Rome walking tours and side trips
 

My husband and I are taking our first trip to Rome in mid October. We're interested in doing some walking tours with an English speaking guide. We're looking for tour companies that you'd recommend. Also, ideas for one day side trips. Thanks!

Lots of people here recommend Scala Reale (www.scalareale.org). Their tours are quite pricey, and many people here also have used Enjoy Rome, which is less expensive (www.enjoyrome.com). A search under these names should bring up lots of comments.

I have been on two walking tours with Enjoy Rome and I liked them a lot. I also took their shuttle bus from Rome to Pompeii, which was a very nice and relaxing way to get there.

My husband and I enjoyed the American Express tour of the Vatican a few years ago. The American Express office is located at the Spanish Steps (Piazza di Spagna). The tour departs from their office around 9:30am. We just stopped at their office one morning to sign up for the tour and they had 2 spots open on the one heading out, so we just hopped on the bus to go over to the Vatican.

How comfortable are you exploring on your own? The Roman Forum should not be missed, but I'm not sure it's necessary to take a guided tour. After talking with other people prior to our arrival in Rome a few years ago, we decided to skip the tour. Instead, we bargained a great price on a book from a street vendor...the book has pictures of what the Forum currently looks like with plastic overlays of what it looked like during its heyday. It also had a good narrative explaining the buildings, culture, etc.

For side trips, we took the train to Pompeii and really enjoyed it. (Busy Italian trains are a cultural experience not to be missed - hold on to your wallet and don't wear a skirt...yikes!) I don't remember exactly, but I think we just joined in with an English tour at Pompeii.

Have fun!

I took a trip out to Hadrian's Villa (sp?). It was in a beautiful setting and the ruins were really wonderful I thought. You could just imagine it in it's "hey day". They have a mock up of what it looked like way back when. It must have been fabulous. My brother kept walking around saying "it's good to be the king"!!. You might look into it. It's close to Rome so wouldn't take all day if you didn't want to do a longer trip of some kind. Anyway, I really enjoyed seeing it.