there are so many tour guides for Rome, I just don't know which to choose.
is there a tremendous difference between a privat tour and a group tour?

The large group tours are generally least common denominator- fine if you don;t know much already and want to learn the basics. And they're cheap for 1 or 2 people.

Private tours - either really private or a very small group - are MUCH more expensive - and are better if you already know the basics or really want an in-depth experience.

(I long ago learned the first are a waste of my time - they are typically no more than you find in a decent guide book. The latter can be wonderful, so we do them sometimes - walking tour of Old Town Prague for instance, where they are fairly reasonable. But I cant wrap my mind around hundreds of dollars for a guided tour when I can do most of it myself with a little work. Caveat: my degree is in european history so I have a leg up on many.)

You do not really need a human guide. Check out my website and you will find lots of free information on what to see and how to get around. Be sure to look at the google maps on the site.

www.passagetoroma.com

In addition, we are finalizing our latest tour video, so you can watch the first 4 draft itineraries on Vimeo (once again free). You'll need high speed internet to watch them as these are massive files (about 1 gigabye each). Best way to watch is to press the Play button, then immediately press PAUSE. Wait a few minutes for Vimeo to download enough of the video to you computer so it doesn't stutter or keep stopping.

Here is the Vimeo website link

http://www.vimeo.com/user2049789/videos/sort:alphabetic

Vimeo is kind of like YouTube, but they only do HD videos.

dave

I can recommend Rome Walks for tour of the Vatican Museums/ St. Peters and Coliseum/Forum. We took both of these tours with a small group (may have been 8-10 people) in Rome and it was wonderful.

Most sites have audio guides you can rent if you don't want to do a tour or they offer their own tours. You can also download tours to your IPod (Rick Steves has several free on ITunes)or MP3 from various websites.

I love small guided tours (I recommend Context Rome) which limit the groups to 6 (or maybe its 8) people - guides are usually grad/doc students, well-informed and entertaining, and you have lots of opportunities to ask questions. Not sure what your budget is, they usually run 50-80 Euro. I got so much more out of my experience than I would have going with a tour book or audio guide.

context tours was great! especially thru the vatican. they were not able to do 2 of my requested tours because their numers are minimum of 3 max 6.... having a backup is a good idea. they didnt notify me until after i was in italy.
i wouldnt want to be one of 25 walking around with an earphone and a large bright orange umrealla leading me.

in some places the audio guide was great like the pantheon or the borghese galleries

I'm sure Context Rome has great tours - but I can;t see paying more than $400 for an afternoon for 4 people - when there are other options. (Perhaps my POV is colored by the few poor tours I've been on - when the guide was imparting wrong info - and refused to answer a couple of questions I had - I suspect he didn;t know the answer.)

thank you so much for all your help- so I have to do some homework now and really check out the different scenarios
any and all other suggestions are very welcome
hav any of you stayed in Cinque terre?

We did context tours for the Roman Forum and Coliseum. It was excellent. Ask for Patrizia. They only allow 6 people max. Also, we did the Vatican. It was very good but our guide had a stong accent and it was intense listening. I still thought the guides were worth it. It added much to the experience.

You should check out Daniella Hunt at www.rome-tours.com.
We did a great tour with her of the Roman Forum and Colosseum.
We also used Context Rome for the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's and greatly enjoyed their tour. Both were extremely informative.

If you really want an series of amazing tours, I highly recommend Dr. Christopher Longhurst, who runs Sacra Sorgente tours. He has been a docent at the Vatican Museums for over a dozen years.

If you are looking for a guide for St. Peter's, I also strongly suggest Dr. Longhurst. He earned his Doctorate in Sacred Theology at the Pontifical Angelicum, has degrees in Art History, philosophy and law. More important, he is an AMAZING storyteller. Here is his website...

http://sacrasorgente.wordpress.com/

You can also contact him by email at:

[email protected]

dave

ttt

This is great! Very helpful, as we leave for Rome in about 5 weeks, and I still haven't decided who to book with!

We also loved Context Tours and thought they were worth every penny. My husband, an avid runner, did a jogging tour of Rome that he thought was fantastic. Our family did a guided tour of the Borghese Gallery which was perfect for us - the guide was knowledgeable, friendly and kept our then 9 year old interested the entire tour.

My experiences with the big tours (think large crowd following a guide with an umbrella) have not been great. I find it hard to hear the guide in such a large group and unless you are in the front of the crowd you may miss much of the narrative. The Context Tours we took (we also did one in Venice) were much more our speed. Because it was just the 3 of us we didn't miss anything and could really engage the guide in subjects that interested us. We could also tailor the tour to our interests and pace. We wish we had done more Context Tours on that trip and will definitely do them again whenever we return to Europe.

I also recommend Context. We took a tour with them and were pleased-small group. We also toured the Vatican Museum with their predecessor company and were very happy with the depth of the tour.

Pat

My sister recently returned from Rome and is still talking about the wonderful tours she had with Jason and Walks of Italy. The evening twilight tour was a special highlight of their day.

Jason gave her small group of friends extra attention and even helped them get a restaurant table for dinner and translated the menus for them.

Yeah...got lots of info our our future trip....love it. thx

I agree with Royal, Jason Spiehler s team at Walks of Italy was very helpful with me and my wife's recent trip to Italy. Their guides paid special attention to the small group (8 of us) on our early morning Sistine Chapel tour, and on our evening twilight tour as well. We booked through their website at http://www.walksofitaly.com and they had small groups and private tours available almost every day.
Taking tours in Italy was the best decision we made, because a lot of people told us that seeing everything on our own was just as good, but I disagree. There are so many things that you would miss, especially in the important areas like the vatican and in the historical center, that the guides point out and explain that makes "taking it all in" so much more of a special experience.

Thanks so much, spiceolife for your info on walksofitaly. Just booked our tour of Vatican with them in May. I had been thinking of a group tour, but when I saw your post with the link it seemed so much better-a little pricier, but I'm sure worth it. I like the fact that you get into the Chapel an hour before all the other groups.Last time we were in Rome was 2005 when the Pope died and there was no access to the Sistine Chapel so we are really looking forward to it this time. Very timely post for my planning-thanks again!

BZtravel, it's been many years since I was in Rome but we enjoyed the American Express tours of the Vatican, ruins, and other churches/catacombs. Guides were most knowledgeable. Office was located on the right at the bottom of the Spanish Steps.