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Full-Day Tours in Rome |
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| We
also offer a three-hour tour including the Vatican Museums,
Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica and hotel pick-up. Click here for details. |

For
those of you who wish to truly maximize your time in Rome, this is the ideal
solution. We offer four fascinating options for your day, each of which includes
being picked up at and returned to your downtown Rome hotel or residence. We
regret that we cannot guarantee the chronological order of your day in advance,
but whichever tour you choose, at the end of the morning, your driver will take
you to a spot in central Rome where you can have a relaxing lunch on your own.
Naturally, your guide will be happy to recommend his or her favorite eatery,
commensurate with the size of your appetite! After lunch, your driver will return
to take you to the second half of the day’s activities.
Choose one of these four options for your fascinating day in Rome:
Vatican & Walking
Tour of Ancient and Baroque Rome
The Vatican, the Roman Coliseum and the Catacombs
Rome’s Two Religions
Troubled Times for Rome’s Religions
Vatican & Walking Tour of Ancient and Baroque Rome
This tour includes a three-hour tour
of the Vatican Museums, where your private guide will help you make sense and
enjoyment out of the world’s largest artistic
labyrinth. The museum tour concludes at the
Sistine
Chapel, and afterwards you and your guide will stroll over to visit St. Peter’s Cathedral. For the
other half of your tour, you’ll stroll through the Roman Forum, center
of political and social activity under the emperors. The Forum was the marketplace
of Rome and also its business district and civic center. It was expanded to include
temples, a senate house and law courts. When the Roman Empire fell, the Forum
became forgotten and was used as a cattle pasture during the Middle Ages. It
was not uncovered again until the early 20th century, and you’ll find out
why. At the far end of the Forum stands Rome’s most famous monument, the
Coliseum. You will skip the ticket lines and enter the amphitheater, which Emperor
Vespasian began around 70 AD in a low-lying area surrounded by the hills where
Rome’s patricians had their lavish villas. Previously, all amphitheaters
had been constructed of wood. These structures were vulnerable to fire and occasionally
collapsed under the weight of the spectators. Thus the Roman Coliseum was both
a technical innovation and an enormous gift to the public. Ancient historians
estimate that as many as 9,000 animals were killed in those games; thousands
of gladiators also fought to entertain the masses. From his private "box
seat" the emperor decided the fate of those gladiators defeated in battle.
You may sit in that very area as your guide explains what went on for centuries
in this, probably the most famous stage ever built in the world. Afterwards,
you will stroll through the Baroque part of Rome, including Trevi Fountain and
Piazza Navona and, time permitting, the Spanish Steps and the Pantheon.
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The Vatican, the Roman Coliseum and the Catacombs
Three
hours of this tour are dedicated to the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s
as described above. For the other half of your tour, you will skip the ticket
lines and have a guided tour of the Coliseum as
described
above, and then you’ll
travel by car to see the ancient Appian Way. This was once the most important
road in the world, and still today it maintains a feeling of faded glory. You'll
see where the original marble pavers have been scarred by centuries of chariot
wheels; you'll walk past the tombs of the Imperial families; you'll spot ancient
road signs that have survived for two millennia. Because there is no traffic
on this road, and it is surrounded by quiet Roman countryside (and the estates
of a few modern Roman millionaires!), you can really imagine how it may have
been when Spartacus led thousands of uprising slaves along its length so many
years ago. You'll also visit the most important and interesting Roman catacomb.
You'll be allowed to enter on your own, without a group, and once inside your
guide will distribute flashlights as you descend into the dark tunnels where
clandestine Christians worshipped and were buried. You'll see the loculi where
their sheet-wrapped bodies were laid to rest, and you'll learn to decipher the
secret symbols that only Christians understood.
This tour
includes a three-hour tour of the Vatican Museums as described above, plus an
in-depth discovery of Jewish Rome. Many don't know it, but Rome has Europe's
oldest Jewish community. The
Jews
in Italy have strong bi-cultural roots which go back even before the birth of
Christ, when the Jews already had an alliance with the Roman Empire. Under the
leadership of Judah Maccabeus, many Israelites left the land of Israel to go
to the " Eternal City" ( Rome) in the
second century BCE. It was not until the Romans destroyed the second temple in
Jerusalem [70 CE] that the Jewish/Roman alliance was broken and the Jews were
forced into slavery. About ten thousand Jews were transported to Rome to be used
as work hands to help build the Coliseum. Although enslaved, the Jewish population
in Rome flourished. Thirteen synagogues were built as well as numerous cemeteries.
However, many Romans despised the Jews and found their rituals to be barbaric.
The tolerance for religious freedom started to take a turn for the worse in 380
CE when Christianity was recognized as the official religion of the Roman Empire,
with very little tolerance for Jews and other religious cults. By the second
half of the 16th century the church instituted the Papal Bul: All Jews were to
be enclosed in ghettos, each community could have only one synagogue, all commercial
and civil rights were taken away, and all Jews had to wear a contrassegno (identification).
In 1516 the first Jewish ghetto was established in Venice and in 1555 a ghetto
was established in Rome. Both were overcrowded and dirty, but the study of Torah
and Talmud flourished between their closed walls so ironically, rather than destroy
Jewish culture, they actually helped it to blossom and grow. It was not until
the arrival of Napoleon that the doors of the ghettos were torn down. But when
Napoleon was defeated, the Jews were thrown back into the ghettos and once again
their rights were taken away. This private tour retraces all this fascinating
history, moving backwards and beginning at the Fosse Ardeatine, a site near the
Christian catacombs where over 300 Romans (including 73 Jews) were massacred
by Nazi occupiers in reprisal for a partisan attack. The tour continues to Isola
Tiberina and the Ghetto. Here you walk from the ancient island in the middle
of the Tiber River, through the recently excavated gateway to Rome, arriving
finally at the streets of the formerly walled Ghetto. Today it is the heart of
the Roman Jewish Community, centered around the impressive Synagogue (completed
in 1906). Here you will visit the Temple and its excellent historical museum.
The museum guide links 2,000 years of Jewish Heritage to Rome's modern community.
Troubled Times for Rome’s
Religions
This tour combines the
tour of the Appian Way and the Catacombs as described above, and the discovery
of Jewish Rome as described above.
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Each half of this tour lasts three hours. We regret that we cannot guarantee the chronological order of your day in advance. Prices include private car transfers as described, and personal tour guide. Meals are not included. Entrance tickets to the Vatican Museums are extra and cost 18 Euro/person, including the special priority pass fee that insures you will be in the priority line. Tickets are paid in cash during the tour (your tickets will be pre-booked by the guide, and ticket prices may vary slightly without notice). You may have to wait briefly before the museum doors open but you will not have to go to the end of the long line. If your group includes at least two adults plus children, up to two of the children under 12 years old pay nothing for the tour except for tickets (children pay 18 Euros/person unless they are younger than 7, in which case tickets are free). If you have more than two children, all the others pay the adult price for the tour no matter their age. If your group numbers more than 7, you will hear the guide better if you purchase audio headsets at the door for 2 Euro/person. The tours are available in English or Spanish.
The Coliseum and Roman Forum are closed on December
25.
The synagogue is closed on Saturdays.
Click
here to see what days the Vatican museums are closed
Click here to consult a calendar
| 2008 Prices | |
| Special info: You may have to wait briefly before the museum doors open but you will not have to go to the end of the long line. |
|
| 1 person | 587.00 Euro/group |
| 2 people | 587.00 Euro/group |
| 3 people | 641.00 Euro/group |
| 4 people | 641.00 Euro/group |
| 5 people | 652.00 Euro/group |
| 6 people | 696.00 Euro/group |
| 7 people | 696.00 Euro/group |
| 8 people | 761.00 Euro/group + City Toll 65.00 Euro** |
| 9 people | 804.00 Euro/group + City Toll 65.00 Euro** |
| 10 people | 826.00 Euro/group + City Toll 65.00 Euro** |
| 11 people | 859.00 Euro/group + City Toll 65.00 Euro** |
| 12 people | 891.00 Euro/group + City Toll 65.00 Euro** |
| 13 people | 902.00 Euro/group + City Toll 65.00 Euro** |
| 14 people | 913.00 Euro/group + City Toll 65.00 Euro** |
| 15 people | 924.00 Euro/group + City Toll 65.00 Euro** |
** - If your group totals over 7 people (including children), please add
65.00 Euros to your total
cost, to pay for the Rome City Entrance toll.