Nico crushed it for us on our custom private tour! My teens first time in Rome with a 9:30 am…read moredeparture and he made it lively and interesting for all. 10/10!

We booked our 1/2 day golf cart private tour a few weeks before our arrival in Rome…read more It far exceeded our expectations. It made touring SO fun for our kids and allowed us to skip over the things we'd already done and focus on new and different sites. Giorgia was our guide, and we immediately fell in love with her. She was on time and at our hotel for pickup, she asked what we wanted to see and if there was anything we'd already done. She gave great suggestions and off we went! We were able to see so much so quickly and Georgia shared stories and history along the way. When the tour was done, we asked to be dropped off not at our hotel, but someplace further away. Giorgia shared with us her absolute favorite place for lunch and dropped us there at our request - it was perfect and such a good use of our time in Rome. It was my third visit to the city and I still found so many. new and interesting areas thanks to Giorgia and Rolling Rome.

AMAZING tour experience!…read more We had a private 4-hour golf cart tour (highlights of all major attractions) which allowed us to see so many special places all over the city and from vantage points we would never have found on our own. Plus the golf cart was just fun whipping down random cobblestone streets and through crowds of people. It was a really special experience for us, and our tour guide was superb; very jocular and down to earth. As part of the tour our guide also got us into the pantheon for free and showed us around one of the local churches which had unique graphic illusions (as well as some creepy skulls/skeletons incorporated into the religious artwork). One of my favorite parts of the tour was stopping to check out Giardino degli Aranci (orange grove public square overlooking the city at night). Highly recommended.

AWESOME in every way! Our driver Matteo was absolutely…read morefantastic. Personable and knowledgeable, he was like an extension of our family, not just a tour guide. Do you want to see a lot of Rome in a short time? This is the way to do it!

We had an amazing tour with Maria Claudia through the Vatican City in July! She was so…read moreinformative, pleasant, and a real trooper guiding us in 100 degree weather! She was also very thorough and accommodating. We even watched her swoop up an injured bird in her hands to rescue it from getting trampled by tourists. Overall, an unforgettable day! Later the same day we did a Coliseum and Ancient City tour with Gabriella, who gave the same awesome informative type tour, and did it with a fab attitude in the humid heat. Overall, I would say this is a great company!

I booked a Colosseum guided tour through LivTours for my family during a long planned trip to Rome,…read moremeant to celebrate my son's graduation from Lehigh University and my daughter's high school graduation. Instead of a memory to celebrate, we left with one none of us will forget for the wrong reasons. LivTours guides do not give guests individual paper tickets. The guide holds all admission on an electronic ticket and hands each guest a small sticker as the only proof of entry. On an extremely hot day, my sticker came loose. Our guide walked ahead with two other guests to the bookshop and, by her own account, only glanced back and saw our group heading toward the exit. She never confirmed we actually made it out and never checked that each of us still had proof of admission. When I reached the exit checkpoint, staff asked for my ticket. I had none, because LivTours never gave me one. I was told it was illegal to be in that area without a valid ticket, pulled aside, and questioned. The police were called. I stood there while my wife and children watched and had to step in to try to help me. My wife eventually pulled up our purchase receipt on her phone, and that is the only reason I was allowed to leave. LivTours admitted in writing that the guide saw our group heading toward the exit and left without confirming we made it out. She did not secure our exit. She did not check that everyone in the group actually cleared the checkpoint before she walked off with two other guests to the bookshop. Making sure a group actually exits a controlled site, not just watching them walk in that general direction, is a basic responsibility of a tour guide, especially one holding the only ticket that gives that group the right to be there in the first place. As an African American man in a foreign country, being publicly stopped, questioned, and detained by police in front of my family was humiliating in a way that is hard to put into words. This was supposed to be a trip celebrating my children's accomplishments. Instead they watched their father get pulled aside like a criminal because a tour guide walked away without making sure we had what we needed to leave. A LivTours representative called me shortly after and told me directly that a refund would be issued. Weeks later, after I put the complaint in writing, LivTours reversed course completely. They now claim the tour was "completed as planned" and that the incident was outside their control. Their own emails contradict that. They admit their guide saw us walking toward the exit and left without confirming we got out safely. They admit they do not provide physical tickets to guests. Those two facts together are exactly why this happened, and it happened because of how LivTours operates, not because of anything my family did. I would not recommend LivTours for any tour requiring facility exit past a checkpoint. Ask directly whether you will receive an individual physical ticket before you book, and get it in writing. Reggie

We booked an early morning Vatican tour with What a Life Tours for our trip to Rome last month, and…read moreit was an A+ way to explore the world's smallest country. We could've visited on our own, as many obviously do, but it was great to have a skilled guide to put all that marble and history in context. We'd already paid to come to Rome and set aside a morning to see Vatican City. The added value we got out of the tour far outweighed the incremental expense. I found the tour on Get Your Guide, where it was highly rated with thousands of reviews, and I liked that it was a small group situation, with a maximum of ten participants. We received strict instructions to arrive before 7:45 at the What a Life office, within walking distance of the Vatican. We checked in and got assigned to our tour group, with an amazing guide named Giulia. She set us up with audio devices that let us hear her through our earphones even when she was just whispering--a cool bit of tech I'd never encountered before, but saw again twice more before leaving Italy. We arrived in time to enter the Vatican Museums right at 8:00, the start of visiting hours. Our tickets allowed us to skip the line, which was nice in mid-November, but no doubt doubly nice during peak season. Giulia was fantastic, so smart and informative and funny. She knew how to corral us, and I got the sense that she could work very easily under much worse conditions. She let us know how lucky we were to see the Vatican on such a quiet morning. There were plenty of people, but the crowd was apparently nothing compared to the crush of summer or early fall. The Vatican is so grand it was almost overwhelming, and it was extremely helpful to have a guide to keep us oriented. She gave us so much insight into what we were seeing, pointing out the highlights and offering a running commentary with a dry wit that was all Giulia. In the Gallery of Maps in the Vatican Museums, she showed my husband where he could find the village his family came from, painted on a 16th-century Fresco. She also prepared us well for the Sistine Chapel, where visitors are not allowed to talk, using down moments to tell us about the chapel and its artwork, with the aid of a well labeled print-out. The tour was three hours long and encompassed the museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. We could've spent several more hours in the museums alone, but we saw a lot, moving at a pretty brisk pace. The tour was very well calibrated. I can't think of a single thing I would have changed. I thought about booking our Colosseum tour through What a Life (would've saved me a review) but saw that the one they offered had very few ratings, compared to the thousands they had for the Vatican. I'm curious what their other tours are like, and have more confidence in the company overall after going on this one. If you're visiting the Vatican, in any case, What a Life Tours is a top notch provider. We saw and learned so much in those three hours, and had a truly wonderful time.

We did the early entry (7:45 am) tour with Jeannette. She was amazing. Her knowledge was expansive…read moreand being an art historian made it even more amazing. She not only covered the immense history of the Vatican, but her knowledge of the artists and their works was very helpful. I would not hesitate to recommend her and thus company. It was limited to a group of ten made it so easy to stay together and not lose anyone.

Do not book this tour! The tour guide was Andrea and she was rude, they separated our group and she…read morewas not willing to answer. She told me to stop talking as I was talking about the rest of our group. They told us tour was at 9:45 and it didn't start until 10:45 am. The tour guide also wasn't explaining much and wasn't tech savvy. Took forever to even get our tickets on her phone. She got mad I was trying o take a photo and told me I could come back later but she stopped to answer a personal phone call. Book through someone else!

Only tour in my life where we had to look up Wikipedia DURING the tour…read more My Italian friend recommended this agency because we are Catholic, coming for the Jubilee and wanted a religion-centered tour - Jubilee/Early Christianity. The other people on our tour were also devout Catholic. I believe the tour was done by Maria Lazara. We do not know her name because she did not bother to introduce herself, nor did she ask our names (aside from checking our family name off). We met at the statue and then without any introduction to our tour, nor introduction to the St John of Laterna Church, she marched off in front of us to the Church's portico. It was a bad start. That's the main complaint: she gave no introduction to the tour or any site, she gave no church or historic context on how things came to be or how they evolved. She gave no Catholic perspective. A tour guide needs to be a storyteller! And I expected a guide well-versed in church history, both religious and urban! Instead, it was a bunch of random historic facts. She primarily spent her time pointing out symbolism in the paintings and mosaics. Clearly, she majored in art history, and the history of Christianity was a boring sideline to her. She liked pointing out that Laterna was populated early, while most of Rome was countryside - but why? How did that change? Where did Catholics live and why did they move? Why were these churches chosen for their Holy Doors? Why only 4 doors? She told us the Laterna Holy Door was an original bronze and a couple more facts and then we marched through as it were nothing. Nothing about why it is special that they are open, how Catholics view this moment, etc. IT IS SPECIAL. In speaking about the Jubilee, the only thing she said was that the Pope first started it once every 100 years, and since the Roman townspeople made money on tourism from the incoming pilgrims, they moved it to every 33 years or when they wanted. That's it - Jubilees were about making tourism dollars. End of her story. None of our group of 3 heard that the Sacred Steps were brought from Jerusalem and why, and where they were placed originally. All she did was say "it is not a hard job to move stairs." THEY ARE SPECIAL. She just said: you can up if you want, I'll wait here on my phone. Again, her specialty seemed to be art history not Catholic traditions or history, and 75% of the time, she spoke about symbolism. The blue and yellow of Mary, the keys of St. Peter. That's fine but there was no narrative, no church history. The tour ended exactly at 12 p.m. Clearly, she was glad to be out of there. Another note - yes, her English vocabulary was good, but she spoke sing-song Italian style and it was hard to follow her. She does not have the cadence of an English speaker. Very disappointed in Eternity Tours' guide. Aside: I really enjoyed Eternity Tours newsletter mailings.

We did the Rome in a Day Tour with Vatican, Colosseum & Historic Center with Walks and it was…read morephenomenal. With an early start we were able to see several of the key sites including the colosseum and Vatican City. Our guides were amazing and so knowledgeable.

I booked a tour for our family with Walks of Italy (also called "Walks & Devour Tours") for the…read morePrivate VIP Colosseum Tour with Roman Forum & Palatine Hill. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!!! First of all, we booked our tour for four people months in advance, and reserved an 8:30am slot (as the morning is the best time for this tour in late May, as Rome gets hot fast). A few months later, I was informed that our start time had been moved to 10:00am, with no options to rebook at a different time for the days we would be in Rome (5 days in late May 2026). We received instructions on where and when to meet our guide, for this small group (basically, our family) VIP tour. On the day of the tour, we arrived early at the designated location, but our guide was not there. An employee at a nearby cafe insisted that "the tour groups meet down those steps" and pointed to the pathway to the entrance of the Colosseum. We went down the steps and looked around but could not find our guide. When we returned to the designated area (still before the 10am start time), a guide from another company told us our guide had been there but had left a few minutes prior. We went looking for the guide "with the green WALKS sign" but could not find him/her. I tried calling the customer assistance number provided in the email but was put on eternal hold. More than an hour later I was finally able to speak to a customer service representative, who said "because you missed your guide, there is nothing I can do for you" (or words to that effect. Because our guide had our tickets/passes to get into the Colosseum and Palatine Hill, we had no way to even visit the Roman Forum. I logged into the government-run website to see if there was any way we could purchase scheduled-entry tickets for the Colosseum sometime later when we were still in Rome, and the only tickets were for late on our last afternoon, when we had already scheduled a "Small Group VIP Tour of the Vatican Museums" with Walks & Devour. I purchased these tickets, knowing that we could end up having another Walks & Devour Guide disappear/no-show leaving us to miss pretty much everything we had come to Rome to see. When I tried to cancel our VIP Vatican Museum Tour, I was told that we had already passed the refund window. When I explained what had happened, the customer service rep said there was nothing she could do. DO NOT BOOK ANY TOURS WITH WALKS & DEVOUR!!!!

I have several friends that have used Max and his company over the last 10 years. Everyone of them…read moretold me that if you are ever Italy you need to hire him. I can say that Max lived up to the hype and we really enjoyed spending three days with his company. We did the typical sites in Roma and Max also took us to Pompei and Sorrento. We would never been able to see all the places we did without hiring Max and I think we spent about 10 minutes total over three days waiting in line. Typical tourists wait hours just trying to get into the Vatican or the Colosseum. If your time is valuable and you want to truly enjoy Roma and Italy without all the headaches than pay a little extra get the best guide company I have ever had the pleasure of using.

There are only a hand full of events in a lifetime that truly mark your soul. The two days we…read morespent with Max were one of those moments. His knowledge of Rome, it's layers of history, and Max's kindness made for a truly memorable visit. Max had an ability to make us feel like we were the only people in the city and that we were truly "friends not customers". He ensured we felt welcome at every location we visited, while ensuring we understood and appreciated the depth of historical significance the relics and monuments we visited held. The only bad part of Max's tour was the end, when we had to say good-bye to a true scholar of Rome and a genuine man. It would be a mistake not to let Max introduce you to Rome! Don and Sara

Our family of four joined another six people on the Testaccio 15-year anniversary tour and lucked…read moreout with Edma as our guide - not shown on their web site, so don't know how we got her. She was instantly personable, funny, thoughtful, and energetic without being nutty. We had a great first stop that ended up being a restaurant (Masto) we were delighted to return to later in the week and the owner happened to be there and we had a wonderful time with her again, and enjoyed the dinner just as we had the tasting. The stops were great, the walking easy, the food good, and Edma was a fountain of local geography and food culture information. We all felt like we got great value and were happy with the experience!

Took the twilight food walking tour through the Jewish"Ghetto" with Fabio. He was knowledgeable,…read morefriendly, funny and all around great! We visited about 6 different places and tried so many foods - I did not expect to be THIS FULL!! Personal faves included the pork stew, the SUPPLI, and the fried artichoke. Loved the tour, the history, and the experience. Will definitely check out an Eating Europe tour again in the future!