CarolBarrella

How should I go about getting someone to provide us with tours for a couple of days in Rome? ( ex: Coliseum, Vatican, Borghese )

Can we hook up with a group ( may be more affordable ) if so do we have to book in advance ?

raincitygirl

We were in Rome in June 2008 with our then 14 year old son and we did two tours with Context Tours. We did an ancient Rome tour and a Vatican tour.(not on the same day).The tour of ancient Rome was in a small group,six of us altogether, and the Vatican tour was slightly larger, about 10 people.
Both tours were fantastic;the docent we had for ancient Rome was particularly good at making it interesting for our son.
We all agreed we had got a lot more out of it with a tour rather than wandering around on our own.
We booked online before we left, you can Google "Context tours".
The other tour guide I have seen highly recommended on this site is Daniella from Mirabilia Urbis Tours.She was unavailable on the days we requested so we went with Context.

The Borghese Gallery limits the time you can spend inside to two hours and you must make a reservation in advance.We also did this before we left home.
I'm not sure about a tour guide for this, we rented the audio guides and they were good. The Borghese is very well worth seeing and afterwards you can stroll in the lovely park.
Wishing you a fabulous trip!

triciafromoz

I'm just back from Rome and my daughter and I just caught a bus to the vatican and walked in. There a women appproached us offering english speaking tours. The tour was just starting, we hopped on, there was 7 of us in the tour. It lasted 1hr 45min and the guide was very knowledgeable. I think it was 25 euros. I booked with her that afternoon to do the Colosseum tour and the evening tour of the Spanish Steps, Trevi fountain etc the next day. It was raining the next morning and Ethan, the tour guide, rang and put the morning tour off til the afternoon so we wouldn't have to walk through the forum in the rain. Again he was an excellent guide and 5 of the 7 people from the day before joined the tour.

By the way if you are looking for a good hotel, we stayed at the Best WEstern Canada hotel. It is three stars, just near the Termini and my daughter (18) and I just loved it. Don't be put off by the name, its a traditional Italian Hotel, the concierge was so knowledgeable about everything, it has a lovely breakfast room where they serve a traditional italian breakfast every morning and there are some great trattorias less than a block away. Enjoy your trip.

Barblab

I would do a search on free tours in Rome. I ran into them at the forum about 15 years ago and happened into the tour. It was excellant. Lead by a very enthusiastic college age student and at the end you paid what you wanted to. Since then I have run into them in other locations, most recently in Buenos Aires, and they are still awesome and the best and cheapest game in town.

kybourbon

You can also let them download walking tours of the Colosseum, Forum, etc. to their IPods. There are several free ones including Rick Steves walking tours with maps. The Colosseum and other sites also have audio guides you can rent.
http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/rick...rs/id272230438

The Vatican has their own tours you can book directly with them.
http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/z-In...zi_Visite.html

One of the guides Rick Steves uses books private tours and gets good reviews on Fodor's. Do a search on Fodor's for Francesca Caruso and you should find her e-mail.

sarge56

I'll second the Context Rome tours. We took one of their Vatican Museums tour and loved it. Our guide was a 40-something British former art history teacher. She was awesome and made the art and artists "come alive". Highly recommend them.

CarolBarrella

Thank you all for your help and advice!!