Rome Tours

Ancient City Tour

This tour is a magnificent way to discover the secrets and the many cultural treasures of the Eternal City! After your meeting with the guide, you will reach the Roman Forum and enjoy the grandest city view of the ruins, the Capital and Palatine Hills.

Let your guide tell you stories about the most famous events that happened there, walk next to the spot where Julius Caesar's ashes were buried, experience the feeling of walking by the Ancient Temples, and finally reach and enter the Colosseum, the biggest round monument in the world to be built by human hands, where the gladiators entertained the crowds with spectacular fights and deadly games against wild beasts.

Duration:  About 3 hours

All Rome in One Day

This tour is especially customized for those only having one day to discover the secrets and the many cultural aspects of the Eternal City and the Vatican! After your meeting with the guide, you will reach the Roman Forum displaying the grandest city view, where the Capital and Palatine Hills are. You will walk next to the spot where Julius Caesar's ashes were buried, see the Ancient Temples, enter in the breathtaking Colosseum, the biggest round ruin in the world ever built by human hands, where the gladiators entertained the crowds with glorious fights and deadly games against beasts.

You will then reach the city centre, where the awesome Trevi fountain stands, reach the Pantheon, the oldest domed temple ever built, to end in Navona Square, where Bernini's Four River fountain is overtopped by a real Egyptian obelisk! You will then reach the usually packed Vatican Museum entrance, where, skipping the check-in line, you will enter the Vatican Museum through the terrace, where you will have the stunning vision of Saint Peter's dome overlooking the Vatican gardens; you will walk among the most beautiful Roman ancient statues, the enormous Tapestry Hall, then through the Hall of the Painted Maps you will enter the Sistine Chapel whose impact in history, religion and visual arts has no equal in the world.

Duration: about 8/10  hours

Vatican city and sistine chapel tour

This tour is the best way to discover the holiest hill in town, rich with history and treasures, the lavish Vatican Museums, where Michaelangelo, Raphael and many Popes lived, the Sistine Chapel, and Saint Peter's Basilica! After the meeting with your guide, you will reach the usually packed Museum entrance, where, skipping the check-in line, you will enter the Museum through the terrace where a stunning vision of Saint Peter's dome overlooks the Vatican gardens.
In the museums you will behold the most beautiful Roman ancient statues, you will gasp at the length of the enormous Tapestry Hall, then through the Hall of the Painted Maps you will enter the Sistine Chapel whose impact in history, religion and visual arts has no equal in the world.
Michaelangelo spent most of his life here, and left his mark forever. Through a special door available only to your guide, you will reach Saint Peter's Basilica where Michaelangelo's sculpture "Pieta" is kept, and the tombs of the popes including John Paul II's, and Saint Peter the Apostle's, and a final view of the Pope's Balcony and Bernini's Colonnade Square.

Duration: about 3 and half hour.

Catacombs Tour

The Catacombs of Rome (Italian: Catacombe di Roma) are ancient catacombs, underground burial places under Rome, Italy, of which there are at least forty, some discovered only in recent decades. Though most famous for Christian burials, either in separate catacombs or mixed together, people of all the Roman religions are buried in them, beginning in the 2nd century AD, mainly as a response to overcrowding and shortage of land. The Etruscans, like many other European peoples, used to bury their dead in underground chambers. The original Roman custom was cremation, after which the burnt remains were kept in a pot, ash-chest or urn, often in a columbarium. From about the 2nd century AD, inhumation (burial of unburnt remains) became more fashionable, in graves or sarcophagi, often elaborately carved, for those who could afford them. Christians also preferred burial to cremation because of their belief in bodily resurrection at the Second Coming.

The Christian catacombs are extremely important for the art history of Early Christian art, as they contain the great majority of examples from before about 400 AD, in fresco and sculpture, as well as gold glass medallions (these, like most bodies, have been removed). The Jewish catacombs are similarly important for the study of Jewish culture at this period. A number of dubious relics of catacomb saints were promoted after the rediscovery of the catacombs

Hadrian's Villa and Villa D'Este Gardens Tivoli

The villa was constructed at Tibur (modern-day Tivoli) as a retreat from Rome for Roman Emperor Hadrian during the second and third decades of the 2nd century AD. Hadrian was said to dislike the palace on the Palatine Hill in Rome, leading to the construction of the retreat.

The picturesque landscape around Tibur had made the area a popular choice for villas and rural retreats. It was reputably popular with people from the Spanish peninsula resident in the city of Rome. This may have contributed to Hadrian's choice of the property - although born in Rome his parents came from Spain and he may have been familiar with the area during his early life.

There may also have been a connection through his wife Vibia Sabina (83–136/137) who was the niece of the Emperor Trajan. Sabina's family held large landholdings and it is speculated the Tibur property may have been one of them. A villa from the Republican era formed the basis for Hadrian's establishment.

During the later years of his reign, Hadrian actually governed the empire from the villa. Hadrian started using the Villa as his official residence around AD 128. A large court therefore lived there permanently and large numbers of visitors and bureaucrats would have to have been entertained and temporarily housed on site. The postal service kept it in contact with Rome 29 km (18 mi) away, where the various government departments were located.

It isn't known if Hadrian's wife lived at the villa either on a temporary or permanent basis - his relations with her were apparently rather strained or distant, possibly due to his ambiguous sexuality. Hadrian's parents had died when he was young and he and his sister were adopted by Trajan. It is possible that Hadrian's court at the villa was predominately male but it's likely that his childhood nurse Germana, whom he had formed a deep attachment to, was probably accommodated there (she actually outlived him).

After Hadrian, the villa was occasionally used by his various successors (busts of Antoninus Pius (138-161), Marcus Aurelius (161-180), Lucius Verus (161-169), Septimius Severus and Caracalla have been found on the premises). Zenobia, the deposed queen of Palmyra, possibly lived here in the 270s.

During the decline of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, the villa gradually fell into disuse and was partially ruined as valuable statues and marble were taken away. The facility was used as a warehouse by both sides during the destructive Gothic War (535–554) between the Ostrogoths and Byzantines. Remains of lime kilns have been found, where marble from the complex was burned to extract lime for building material.

In the 16th century, Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este had much of the remaining marble and statues in Hadrian's Villa removed to decorate his own Villa d'Este located nearby. Since that period excavations have sporadically turned up more fragments and sculptures some of which have been kept in situ or housed on site in the display buildings.

The Villa was commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este (1509–1572), second son of Alfonso I d'Este, the Duke of Ferrara and grandson of Pope Alexander VI, along with Lucrezia Borgia. The Este family had been lords of Ferrara since 1393, and were famous as patrons of the arts and of the humanist scholars of the Renaissance. As a second son, Ippolito was destined for a career in the church; he was named archbishop of Milan when he was only ten years old. At the age of 27, he was sent to the French court, where he became an advisor to the French King, Francis I, and in 1540 became a member of the King's Private Council. At the age of thirty, at the request of the King, Pope Paul III made d'Este a cardinal. Thanks to his ecclesiastical and royal connections, he became one of the wealthiest cardinals of the time, with an annual income estimated at 120,000 scudi. He was a lavish patron of the arts, supporting among others the sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, the musician Pierluigi da Palestrina and the poet Torquato Tasso. While his income was enormous, he was always in debt. The new French King, Henry II, sent him as an envoy to Rome, where he played a major role in the social and political life of the city. He appeared destined to become Pope and used all of his money and influence toward that goal, but at the time of the Reformation and the Council of Trent, his extravagant style of life worked against him. His first candidacy for the papal position, in 1549, with the support of the French King, was blocked by the Habsburg Emperor. d'Este promptly withdrew his own candidacy, endorsed the Habsburg candidate, and was rewarded by the College of Cardinals on December 3, 1549 with the lifetime position of Governor of Tivoli. This new title suited d'Este, because he was already a passionate collector of antiquities, and it gave him jurisdiction over the site of Hadrian's villa and other sites just being excavated. He did not give up his ambition to become Pope. He was five times a candidate for Pope, but was never selected.

Duration: about 4/6 hours

Ancient Ostia

Ostia may have been Rome's first colonia. According to the legend Ancus Marcius, the semi-legendary fourth king of Rome, first destroyed Ficana, an ancient town that was only 17 km (11 mi) from Rome and had a small harbour on the Tiber, and then proceeded with establishing the new colony 10 km (6 mi) further west and closer to the sea coast. An inscription seems to confirm the establishment of the old castrum of Ostia in the 7th century BC.[2] The oldest archaeological remains so far discovered date back to only the 4th century BC. The most ancient buildings currently visible are from the 3rd century BC, notably the Castrum (military camp); of a slightly later date is the Capitolium (temple of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva). The opus quadratum of the walls of the original castrum at Ostia provide important evidence for the building techniques that were employed in Roman urbanization during the period of the Middle Republic.

Duration: about 4 hours