Very disappointing experience. We were given confusing instructions to identify our Vatican tour…read morerepresentative -- first a pink shirt, then green, then white. Because of this confusion, we lost our group and could not find them again. As a result, we also lost the guided access to St. Peter's Basilica and had to enter separately and wait in the regular public line. Poor organization for a paid Vatican tour.

Monica was simply the best guide you could hope to have. A dynamo of energy, knowledge and fun. Our…read moretour of the Vatican was flawless.

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.

Alessandro is a fantastic guide! So knowledgeable and fun. I can't recommend him and and this tour…read morecompany enough for a hypogeum tour of the Colosseum.

I wish I could give a lower score than 1. I am. Not sure why the gave such positive reviews. The…read moreliteral only thing we wanted to do in Rome was a tour we booked with this company. I booked it 8 months ago and they changed it to a non acceptable excursion one week before. They claimed that they had no control but not sure why they couldn't have figured it out months ago that they overbooked, maybe I could have figured out another excursion to do but now with one week to find something, of course it is impossible.

This tour was a big waste of money. They don't have enough buses, so each stop takes a long time to…read moreload/unload, and if you aren't lucky enough to get a seat up top then you're stuck I. The stuffy non-air conditioned bottom. The stops are very far apart. We waited nearly half an hour for a bus and counted 4 of a competitor service ("Big Bus") go by. In the end we just walked. Also the kids had trouble getting the audio commentary to work--some of the audio jacks might need maintenance. Your mileage may vary. Oh yeah, and now we have some e-waste cheap ear buds to get rid of. We saw more than one pair on the ground during our walks.

The Pink Bus (Grey Line) was a great way to explore Rome! You can pre-purchase your tickets online…read morebut you can also purchase tickets at any bus stop, from one of their agents. Note that the ticket prices were actually cheaper if purchased by these agents! No need to pre-purchase! ** If you do pre-purchase your bus tickets online, you can get a full refund if you cancel at least 24 hrs ahead. We actually purchased one day passes online, but opted to request a refund; in lieu, purchasing 2 day passes from an agent at the bus stop for the same price as the one day tkt! Tip: stay on the bus for a full loop to get a preview of all the stops. Then, decide which stops you'd like to get off to explore more in depth.

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 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!

Chiara was our guide in Vatican City. We climbed the cathedral dome, went through some of the…read moreVaticombs and then went to the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. I appreciated the depth of her knowledge especially in art history. I found it true in this and other tours in Rome, that our guides were not just college kids needing a side job to make money or expats looking for something to keep them busy. These people have spent years studying and have a true passion for the things they are telling us about.

We went on the Entire Vatican & Vatacombs: Treasures of the Sistine Chapel Tour. Our tour guide…read morewas really great and made the most of what there was. Basically this was two and a half hour moving line to see the Sistine Chapel. She did her best to provide really excellent narration but it was still a bumper to bumper crowdathon. I understand the Sistine Chapel and St Peter's Basilica are a Rome must and this is probably the best way to see them but it is still a huge wait for 10 minutes and no pictures.

A must do in Rome. Highly recommend the guided tour. There is so much history that unless you…read moreknow it yourself, you'll miss out on a lot of the details and what made the paintings and sculptures so important to what you see today. The Vatican museum and St Peter's is huge. I was not expecting the size of it. The tour took around 4 hours with lots of steps up and down and around. If you have half a day, go see it.

Meh. They got a room full of rugs and a room full of maps and a few rooms full of stuff they stole…read morefrom Egypt. the Sistine Chapel smells like sweaty retirees. take it or leave it.

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!!!!