Does anyone know the status of the new Underground tours at the Colosseum in Rome? I have tried several websites and even signed up for some sort of email list from a tour company, which said the tours had been suspended with the future of these tours unknown. We'll be there in early May and are really hoping we can take this new tour.

They're off - until they're back on!

But here announcements such as their restart are never just released willynilly... they're either saved up for an important occasion (such as the big tourism fair that's on in Milan at present), or hoarded until about 48 hours before the event!

Not impossibly also they've to see if there'll be any problems with the renovation work that's due soon - while it's expected not to affect ordinary visits, who knows... they may have to buy hard hats and issue them to those going up to the top level?

All I can advise is to not automatically assume that no news necessarily means bad news!

Peter

Thanks, Peter. Where do you advise as to the best way to check? A website?

elnap - We're hiring a guide for a tour of ancient Rome at the end of May, so I asked her to check if the underground will be open (we may include it in our tour).

She called the Colosseum and believes the hypogeum will reopen in April, but as Peter said, nothing has been announced yet. She offered to call every couple of weeks, and promised to update me. I will certainly post as soon as she tells me something definite.

Fingers crossed!

I read the "Please note" here
http://www.060608.it/en/cultura-e-sv...ro-flavio.html
as saying that they're thinking about it, trying to find the budget and the staff for it.

It's probably also the first place the tours will be announced when they resume. The English announcement often lags behind the Italian one, so check both versions.

Abeneded we will also be in Rome the mid of May, I'd love the contact info for your guide if you wouldn't mind as we are planning a nice tour too.

Thank you, Zerlina and abenedek.

When we went to Italy in November/December it closed hours before our flight landed....next time.

If you go to the website www.tickitaly.com and click on Rome tours on the left side, you will see "Colosseum dungeons". From there, they explain that it has not yet been decided the opening dates but if you leave your email address, they will notify you when it will be. We're trying to go there in May, so hopefully it will be open by then.

@elnap - I don't mean to hijack your post, but I want to reply to stormy's question. I've only been posting a couple months (stalking for many more), so I'm not sure of the "proper" way to do so since we don't have the option to send private messages

@stormygirl - The guide we're using is Alessandra Mazzoccoli. Her email is: [email protected] and you can view her blog here: www.romeandabout.com

I had first emailed Francesca Caruso, because she was so highly recommended everywhere I looked. Unfortunately, she was unavailable, but she gave me a short list of others she recommended.

Also, see this post for a good source of guides in Italy:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...aster-list.cfm

For me, some guides I emailed were really responsive and helpful, but a bit too expensive for only 2 of us (65 - 80 euros per hour). Alessandra was equally, if not more, quick to reply, and she responded to my many questions thoroughly. Also, the few reviews I found for her (on this site and others) were all positive. So I felt like she's a bargain at 50 euros per hour.

You're welcome to join our tour if you'll be in Rome May 28th

I was really excited when I read about this last year but was sad to see it was for a limited time. We're going in 3 wks and would love to be able to see all parts of the Colosseum. I guess we'll have to settle for the rick steve's podcast

Good Luck! Hope you get the tour.
Here are a couple of articles that might interest you.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/histor...Colosseum.html www.archaeology.org/gladiators/arena.html
And a Commodus (of Gladiator movie fame site at the Colosseum you can see http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...2&tid=34607408
ARTICLE URL & THREAD RE; FLOODING THE COLOSSEUM
http://tinyurl.com/4qftd58
Regards, Walter

Walter,
In a very short time I am learning that you are quite a treasure full of incredible knowledge and useful information. Grazie mille!!!

abendeck thanks for the info! We'll actually be in Rome earlier than you- May 19-22!

http://prestotours.com/2010/blog/

not sure how reliable the information is but was glad to see that it could possibly be reopened in time for our arrival. i'm going to reserve it today but hopefully someone else has luck too.

Did you call the phone number? Let us know how it works out. We are really hoping the tours will be available for us in May but have not tried that international call yet.

In case you haven't heard, the underground tours have started again! Here's a link to another post with the website and more info:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-colosseum.cfm

This morning I received an email from tickitaly that they are taking requests for reservations through the month of June online. Go to www.tickitaly.com. Their price is 27.50E. We just made a request for our dates the end of April. They emphasis that it is only a "request" and they will get back to us in a few days to let us know if we were able to get the tickets.

Why pay Tickitaly 27.50 Euro for something that costs 9 Euro with Pierreci? Using Pierreci requires a phone call (which is not going to cost anything close to 18.50 Euro), and they are only taking bookings about 60 days ahead.

The Tikitaly price of 27.50 Euro also includes the combo admission ticket to the Colosseum, Forum, and Palatine Hill. Sorry, I forgot to mention that.