I have read so many posts and kind of feel like I have a wealth of scattered information. Being a history major and a high school world history teacher (rome being my favorite subject) I am beyond excited about me and my husbands first trip to Italy.
We are going to Rome and Florence. We are in our mid-20's and have lots of energy so I am def. interested in walking tours.

In Rome: I want to do an Ancient Ruins tour. Any suggestions on a company??? Also in Rome I want to do a Vatican Tour... now I know you can fax a request to the vatican for private tours. Is this worth it? Or should I book a tour with an outside company??

In Florence: We booked the winery and cooking class with Accidental Tourist. I saw another post about the "Walking Tours of Florence" I also heard there is a quite a line to see the David. Is there a tour that covers this, without the wait? I am also interested in the hills and roads tour, but not sure what each place has to offer. Any suggestions would be so helpful!!!

Check out Context Tours for both ROme and Florence.

i did both tours. i have review of them in my trip review above. i used context rome for the ancient rome tour and vatican tours inc for the vatican tour. vatican tours was my favorite because it was a private tour and only a little more expensive than context romes mixed group. both were very good tours.

btw , we are mid 20s as well. i'm 25 and my husband is 28!

you can skip the whole line into the museum by paying i think 3 euro more and reserving tickets ahead of time. that's what we did! 3 minutes for our "time slot" 2 minute walk to david....voila!

We did a private tour of Tuscanny and liked the guy (Luigi) so much we hired him to show us Pisa and then another day to drive us from Florence to Rome. He was the best driver/guide we have ever had. He was so knowledgeable it was unbelievable. He knew where to take us and when to just let us wander and when to show us around. He was perfect. See my review at http://www.bombasticlife.com/people

When I go back again, I'll be calling Luigi!!!!

For tours in Rome and Florence, you can check out Context Rome or Through Eternity. Also, see if you can get reservations for the Scavi tour. That was definitely a highlight of our trip to Rome. Do a search and you'll come with lots of information on that.

To see David, defintely get reservations ahead of time. We were so glad we did when we saw the serpentine queue outside when we arrived.

We used Prestotours.com. Great AncientRome/Colosseum tour and a great Vatican Tour. They have 15 person limit on groups unlike most companies with like 40. we also did some private tours around the center with them. Loved it!

jan, we really liked ICON for our Ancient Rome tour.

Check out Mirabilia Urbis Tours at
www.rome-tours.com. We saw the Roman Forum and Colosseum with Daniella Hunt, who is terrific. Also highly recommend ContextRome tour of the Vatican museums and St. Peter's.
Don't know if it is in your itinerary, but Galleria Borghese is wonderful. You can do this on your own but definitely need reservations. As others have suggested, get reservations for the Accademia (David), and Uffizi, if you plan to go there. The Bargello is another great museum in Florence.

Thanks for your help, I liked the context tour idea for ancient Rome... I am still up in the air about the vatican! I did submit a request for the Scavi. Thanks for advice!

If I visit the Vatican Museums they say you can fax a request for a tour. How long does it usually take for them to confirm a tour time/date. I am trying to figure out how to avoid scheduling conficts with other tours?

www.romeinlimo.com
Highly recommended

For a tour of the ancient Etruscan ruins outside of Rome, I can highly recommend Stefano of Rome Cabs.

http://www.utenti.lycos.it/romecabs/

Regarding the David reservation - we just had our hotel arrange it it is no big deal to do so and we walked right in. it was not a tour we arranged but a reservation. also have you thought about where you are going to stay? I would reccomend looking into apartments and there are several companies mentioned on this site for Italy.

Those of you that booked a reservation for the Accademia (David) ahead of time, how did you go about doing that? I tried looking at the Accademia website, but unfortunately I can't read Italian??

We used ContextRome for our Vatican Museum tour...loved every minute and highly recommend this tour! I had been through the Vatican museums 3 prior visits but nothing compared to the info I garnered through ContextRome. Happy travels!

I just returned from Florence, where I participated in the Accidental Tourist wine tour/cooking class. This was such fun! I was one of a congenial group of seven. We enjoyed generous samples of three reds, Tuscan bread with olive oil and salt, and biscotti with Vin Santo. Then on to the cooking class: we made pasta from scratch, turning it into fettucini, tortelloni, and ravioli, then went upstairs and enjoyed a delicious, hearty lunch of our pasta plus pizza, artichoke frittata, and bruschetti with unlimited Chianti. Fresh strawberry gelato followed by Grappa. Hungry? The scenery and photo ops are breathtaking! All that for only 85E. Bellissimo!