What we liked abiut seeing the Underground was the discussion on how there were trap doors on the Colisseum stage and not only the competitors but animals were raied onto the florr by elevators from the underground. The top tier was also good to get to see? I Am sureyou can't really lose with any of the companies you are looking at. Trip Advisor has reviews of these activities if you want to look at the comments there.

<<< I would like a very good overview of the Forum. I had been leaning towards Context for that reason.>>>

Context is by far the best for small group (6 or less)tours, I have seen 4 docents (3 were archaeologists)on History/NatGeo documentaries who were once my guides. And 2 of them multiple times as experts on these documentaries (Darius Arya & Katie Parla).

You mention the "Forum" a couple of times if that site really interests you more than the Colosseum and Palatine Hill try and do some research on your own also.

I mention this because all these companies have limited time at these sites so much has to be by-passed.

Context is 4hrs long in that time they must cover the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum and the Imperial Forums (viewed from the sidewalk) plus the short time walking between these sites.

If you have time I would pick-up a copy (used is fine) of the 'Oxford Archaeological Guide - Rome' read thru those sites and you will have a better understanding of what you are visiting with the guide plus the sites that you will see but have to by-pass.

I just wrote a condensed version of this walk and added a couple of things if you are interested.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...lking-tour.cfm (Scroll-down to my Mar 5, 14 post)

I, too, thoroughly enjoyed (and would highly recommend) Context Rome for the Vatican.

Additionally, due to a great private guide, I got much out of the Forum/Palatine Hill with her. I agree it is kind of a must if you want to get the most out of the ruins. To me, this is a very exciting and interesting area.

We used Francesca Caruso. She has been seen on some of the Rick Steves videos, taking him around different parts of Rome. Her contact info is [email protected].

Buon viaggio!

Have heard great things about Francesca Caruso and tried to schedule with her while we were in Rome. She was unavailable but we used Daniella Hunt and she was fantastic!!

Have a look at Viator's private after hours small group tour of the Sistine Chapel, expensive but an amazing experience. We did this tour in 2012, it was just our group of 19 people in the Vatican museums for 3 hours from 6.00 to 9.00pm with about half an hour in the Sistine Chapel, we were allowed to take photographs and to be in those amazing rooms and to be the only people there was extraordinary, highly recommend this experience.

For people who are mostly interested in the Roman Forum (which includes me), I would suggest getting a private guide or small group tour of just the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. These are the most historically significant ancient Roman sites. Then you could visit the Colosseum on your own. There are excellent signs throughout the Colosseum that explain everything, or you could take one of their official tours, either the regular tour or the underground tour, or you could download a free audio tour from the internet. I've never felt the need of a guide at the Colosseum.

Context Tours has (or used to have) a small group tour of the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, or any private guide would be happy to put together such a tour for you.

The private tours of the Vatican Museums are very expensive, although Viator may have discounts. (Viator, by the way, is just a reseller of tours offered by other operators. Often the tours they sell are really run by Dark Rome.)

There are Friday evening visits to the Vatican Museums, without paying for an expensive private tour, available in the summer. Last year it was from some time in May to some time in September. I don't think the dates have been announced for this year, but I assume they'll be doing it again. For those who will be in Rome when they're available, it's a great way to see the Vatican Museums without the crowds. They are only available as reserved visits, and I hope they're planning to keep the numbers limited, otherwise the crowds will begin to ruin those visits as well. It's not necessary to take a tour to reserve a Friday night visit. You can reserve them on the http://mv.vatican.va site for the same price as a regular visit.

Thanks everyone. I booked with Context for the Vatican/Sistine Chapel/St. Peter's. I decided on Context for the Colosseum and Forum, too, but that tour is not confirmed, as there are not yet enough people. It will be 50/50 whether I get to tour that site with Context or not. Context was a nice compromise as they take a small group of no more than 6. As a solo traveler, a private guide would be a bit much. Plus, it is nice to tour with a few other people every now and then.

Rostra, thanks for your great resource! I'll definitely read through it. I've been watching some documentaries on Roman history and raided my library for some good history books, too.

Viator is a reseller of tours that are actually operated by other companies. Unless you know who will actually be giving the tour, which they don't ever tell you, you can't get any useful information about its quality. I know that in Rome they often are selling Dark Rome tours. Sometimes you can figure out who the actual tour operator is by googling some of the text in the blurb to see if the identical words pop up with a tour company.

<<<and raided my library for some good history books, too.>>>

The main objective of the 19-20C excavator/archaeologists was to get down and expose to the Julius Caesar/Augustus Level (48BC-14AD) of the Roman Forum mainly because that was when most of the ruins we see today were built or already in existence although many were later rebuilt.

Plus this was the coolest part of Rome's history was from Julius Caesar onwards to the end of the 1C IMO and it's this period most people know about and those Emperors esp like Caligula, Nero, Tiberius, Claudius who ruled then.

So to cover this period I think the best book to read is Suetonius' Lives of the (12) Caesars which is translated online here;
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/...sars/home.html

This period also would cover Vespasian's Colosseum his son Titus (ruled 2 yrs) and then his brother Domitian whose massive palace remains are the biggie of the Palatine Hill.

Translated ancient texts can be a tough read but historian Michael Grant wrote "The Lives of the Caesars" which is Suetonius 'Caesars' written in modern day language (novel form) with his expert take on 'what was really what'.

Of course the 2ndC is also good to know about (emperors & sites) like Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus but in the 3rdC the Empire goes off the rails starting with Caracalla with a couple dozen emperors and wanta-be emperors which I think only 2 died of natural causes.

We did the Walks of Italy VIP tour of the Colosseum and Forum. It was really nice. We did the morning tour and the place wasn't very crowded (it was late August). Our guide was great, although his name escapes me at the moment.

I reserved a private version of the Pristine Sistine thinking that it would be good to have our own guide since our kid was barely 7 at the time. Somehow they missed that request and did a terrible job matching us with a guide. We got someone who was incredibly knowledgeable, but incapable of connecting with our daughter. In fact he didn't seem to realize we were hoping he would. It was a complete waste. Thankfully, after complaining they refunded the difference between the private and group tour.

In the end, I found them a great company to work with. I am still annoyed we got such a bad match at the Vatican, but the Colosseum tour was great.

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