Hello! Heard great things about the Scala Reale tours and was thinking about booking just the orientation hike for $20pp for my and hubby's first day in Rome. Most people talk about either the tour of the Vatican or the Colosseum/Forum - but it's more than we want to pay (we'll probably just book the 1-hour tours they have there). Would it still be "worth it" to just do the Scala Reale orientation hike? Is this even an option? Thanks for any info!

With Scala Reale, I think you basically become a "member" for a year, and can take advantage of any of their services, including the Orientation hike, during that period. Many of the services are the tours for which you must pay extra. But, you also get to take advantage of contacting them for assistance in various specified areas. They can be a useful resource. So, I would think you could purchase your "membership" and take that freebee membership benefit, the Orientation hike, without problem. We thoroughly enjoed the orientation hike as it included some places we'd never have found on our own, especially in the limited time we had. We ended up at Michelangelo's splendid Campidoglio.

Hi
I also throughly enjoyed the SSR Orientation Hike, but it was for me a negligible experience compared to the four hour tour of the Forum etc that they offer. In the Hike, you cover a lot of territory, even some "must sees" but imo that is not the highlight of Scala Reale services--the Form and the Vatican tours are.

If you need something less expensive, try Enjoy Rome or Through Eternity for their Forum or Vatican tours. They have often been praised here.
Without a guide, the Forum can appear to be just a pile of rocks and broken columns.
The Vatican is overwhelming by anyone's standards. I do not recommend the tours offered by Vatican tour guides--I had a nice lady once who was probably very knowledgeable, but her English was incomprehensible. There are audio guides that are said to be good.

to clarify, my dissatisfaction was with tour guides provided by the Vatican for group tours of the museums

Once again, I am going to have to recommend 3 Millennia Tours (www.threemillennia.com). I have used them before and I know the offer very affordable group tours.

I second everything Elaine says about ScalaReale - first rate group, and the Forum tour they offer beats the socks off their orientation. The $20 fee is just a membership thing, to be able to use their offered services. I believe only one of the four in our party had to pay this fee for all of us to be eligible.

Let me add a quick reply to this thread to update readers on the Scala Reale orientation walks and membership. We have redesigned the walks to provide an even richer experience, introducing a new "Rome Transect" walk which cuts through the center of the Roman Forum and across the historical center to the Pantheon. Membership is no longer required for these or any of the walks and the fees start at 25 Euros.
Hope this helps,
Tom Rankin

Grazie Tom for that update. Rumor has it that you have sold the company. Can you comment on that?

Hi Wendy,

I did the Scala Reale Baroque evening tour (not sure if it's still offered) and the Vatican tour in 2000. This past October I did an Enjoy Rome Vatican tour and there was no comparison between the two companies. The SR tour was far superior. I've compared the two tours in my trip report. The reason why we took the ER tour was that SR was not offering a Vatican tour the days we were in Rome. I'm glad I had a chance to experience both but definitely know that next time in Rome I will be sure to take a Scala Reale tour over others.

I realize SR is more expensive and I'm glad to hear that there are more options now at lesser prices so those of us who don't have a lot of money can still enjoy Scale Reale tours. Thanks Tom for adding more affordable tours and for posting that information!

Hi Bob. About three weeks ago I merged Scala Reale with a small travel services company called Context Rome, which built Scala's online calendar eight months ago and has been helping with a lot of the administrative aspects
of the tours for some time. I have been involved with Context Rome since
it's formation 16 months ago, and I think it (and my partners Lani Bevacqua
and Scala docent Paul Bennett) bring to Scala a system of organization and management (much of it web-based) that should make signing up for walks and meeting docents a much more efficient process. But the walks are staying the same. Besides the addition of more orientation walks and the abolishment of ACSR membership as a requirement, the only other significant change is that I, personally, will be out in the field leading walks a lot more than before. Petulia will still be running the office in Rome. And I will continue to oversee Scala Reale and help maintain the quality of the walks.
I am also still president of the cultural association, ACSR, from which Scala Reale's docents are still culled and, as mentioned in another thread, dedicating more time to the American Institute for Roman Culture.

I hope this helps.

Tom

We did the Scala Tour under St. Peter's. I was not impressed - didn't care for the guide. We used Roman Odyssey for the Colosium and they were great.