Rome: Licensed Guided Tour of the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill

The tour of the Forum and Palantine Hill is not a separate tour. You are added to a tour that has already started at the Colosseum. First, you are taken as a group to the security/ticket entrance of the Forum where after you get in, the group takes a bathroom break. So the first 20 minutes of the tour is not really informational and you have already lost some of the context by not being with the group from the beginning. The group has a headphone so you walk behind the guide who walks much of the time while talking. It is extremely crowded so you have to navigate uneven terrain (in our case it rained and there were puddles in addition to steps and large stones) as well as the crowd. You try to see what is being pointed out but it is hard to stop because you lose the group quite quickly. The guide had some good information but in generally the experience was disappointing. I recommend you get your own audio tour from the internet and take it atyour own pace.

Valeria was our guide and she is very knowledgeable about the history so well. Not only that, she was also after the well-being for everyone, making sure to discuss something under a shade. I like that they are using the earpiece attached to the ear rather than having disposable ear plugs which is good in saving the environment. I had the full experience ticket but I could not fully enjoy it because of the extreme heat. I will come back some other time to explore the entire place when the weather is cooler.

We enjoyed our tour very much! Even though we were late we were accommodated for graciously & caught up to them. I think the guide was Bianca, who was so knowledgeable about Roman history (I thought she must’ve been a teacher/lecturer) and had a lovely manner. She must’ve also be pretty fit as it was a warm day & we covered plenty of hilly ground & she was speaking for most of the 2hrs 40 mins! I was tired just keeping up! I could recommend this tour highly to anyone. Great value!