My mother, brother, and I were in Rome for 4 days and booked a private driving tour of Rome with…read moreEasitalty Tours. Our driver, Antonello, was absolutely amazing and I highly recommend him if you are thinking about this type of tour. He was so personable, had a lot of great knowledge to share, and fit in all the sights we wanted to see in the 5-hour tour. He knew the places to get out and take pictures and he made the experience in Rome a great one! Julia was our private tour guide at the Vatican. She was absolutely wonderful. She was so animated and shared with us the rooms and pieces she felt were the most important to see with only one day to explore the Vatican. We had such a wonderful time with her. She is one tour guide I will not forget! If you want an above-and-beyond experience at the Vatican, book with Easitalytours and request Julia. You will not be disappointed! This is the best Tour company out there. They are reasonably priced and the tour guides are absolutely top-notch!

If you are looking for THE BEST tour in Rome, no need to look any further…read more We've been to Rome many times, but the experience we had with Max and the Easitaly team has been amazing. We spent two days touring with Max, the best guide in Italy!!! We discovered Rome from the view of a a real native roman, had the opportunity to taste the best and most authentic roman delicacies... what a great company! We love you guys!!! See you next time in Roma!

How can I even begin to thank ITER tours!? Our trip to Ponza and Palmerola was nothing short of…read moreincredible! Initially we had been cancelled on by a different company on Viator and ITER tours saved The day and the trip! They made this once in a life time adventure so easy and accommodating. The trip to Ponza was very fun and comfortable on the fast ferry over from port de Anzio and the excursion boat was such a blast! Our guide was incredibly knowledgable about Rome and the islands and was super fun and interesting. We had spent so much time in the city during our ten day trip and I can honestly say that ITER tours tour to Ponza and Palmerola was one of my most treasured memories from the whole trip. Take this trip and use this company you will not be disappointed!

If you like learning about the 'darker' side of the history of a city, then you will enjoy the…read morecriminal history tour in Rome. Michele was my tour guide and he was very knowledgeable and I learned quite a bit. Not to mention, this is a walking tour so you get to see some of the major sites of Rome.

The Colosseum is one of those rare places that somehow lives up to the hype…read more The exterior alone is breathtaking, but once inside, it's hard to fully comprehend the scale, history, and engineering of what you're looking at. Walking through the structure and surrounding grounds, I found myself imagining what it must have been like nearly 2,000 years ago. Thousands of spectators filling the stands, roaring crowds, and gladiators stepping into the arena knowing they were the main event. What fascinated me most was learning that the arena was even flooded for certain spectacles. It's incredible to think about the level of ambition and ingenuity involved in creating entertainment on that scale so long ago. I also enjoyed spending time exploring the areas around the Colosseum, which are beautiful in their own right and filled with layers of history. This isn't a place to rush through. Give yourself several hours, take your time, and let your imagination do some of the work. A must-see when visiting Rome and one of the most memorable historical sites I've ever experienced.

I've always loved reading about Roman history, so finally seeing the Colosseum in person this…read moreOctober was incredible. Even in the "off season," it was busy, which shows how high up the list it is for any visitor. Walking through the structure and looking down into the arena from above, I could really picture the energy of the crowds and the events that once took place there. The Colosseum is huge, up to 50,000 people once packed inside, and it was used for all sorts of public spectacles, not just gladiator fights. I'd recommend taking a guided tour if you can; it helps skip the ticket line and gives context that really adds to the experience. Also, make sure to explore the area around it--the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill are right next door and worth the time. If you're in Rome and even a little curious about history, the Colosseum is absolutely worth seeing. It really brings ancient Rome to life.

Enjoyed the Pompeii and Sorrento tour with Paola and Teo. The bus ride was engaging as Paola shared…read moreinteresting details. In Sorrento, we visited a lemonchello factory and explored the city. Pompeii's tour guide was entertaining. The trip was memorable and fun. I definitely recommend City Wonders.

Fabio is an amazing tour guide. Did the Special Visit by Evening: Colosseum Tour with Roman Forum…read moreand Optional Arena Floor tour. He was so knowledgeable and kind!

My wife, mother-in-law and I used this company. We were running about 3 minutes late, even though…read morethe messaging we received was very clear to be early. My mother-in-law is elderly and getting around with her took more time than expected. Still, we arrived at the staging area and the staff was still very pleasant and accommodating. You can tell they were getting us to hurry because they know the area would be overrun with other tour groups. They really wanted us to have the best time and experience there. And they sat us in a very good spot for the Wednesday audience with the Pope. I would definitely recommend this company.

Great tours! We did the Colosseum and Vatican tour. The Colosseum tour was with Ferdinando and his…read moreknowledge and passion for what he was showing us was obvious. He is definitely highly recommended. He is an archaeologist as well so he had a lot of fascinating things to share with us. We actually ran into him on three separate occasions in Rome by chance and he was great to talk to each time. The Colosseum tour we took also included the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill (both even more fascinating than the Colosseum in my opinion). The Vatican tour was with Claudia and she was equally as knowledgeable and fun! She obviously knew the folks she needed to to get around in this massive complex without having to wait for anything. The "no-line" entry most tours get has lines here. She had the hookup to get us even past those lines. The tour starts through the Vatican Museum and it was very crowded at the time we were there. She fought to make room for us to get in front of the masses to get a close look at all the things she wanted us to see. It was great to see her genuinely care about our experience. Just about every other tour group we saw in this places had at least 30 people in them. Both tours we took with Real Rome Tours had less than 10. We all had an equal opportunity to experience these beautiful sights with great knowledgable folks who even stuck around to answer any questions we had. They also give great recommendations on restaurants and other places you need to see while in Rome. Gerard was also a pleasure dealing with while booking our tours. He is well organized and gave us a great alternative when we wanted to do the Colosseum Underground tour that wasn't available. It worked out perfectly for us. I couldn't recommend Real Rome Tours any more.

When it comes to planning my travels, I'm a huge proponent of buying admission tickets directly as…read moreit cuts out any problems related to third-party businesses. There are exceptions to this rule; in the case of buying Colosseum tickets, the process to buy said tickets on the official coopculture.it site is a TOTAL NIGHTMARE. If you want to try your luck at booking yourself, check dbabe's posts on the TripAdvisor Rome forums - she tells you step-by-step how to do this. For the people that don't want to go through the hoopla, there are plenty of choices when it comes to third-party tours of the Colosseum. The most obvious choices are Walks of Italy and City Wonders/Dark Rome (which also offers Vatican tours if you're so inclined) but you have to take into consideration that the Colosseum doesn't just consist of the ground floor. The coopculture.it site lists the regular tour (1st and 2nd levels with arena floor), the underground, "panoramic view" (aka the belvedere - 4th and 5th tiers) and both. During my research, it turns out that the all-in-one tickets sell out *fast* through official channels because third-party has to go through the same process to buy tickets. Furthermore, several third-party companies offer the underground and/or belvedere tour but only ONE company managed to offer both on the same itinerary. Guess which company got my business. Here's the URL to buy tickets for the all-in-one-tour (https://www.romaexperience.com/rome-tours/all-in-one-colosseum-tour/). Includes skip-the-line privilege. Cost: €129.00 Length: 4 hours Includes: Colosseum/Underground/Belvedere, plus Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Meeting Point: directly across from the Colosseum. (Conversely coopculture.it costs €29.00 for just the Colosseum/Underground/Belvedere, but good luck getting tickets...) The first part consists of the Colosseum tour, which is given by the official coopculture.it guides. There is no way around this. For this portion of the tour you are also combined with another group so max ~24 people. She did her best with explaining all the levels but it was hard to understand her at times especially with her thick accent! The rest of the tour consist of the Forum and Palatine Hill. They are normally included in the cost of your Colosseum ticket and said ticket is valid for a 48-hour period, but there's no included guided tour nor audioguide. A good guide is essential to make the ruins "come to life", especially if you didn't do prior research or history/archaeology isn't your interest. While I was able to pay attention to the Colosseum portion of the tour, it was hard to pay attention towards the end. Didn't help that it got hot (37C); she rushed the Forum portion of the tour because people were more concerned about getting shade so I wasn't able to retain much information. I would still recommend this tour as a way to fully experience the Colosseum especially if you want to visit all the areas as only this tour lets you visit all the floors. I just wish that the guides that gave the tour were a bit more engaging so that I could learn more about these sights. PS: If you have at least two full days in Rome, it is strongly recommend to make your Vatican and Colosseum visits on separate days to maximize your sightseeing. They do have a combo Colosseum/Vatican tour but due to the nature of the site this would be one long, grueling day.

Francesco was our guide for the semi private Colosseum Arena Floor, Forum and Palatine Hill. He…read morewas very knowledgeable and interactive so it made the tour so enjoyable! Well worth the extra money from a larger group.

We had Riccardo for our Express Colosseum tour June 2026 for our family of 4 (2 adults, 2 teens). I…read moreunderstand there can be language differences, but as someone who speaks both Italian and English, even I couldn't understand the hybrid way the guide spoke - he left the whole group not understanding a single word. The explanations were monotone, the emphasis was on the wrong syllables and oddly, every word that should start with a vowel started with an H. Helephant. Hantelope. Height-Height. Also far too much time was spent on his binder of web photos. I'm not sure what company this guide was contracted through (as I'm fairly certain The Roman Guy uses third parties now, which is different from the first time I used them a few years ago), but TRG needs to review the fluency of their guides. This was my third tour of the Colosseum over the past few years and it was a complete waste of money. It was supposed to be only an hour and after 90 minutes of not comprehending a word we finally left. Since the official Colosseum site makes it not easy to secure tickets directly, I'm just viewing the whole experience as an overpriced entry ticket. Many people in our group just took their earpieces off after a certain point. Regarding the actual tour booking and the days leading up to it, I received a message a few weeks prior stating that the tour could not happen at the scheduled time due to operational issues, and would I be open to coming later in the day? They asked me to choose an option (which there was no second option presented but I presumed it was a refund) so I told them I would just take the refund as we had a flight to catch during the revised time. They wrote me back immediately and said that "they were just checking on if I could take the new time but the scheduled time is still fine". Very confusing, is it cancelled for operational reasons or not? The whole thing was just odd and I won't be booking again.

We booked the "Private Borghese Gallery Tour with Hotel Pick-up and Drop-off" from Eyes of Rome on…read moreOctober 21, before the Omicron variant placed our present trip to Rome very much up in the air. Happily we were able to make it to Rome and to experience this wonderful, personalized tour of what I think is the greatest collection of treasures in Rome on December 26. We were picked up on-time at our hotel by the tour's driver who was well-informed and effective with regard to the current COVID protocols, helping us to ensure we had the appropriate type of mask required and our physical vaccination proof (we had assumed digital versions would suffice, but this is not currently the case in Rome or at least not for the Villa Borghese). Another tour operator probably wouldn't have checked for these items and we would have missed the entire experience. We were dropped off at the Villa Borghese and met immediately by our personal guide, Silvia, who greeted us warmly and immediately started setting the context of what we were about to see with the history of the Aurelian wall, Roman life in the 1600s, and the concept of the "villa suburbana," all of which is quite necessary for a full appreciation of the wonder that is the Galleria Borghese. She explained to us the relation of the Galleria's founder Cardinal Scipione Borghese and his position as the Cardinal Nephew to Pope Paul V, which gave him political power over the Papal States. Silvia told us of the original plan of the gardens and the vivarium, which housed species from all over the world- plants and birds respectively, which was foundational to understanding the art collection to come. For context, I have twice visited the Galleria Borghese in 1996 and 2010, but it was my husband's first visit to the Galleria and, in fact, to Rome. Our tour impressed, entertained, and satiated the curiosity of both of us equally- not an easy feat, for sure. We appreciated that Silvia structured the tour as much as possible as the Galleria was meant to be experienced (unwinding, if philosophically, the changes to the sequence of rooms necessitated by current COVID protocols). Silvia was knowledgeable, personable, funny, and very well-versed in the history of the Borghese family, the Papacy as related to it, and the artists (Bernini, Carvaggio, etc.) and their works featured in the museum. Among the highlights for us: *A very informative but also witty and humorous study comparing the depiction (and by extrapolation the characterization) of Venus painted with Cupid by two artists- Cranachi (il vecchio) and Brescianino, an eye-opening discussion about the differing regional attitudes toward women at the time *Revealing the technique but also the humanity of Caravaggio with a thorough education on the 'Madonna dei Palafrenieri.' Some of why the painting would have been a shocking portrayal of Mary, Jesus, and St. Anne may be obvious, but understanding all the details- Mary's plainly visible underskirt- contemporary of the artist's time, the wrinkled, withered portrayal of St. Anne (the Vatican chapel bearing her name being the intended destination for this work, where it was ultimately rejected), and the still-astounding use of light in darkness was extremely interesting and enriching to our experience *A 360-degree analysis of Bernini's Baroque masterpiece Apollo and Daphne (starting with Silvia ensuring we averted our eyes to view the sculpture first from the right-hand side, as intended by the artist himself prior to the statue being moved) gave us a complete understanding of this work. Viewing the sculpture- which I had seen before but never from the vantage point encouraged by our guide- this way gives the complete story of Daphne's encapsulation into the tree depicted here and Apollo's (non-)reaction. When the delicately carved, paper-thin tree bark was pointed out to us, you could almost feel the heartbeat that Apollo would have felt as his hand grasped it. I appreciated the details of the windswept hair turning into leaves, which also stemmed from her hands, and the roots emanating from her foot, details I had not really fully appreciated before. I would highly recommend Eyes of Rome and specifically our guide Silvia. I cannot enumerate with words how much more I appreciated the Galleria Borghese with her expert and naturally flowing guidance and historical context. We had a fantastic time that we will not soon forget.

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.

It is seriously deceiving just how massive Stazione Termini is until you are actually inside…read morewalking it. It feels less like a standard train station and more like a mega-mall that happens to have tracks attached. The selection of stores, cafes, and markets here is fantastic--you can easily kill an hour shopping or grabbing a great bite to eat while waiting for a departure. Just a heads-up: give yourself plenty of extra time to reach your train. The platforms here are incredibly long, and if your train is assigned to one of the regional tracks or a high-speed engine waiting far down the line, it can be a massive, unexpected walk to get to your carriage. Keep your eyes on the departure boards and don't linger at the shops too long.

Termini is kind of a mess, it's chaotic and for whatever reason they randomly just shut down access…read moreroutes into or out of the tracks which can cause major bottlenecks. It's super busy but conveniently is very close to a lot of stuff in Rome, so for day trips or if you are staying nearby it's very convenient. This is definitely not my favorite train station but it's also a super useful tool for getting around. Just prepare yourself for a bit of a chaotic arrival and you will be totally fine. The uber pickup area is a little hard to find, through a nondescript hallway, but getting an Uber worked pretty easily for us. In the past I've had no issues getting cabs as well - at least not no more issue than anywhere else in Rome.