Rome

Private Tour: Ancient Rome Half-Day Walking Tour with Arena entrance and piazze

Badge of ExcellenceRome, Italy

Likely to Sell Out

From $260.64

Price varies by group size

Select Date and Travelers

up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)

3 hours 30 minutes
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

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Overview

See ancient Roman ruins and more on this morning or afternoon private walking tour. Visit key sites like the Colosseum and Roman Forum, enjoying skip-the-line access as you learn about the notorious gladiator competitions of old. Plus, stop for photo ops at the Trevi Fountain among other landmarks.

Ancient Rome tour including the Colosseum, led by an expert local guide
Explore Rome Colosseum’s first and second tiers and learn about the gladiatorial games
See top Rome attractions like Rome Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona
Enjoy a personalized experience with a private guide

Why Travelers Choose This Tour

Unlike on most Colosseum and Forum tours, you’ll also see the Pantheon and baroque sites like Trevi Fountain.

What's Included

Professional guide
Skip the Line entrance tickets

Gratuities
Hotel pickup and drop-off

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting point

Arch of Constantine
Via di S. Gregorio, 00184 Roma RM, Italy
Leaving the metro station Colosseo on the ground floor, cross the road to the Colosseum. Walk around the right side of the monument until you get to the Arch of Costantine. Our representative will be waiting right under the arch on the other side. Please ensure that you arrive 25 minutes before tour departure time.

Start time

10:00 AM

End point

Piazza Navona, 00186 Roma RM, Italy

What To Expect

After meeting your guide, your half-day Rome walking tour starts by skipping-the-line to enter the Colosseum.

With your dedicated guide, explore the first and second levels of this legendary amphitheater, learning interesting facts such as how seats were assigned according to social class. You also hear about the gruesome gladiator games, the Colosseum’s main attraction that provided much entertainment to the crowd. Then follow your guide back outside to walk around the neighboring streets, where the commercial and political center of ancient Rome once stood.

Head to the Roman Forum, where you check out historic ruins such as the Temple of Caesar and listen to stories about the power and backstabbing that went on during this period of Roman history. Other sites you see include the Arch of Septimius Severus, the colonnaded Regia, the Gemonian stairs and the Temple of Vespasian and Titus.

From here continue to Rome’s historic center to see well-known attractions like the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, and Piazza Navona. Check out the square’s three fountains designed by famous baroque sculptor Bernini before your tour ends here, the perfect central location from which you can continue exploring Rome on your own.

Roman Forum

1 minute • Admission Ticket Included

Piazza Venezia / Ancient City

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Trevi Fountain

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Pantheon

15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Piazza Navona

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Wheelchair accessible
The Colosseum has strict security restrictions. Due to metal detectors at the entrances of most attractions (and no bag check) it is forbidden to bring the following:
Stroller accessible

Near public transportation
Travelers should have a moderate physical fitness level
This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.

Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.

Traveler Photos

Reviews

4.5

1,821 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travelers.

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Showing 1-10 of 1,821 reviews

Surreal and Amazing Tour of Rome

Shawn_R, Jul 2022

This tour was awesome! We had a private tour where it was just us and our tour guide, Ian. He was SO knowledgeable and gave us so much insight and information about the Colosseum and the Forum and all that we saw. Standing in the Colosseum was surreal and so amazing. We loved everything about this tour and we highly recommend it.

Great tour, but

Ronald_M, Oct 2019

Great tour of wonderful sights, but guide too verbose on mundane things and tour was far more strenuous than description suggested. Still would do it again if we had the chance, but would be better prepared,

Had to cancel and forfeit our fee

Thomas_A, Sep 2019

We arrived in Rome but we're unable to find any way to get to the meeting point in Rome from the cruise port in time.

Great tour!

JAMIE_S, Aug 2019

Our your guide, Sonya, was great! She was very knowledgeable and very interactive with our small group of couples. She did a great job at explaining the history and answering our questions. I definitely recommend this tour

Impossible to find meeting point, terrible customer service. Don't just skip the line, skip this tour entirely.

CLAUDIO_V, Jul 2019

You walk down to the Colosseo, and you're greeted by a myriad of organized tours holding up extended umbrellas and signs high up in the air. Not these guys, these guys had two 5'3'' girls lazily walking around with clipboards. How am I supposed to find that? To make matters worse, the reservation voucher said the meeting point was "Piazza dell' Arco di Constantino" which of course doesn't exist but we were still able to deduct that it was somewhere around the Arco di Constantino. Still couldn't find them. When i called the phone number the rep i spoke was rude but I managed to get something useful out of her and after speaking with the info staff on location I was able to find the meeting point. We walked around for 30 minutes looking for them and we had now gotten there about 5 minutes past the start time and the tour had already left. The girl with the clipboard OFFERED (and i emphasize offered) to help, but she made no effort to actually help, and about 15 minutes later she wandered off with another tour and did not return. She had no intention to actually do anything. There was about a 20 minute wait for the security line. She could have very easily had us meet with the tour while they were waiting there. The only person that actually made an effort was the gentleman i believe his name was Sergio, and he put us on the next tour leaving. Great we're getting in now! However it turns out that they miscounted the number of people and they did not get enough tickets, so we got bumped off of this tour as well. Finally, Sergio then put us on a different tour from a different company, which was great, except for the fact that it was just a tour of the Colosseo and nothing else. At the end of the day we paid to gain easy access to the Colosseo with arena access and to explore the Palatine Hill and Forum with a guide. What we got was an incredibly frustrating 2 hours of walking around the outside of the Colosseo, followed by a short tour of only the Colosseo with no arena access. Its worth noting that the guide for this tour was excellent. We ended up buying tickets to the Forum and Palatine separately and went on our own using Rick Steves Audio guide. My advice? Go to the Forum and buy combo tickets for both the Colosseo and Forum as there is hardly ever a line, bring headphones, download the Rick Steves Audio Europe app, and do your own walking tour. Don't just skip the line, skip this tour entirely.

Great guide

Maria M, Jul 2019

Jan was incredibly informative, spoke excellent english and really seemed to enjoy giving the tour - despite the 98* weather and smoldering sun! The only thing we regretted was not staying for hte whole tour, we had just arrived in Rome that morning and between the heat and being tired from travel we just didn't have the energy to stay until the end.

I request a refund! see in my review!

Valerie_F, Jul 2019

I request a refund! I was at the meeting place well before the beginning of the tour, and I was assured by other tour guides who looked at my print out that indeed I was at the right spot too! Then I was told you all had left! Luckily a man helped me to catch up with a tour guide on the tail end and I had to pay euros instead of prepaying, but at least I I got to go, but it was not this same tout, it was much shorter! I paid through PagPal. Valerie Franco

THANKS GIUSEPPE!

Morgan M, May 2019

Tour was in the rain sadly, but our guide still did a great job not only keeping us dry but keeping us interested. Great way to see all the attractions, and learn the history as well!

Educational tour

Marsha_H, Sep 2018

Very educational tour. We had a relatively small group, our guide as very knowledgeable. Also very considerate of the group with appropriate breaks. I would strongly recommend the tour!

Fantastic tour. Our guide was...

Leonard_K, Jul 2018

Fantastic tour. Our guide was absolutely brilliant to be with He pointed out all the relevant sites and had great knowledge on everything he was showing/talking about.

Good overview of Roman history

Joyce_J, Jul 2018

Joseph was very knowledgeable, a lots of information packed in 3.5 hours. Don’t miss the best gelato at Trevi Fountain.

I really enjoyed this tour it was...

vanreen R, May 2018

I really enjoyed this tour it was worth it, our tour guide Maria was very informative and patient with us, she answered all our questions and made the tour a very joyful event. I did the early morning tour 09.15, I personally think doing these tours in the mornings are better because you miss the crowd, each time you move on you are a step ahead of the crowd.

A great tour. Our guide was friendly...

Peta_W, May 2018

A great tour. Our guide was friendly and knowledgeable and gave us some awesome tips for navigating Rome. This was a great orientation to the sites of Rome. I'd recommend it for your first day in this magnificent city.

Our tour guide was an archeologist...

Andrew S, Apr 2018

Our tour guide was an archeologist so this was brilliant. They really loved telling you all the information about what we saw and where we went etc. To be standing listening to her and then told, turn around and you will see Julius Caesar's place of burial, really brings the history of Rome to life. Rome has a lot of history and this tour was a great way to be introduced to some of the best of it. Well worth it!

We signed up our family of 6 and my...

Dolores_M, Mar 2018

We signed up our family of 6 and my parents for this tour, and we all LOVED it! Our guide, Joseph Giuseppe was wonderful. He was not only knowledgeable and friendly, but he was very considerate of my parents who are both in their late 70's. We really saw more than expected on the tour. We also liked that we had time to take pictures at each site and do a little exploring. It wasn't just a drive-by tour.

Francesca was fun and professional...

Jennifer A, Mar 2018

Francesca was fun and professional. She knew her stuff and managed us well, finding the best lines, how to get to the under used bathrooms and where we should be cautious. Very entertaining. Thank you!!

This walking tour was excellent...

Philip Z, Mar 2018

This walking tour was excellent. Guide was quite knowledgeable and satisfying considering we walked a long ways almost across the city.

Overall, not a very interesting...

Joseph W, Mar 2018

Overall, not a very interesting tour. Could have done better with an guide who expanded your imagination of what ancient Rome was actually like. Very flat delivery and hard to understand at times. While meeting the requirements of what was covered in the tour, didn't really add any colour... could have done as well self-guided. Good introduction to Ancient Rome for a first timer, but overall... just point me towards the Coliseum, give me a map and some interesting facts and I can get through it myself. Skip the line? Not really!!! Was overhearing some of the facts being given by other tour groups... their tours sounded much more interesting.

Highly recommend, we were able to see...

daisy s, Mar 2018

Highly recommend, we were able to see almost everything Rome has to offer!

Very much enjoyed the tour, our guide...

Carlos H, Feb 2018

Very much enjoyed the tour, our guide was excellent and very knowledgeable!

...