Rome Tours

[rcymmolly]

Hey friends!  We are going to have a few days in Rome before our cruise in July.  We are looking at different tours.  A few questions:

 

Has anyone used the Walk Italy tours?  Specifically a Vatican one or the gelato and sights?

 

At the Vatican is it worth it to book a tour, or just get there early and try to miss the lines?

 

What parts of the Vatican did you enjoy the most?

 

Any other tips for a 50 something mom and a twenty-something daughter to do during a once in a lifetime trip?

 

Thanks in advance!

[TSS Alex]

My wife and I did three tours with Walks of Italy last June and have two more scheduled with them in September. We highly recommend them. For a first time trip to the Vatican, I would suggest booking a tour - it's just large enough that you could get lost in it and miss things you really want to see. We did the Pristine Sistine™ Early Entrance Small Group Vatican Tour which met at 8:00am a few blocks from the Museum entrance. The non-tour line was already very long at that time for a 9:00 am opening. The Walks tours all used a small radio and earphones, so you could hear what your guide was saying and not have to listen to all the other groups nearby (something I wish groups would use here in NYC). Their groups are also fairly small - it's much easier to keep track of 20 people instead of 200. The other plus is their guides - all qualified in their areas. Our guide at the Vatican had a degree in Art History, which results in off-the-cuff tours instead of "here's the company script, just recite it and don't answer questions".  At the end of the tour, he actually stayed around for a bit, answering any questions we still had.

 

We sort of did the gelato and sights tour on our own. We were staying across the street from the Pantheon (halfway between the Colosseum and the Vatican) , which is surrounded by restaurants and gelaterrias. We walked to the Trevi Fountain and then on to the Spanish Steps, before heading back through a non-tourist area, ie residential, which is quite a different look from tourist Rome.

 

Buy a camera with a bunch of SD cards and take pictures of everything - statues, signs, fountains, your hotel, the views.

Rome is filled with water fountains - bring a refillable bottle and fill up almost anywhere you are.

Don't be afraid to get off the beaten path - two or three blocks from almost any tourist attraction will see the prices on food drop to something affordable. If you see a 15 euro pizza on the menu, you're paying too much.

[awatt]

My daughter and Indid a Segway tour at night. Saw all the monuments and sights lit up. It was fantastic! Really memorable evening. And the Segways are easy to use, if I can the anyone can.

[rcymmolly]

Thank you so much for your insights.  I am going to book that early walk in the Vatican.  Did you do the breakfast with it, or on your own?

 

The segway tour sounds intriguing.  What spaces did you travel to?  

 

I also appreciate the insights for the restaurants.  We are staying at an air bnb so we have a kitchen, but we have to have a little authentic food, don't we?

 

Again, thanks for everything.

[awatt]

Segway tour visited Coliseum, Forum,Piazza Del Republica,  Campo Fiore, Trevi, and I think  Piazza Navona. That's what I remember  off top of my head, there may have been more.

[TSS Alex]

16 hours ago, rcymmolly said:

Thank you so much for your insights.  I am going to book that early walk in the Vatican.  Did you do the breakfast with it, or on your own?

 

We didn't do the tour with breakfast - just picked up something on the walk to the meeting point (which is a bar that serves breakfast, or at least, what passes for breakfast in Rome).