Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We booked special access guides for both primarily to avoid the crowds. I rarely like guides, but for those two venues, being able to enter an hour ahead of the normal opening time (Sistine chapel) & explore the lowest level (coliseum) were well worth the price. If I had not been traveling with a child, I might have been a little more willing to suffer the crowds, which are crazy. But the sites are well worth it.

What company did you use?

Viator - they subcontracted the coliseum tour to Dark Tours - they did an amazing job & it didn't feel rushed.. For the early access to Sistene chapel, I'm not sure who the final contractor was, but going 1h early meant no crowds, just your group of about 30 people.The guide took the time to point out stuff that my son was interested in. Note that Viator had several options for early access, including one with a breakfast. We did the simplest one with just access to the Sistene chapel, which still wasn't cheap. This was at Easter, so we knew it would be really packed. So happy to have done this.

Anonymous wrote:We went last summer with my kids, husband, his brother and my sister in law. We booked Vatican Museum and Colosseum in advance but did not book a guide. With kids we prefer to go at our own pace.

FYI summer is a terrible time to visit Rome - it is very hot and crazy crowded. We had an early entry time at the Colosseum which was great since we got in and out before he heat and massive crowds. We also had a morning entry at Vatican Museum but it was so, so crowded none of us enjoyed it. Way too many large groups and the kids were literally shoved around by all the visitors who would push past them to keep up with their guides. I don't recommend with kids.

Thanks for posting this, great advice. Was considering going with kids next year, but not anymore!

Dark Rome Tours and Walks of Italy are my favorite for Rome.

Anonymous wrote:We booked special access guides for both primarily to avoid the crowds. I rarely like guides, but for those two venues, being able to enter an hour ahead of the normal opening time (Sistine chapel) & explore the lowest level (coliseum) were well worth the price. If I had not been traveling with a child, I might have been a little more willing to suffer the crowds, which are crazy. But the sites are well worth it.

What company did you use?

You need tickets to the Coliseum? Times have changed!

Anonymous wrote:Please help me with how the process works to see both of these sites. I am thinking about purchasing tickets online from the official sites to avoid the lines. Would you book a guide to see both of these sites? Please just share what you know. Any info would be appreciated. It's my first trip to Rome. I'm a little intimidated and want to plan well. Just the pickpocket talk has me worried.

no guide necessary

We went last summer with my kids, husband, his brother and my sister in law. We booked Vatican Museum and Colosseum in advance but did not book a guide. With kids we prefer to go at our own pace.

FYI summer is a terrible time to visit Rome - it is very hot and crazy crowded. We had an early entry time at the Colosseum which was great since we got in and out before he heat and massive crowds. We also had a morning entry at Vatican Museum but it was so, so crowded none of us enjoyed it. Way too many large groups and the kids were literally shoved around by all the visitors who would push past them to keep up with their guides. I don't recommend with kids.

I've done both without a guide. I liked being able to wander at my own pace, linger at what particularly interested me. But I am a huge history buff, so I had basically been preparing for that trip since I was a child. Certainly did a decent amount of reading leading up to it.

One of my lasting memories of my first trip to Rome is sitting in the Coliseum, writing my in journal, taking my sweet time. I had dreamed of that trip since I was 11 years old. So glad I wasn't stuck dealing with being on a schedule.

We were just there in late May and we booked tours for both. I think we probably would have been fine just using an audio guide for the Colliseum. Our tour guide was good but I think it would have been fine without.

The vatican on the other and is a must for a guide. We had an incredible one that we booked through the Vatican official site. He gave us such detailed information that we actually knew what we were looking at. That being said, it is incredibly crowded. In the museum halls, you were packed in like sardines and the crowd just moves you. They really need to go to a system like the Borghese Gallery where they only let a set number of people in at a time. I swear it felt like 20,000 people were in the hallway at once. Sistine Chapel was the same. Between the thousands of people and the guard yelling "Silenzio" every time someone talked, it felt a little rushed so if you can spend the money to get in earlier like PP mentioned, that would be well worth it.

100% worth it to book a guided tour for Vatican. It's huge, there are a million rooms and it makes it a much better experience not to mention you don't have to wait un the insane lines! It wasn't cheap but it was worth it. We used Rome Walks.

Coliseum was booked for us by our B&B so we avoided the line. We used the Rick Steves podcasts instead of doing a tour and it was great. We used them a lot during our trip so we would know exactly what we were looking at

We booked special access guides for both primarily to avoid the crowds. I rarely like guides, but for those two venues, being able to enter an hour ahead of the normal opening time (Sistine chapel) & explore the lowest level (coliseum) were well worth the price. If I had not been traveling with a child, I might have been a little more willing to suffer the crowds, which are crazy. But the sites are well worth it.

We went last summer with kids. We bought the Roma pass to skip the lines at the Colosseum - well worth it. Because it's outside and big, it was not that crowded. There is a ticket office right on the road that leads to the Colosseum. For the Vatican, we did book a guide and tickets in advance. She helped us get around and explained things that we saw along the way, but it was still very, very crowded and hot. All of us were dropping in sweat when we finished.

Yes, book a guide at both. Both sites will give you little headsets to wear so you can wander a bit and still hear the guide speaking. Our vatican guide was invaluable. She did such an amazing job making a ridiculously overwhelming museum a smooth experience. The colliseum guide doesn't stand out in my mind (we toured the day we arrived; jet lag made me foggy), but I remember being glad we had someone to explain things.

We booked the vatican ahead of time. We walked up to the colliseum and had a ticket 15 minutes later.

It's been a while, but I don't think you need a guide for either. If you are the kind of person who like guides, then get one. Otherwise, a guidebook and reading (plenty of signs and labels in English at both spots) will get you all the info you need.
Rome is great! One of my favorite cities.

Please help me with how the process works to see both of these sites. I am thinking about purchasing tickets online from the official sites to avoid the lines. Would you book a guide to see both of these sites? Please just share what you know. Any info would be appreciated. It's my first trip to Rome. I'm a little intimidated and want to plan well. Just the pickpocket talk has me worried.