for us. I do wish I had the chance to experience them too.

Borghese - no need for a guide. Get the tour book or audio guide and you'll be just fine.

Scavi - yes the guide does make a difference, but regardless of how poor they are if you are aware of what you are seeing both in terms of Roman history and Catholic history I think you'd find it interesting touring with a mute.

Vatican - no guide is going to be able to show you the entire place...impossible. They'll show you what they like or what they know they can access without the crowds. This is the only one I would consider getting a guide for though.

Dina4, I noticed not many people take the official Vatican guided tour. How did you find it?

Anyone else has any thoughts on why it's not as popular despite being much cheaper? How big is the group for the Guided Tours for Individuals EUR21.50? Do they repeat the same thing in multiple languages?

perth2europe-
Hi!

We really enjoyed our Vatican guided tour. We had a live guide who only spoke English to the group. (I think they offer that at 11am daily) We all had headphones, and she spoke into a microphone that projected to our earphones. So it was "live" and she answered questions. So even though it was a big group (20 people, I think), you could always hear perfectly and move around comfortably. She was very interesting and informative, and we had our kids (11, 14) with us and they really were engaged and got a lot out of it.. It was a 2 hour highlight tour.

I checked my notes, and I had written that you enter at the exit gate at the Vatican Museum, which is a 10-15 min walk from the entrance. You then check in at the guided tour desk.
We called the day before and got in, but we may have been lucky (it was June). Here's the phone # to reserve your spot ahead of time:
06-6988-4466

Have fun!
Dina

Since Icon and Contex get such rave reviews, has anyone used Romewalks and if so, how where they?

Hi Lisa,

I'd love to read your Rome report, but I can't find it. Can you pull it up for us? Glad you had a great time!

Thanks for the compliments. It is called Back From Rome. I will post later when I get home from work. Lisa

lvitaly, we used romewalks for our Colosseum/Forum tour and for the 2 hour twilight walking tour that hits sights like the Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, etc.
We thought they were excellent. The guide for the Colosseum tour was amazing, an archeology PhD and really knew her stuff. Group was only 6 people which was nice.

dina4, do you remember how much the Vatican highlight tour was? And did you call to reserve, or fax a request? I visited their website, and it appears that you fax a request???

Someone above posted it as 21.50 euro. In 2004 it was 19.50.
A great deal as I remember it was maybe 5 or 6 euro more than admission.
We just called that number I posted above. Didn't fax.
Good luck!
Dina

Thanks Almesq !
I am leaning toward them. I Like what they have to offer and i also like the timing as well.

It was our private tour guide who gave us the phone # and told us about the Vatican tour. Later, I noticed Rick Steves also mentions it in his book.

I really don't know why more people don't take advantage of this tour, unless perhaps it's because they don't know about it.

I am just reporting something I discovered yesterday on Trip Advisor. Someone who has only posted 3 times has questioned my integrity, thinking I am a tour company employee talking up Icon Tour which I used twice on my recent trip to Italy. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read it. It just shows you how some companies will do anything to hurt someone else's business. See this link:

http://rome-hotels.tripadvisor.com/S...o.html#3279494

Unbelievable, Lisa

For something different, try a photographic walking tour: http://imaging-in-italy.com/

Disclaimer: Tony's a friend of mine, I did a week-long edition of his course a couple of years ago and loved it. But he doesn't pay me to say nice things about him! ; )

best regards,
Deirdré Straughan

beginningwithi.com