Ancient Rome Tour: VIP Colosseum and Forum Access

Embark on a VIP tour of Caesar’s Palace, the Colosseum, and the Roman Forum. Explore ancient Rome with special access to iconic sites and hear captivating stories of emperors and gladiators.

Duration: 3 hours, 30 minutes
Cancellation: 7 days
Highlights
  • Roman Forum - Begin your journey through ancient Rome with a visit to the Forum, where you’ll be transported back in time to experience the daily life of the empire’s citizens. As you walk along the same stones that Julius Caesar and Mark Antony once did, your guide will make the ruins feel alive again with fascinating stories and anecdotes.
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What's Included
  • Expertly guided walking tour
  • Colosseum and Roman Forum Full Experience Ticket (€24)
  • Headset (groups over 6 people)
  • Local English-speaking guide
  • Small group of 16 guests maximum
What's Not Included
  • Gratuities
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off
Additional Information

This carefully crafted tour of Ancient Rome offers you the best of both worlds: express access to the in-demand Colosseum arena floor and the Roman Forum’s highly exclusive SUPER Sites. Led by a knowledgeable guide, you’ll explore immaculately preserved ancient villas and temples that few visitors have the chance to access, follow in the footsteps of…

Location
Via delle Terme di Tito, 72
Via delle Terme di Tito
Please arrive 15 minutes prior to the start of your tour, your guide will be holding a green Walks sign. This tour meets at Via delle Terme di Tito, 72, 00184 Roma RM, Italy, directly across the street from Oppio Caffè at the gated entrance to Colle Oppio Park.
Cancellation Policy

If you cancel at least 7 full day(s) before the scheduled departure time, you will receive a full refund.
If you cancel within 7 day(s) of the scheduled departure, you will receive a 0% refund.

Customer Ratings
4.7
(247 Ratings)
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Kellycares
Sep 13, 2024
Great 3.5 hour small group tour with a PhD in Archeology - Had a great 3.5 hour tour with Eddy, a PhD in Archeology. It was a brutally hot day and Eddy took pains to make sure we stayed in shade and had plenty of water breaks. He explained the history and cleared up some myths about the areas we toured in an entertaining way. I have had 4 or 5 previous tours (most private) and I would go on a small group tour with Walks of Italy again.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
N5377sgstephaniew
Sep 4, 2024
Great experience - Our tour guide was friendly, knowledgeable & fun. Our group consisted of 8 ppl total. Got to see amazing & interesting places. We started off with the ruins at the bottom of Palatine Hill, then toured through Caesar Augustus's Palace & finished with the Colosseum. Great pictures & memories. I highly recommend Walks tours & specifically this one. Great experience overall.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Faraway17713056312
Aug 29, 2024
Take this tour... it's great! - Wow, wow, wow! We loved every piece of this tour. As history and ancient ruins nerds, this was a tour that checked every box. Book with Alfonso Manas as the tour guide. Alfonso Manas has a Ph. D in history. He is an incredible historian who has written two books on the subject of gladiators. (You can buy them on Amazon. I know that we will.) That alone makes the tour even better as the information is reliable and thoughtful. He is also patient, accommodating, and kind. Caesar Palace was incredible. A marvel at every turn. You'll get closer to Julius Caesar through both his reign and his death than expected. The Colosseum, that tour was complete with information at every turn. You will hear not only what occurred, but why and then some. It's worth the cost, and then some. All pros!!!! No negatives. Thank you Walks of Italy and Alfonson.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
T6590cwchrisb
Jul 19, 2024
Great way to see the sites and learn from a guide - Booked this about a month in advance due to seeing the warnings of long lines and purchase tickets in advance. This trip day was very hot, arrived about 20min early and grabbed a cold drink nearby. Was paired with Paola, who was very knowledgeable and provided key information throughout the tour, starting with fill up you water bottles before we start walking. Paola was one of the best (if not best) tour guides we were paired with. The tour had lots of walking in the heat, but we found shade at every opportunity, including bathrooms and a water refill station (which we all gladly took advantage of). We did the evening tour, with the only complaint being the heat (can’t do anything about that). The colosseum gift shop was closed, a minor inconvenience as I saw something in the window I actually wanted (haha). Bottom line, a great way to see multiple historic sites, limited waiting as the company pre-purchases your tickets and you can usually go to the front of the line to enter. It was fluid, but at a relaxed pace, suitable for any age, minus any potential handicap issues. Bring multiple bottles of water, or empty bottles to refill water. Thanks to Paola for making this tour a great time and very informative.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Giuseppe_a
Jun 26, 2024
Amazing experience - Amazing experience! We had a full immersion into Rome’s history with an experienced, academic trained and super friendly guide. During those few hours you will learn a lot. Definitely a must for whoever is passionate for learning the history of Rome by seeing directly its most famous locations. Children can get tired since it is a long walk, but the guide did his best to help to make things smoother.
Review provided by Viator
Samantha_k
May 23, 2024
The destinations were amazingly interesting, but it was my tour guide who truly made the experience come to life - Every part of this tour was rememberable because of my tour guide, Paula. She was absolutely amazing and made the whole experience come to life! She was fun, energetic and gave us so many interesting facts about each destination.
Review provided by Viator
Christophermu4520bl
Oct 20, 2024
moves fast, itineraries vary. Ask questions before you book. - The tour is as described--but the order apparently can change depending on time of day and/or other considerations, and this does matter for your overall experience. I might ask more questions of Walks before booking as to which itinerary order will be used. In our case, we started with the Colosseum, then went to the Forum, then to the sites on the Palatine Hill. Of the 3 hours, the bulk (approx 1.5 hours) was spent at the Colosseum, with multiple queues for security, ticket showing, etc. This was handled well by our guide, Nicolai(?). Even so, our time inside the colosseum felt rushed and the audio cut in and out so folks kept getting separated and it was challenging to keep the group together. We did visit the arena floor and had a few moments to take photos, as well as a stop at another point, but despite the amount of time and stops, we did not come away with a good appreciation of this location. I think for us, the reverse itinerary that others have reported would have been better--where we'd be left in the colosseum at the conclusion of our tour to continue to explore at our own pace. But once you leave the colosseum, you cannot re-enter. Then we proceeded to the Forum which we blew through very quickly on our way to the Palatine Hill sites; we were able to return to the Forum later and dig in a little deeper. Lastly, we made it to the Palatine Hill sites which I had not visited before. Even though we spent about an hour here viewing some different locations, I didn't feel like I got a good sense of the overall layout of the Palatine. In retrospect this probably just wasn't the right tour for us. If you want to be able to move at your own pace, best to just buy colosseum entry tickets on your own, but that wasn't possible in our case (they sold out immediately). I'm not sure that the "floor access" really added anything in particular, it's only a small portion of the floor that has been reconstructed and the view isn't really that different from other places. I'm interested in how the building is constructed and the irony is you can get better views of that at the amphitheatre at Pompeii and walk as slowly as you like. PROS: guide did include interesting facts about sites--just somehow less than we expected, perhaps this was driven as much by questions from the group as anything else.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Daniel_b
Nov 12, 2024
While we enjoyed having... - While we enjoyed having access to the arena floor and super sites, we felt that the tour was not at all informative. We spent a lot of money on this tour (a family trip) hoping to learn about ancient Rome, and were overall quite disappointed.
Review provided by Viator
Lisaps140vr
Oct 5, 2024
Confusing, disappointed - This didn’t work for us. We got caught in traffic and couldn’t make it to the meeting point in time. I wish the website or at least the post-purchase info was more explicit about there being no on-site office—just a meet up point. Not the companies’ faults but more info might have helped us plan. That said, unless you really want to tour tje Colloseum with a horde of others, get yourself a Forum Pass, an illustrated map, and go in by Trajan’s Column—no line at all.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Flyer43141004336
Sep 9, 2024
Lied about visiting arena floor - I was extremely disappointed with our tour to the colosseum and supposedly the arena floor. It clearly says on the website that the colosseum arena floor is included and visited on the tour. However we did not go to the arena floor. The guide said it is included in the ticket but not on the tour even though the website clearly says under sited visited: colosseum including arena floor! That’s the entire reason we booked with them. By the time she told us we could try and go ourselves it was closed. This is false advertising and a complete lie on their part. So many of us on the tour were disappointed. I do not recommend!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
From $124
up to 15 guests
1 Adult
Cancellation: Free cancellation up to 7 days before the start of your experience (local time).