Rome in a Day Walking Tour
| Group Tour | Yes | Private Tour | Yes |
|---|
| Tour Time: | 9am | Days Available: | Saturday (Sat/Sun*) |
| Tour Duration: | 8 hours (5 + 3) | Tour Type: | Walking |
| Tour Time: | 9am / 10am | Days Available: | Every Day * |
| Tour Duration: | 8 hours (5 + 3) | Tour Type: | Walking |
Meeting Point Information
| Group Tour Fees: | Adults €170 | Students €135 | Children 6-18 €125 | Children under 6 Free |
| Private Tour Fees: | First 2 Adults €590 | Each additional Adult €135 |
Each additional Student €120 |
Each additional Child €120 |
Categories
Tour Description
The only way to see Rome and the Vatican in a single day!
Just see what we cover:
Colosseum - Roman Forum - Palatine Hill - Capitoline Hill - Piazza Venezia - The Pantheon - Trevi Fountain - Spanish Steps - Vatican Museums - Sistine Chapel - St. Peter's Basilica
This is the most inclusive and in-depth day-tour available in Rome.
Our tour is divided into two parts, which can be taken over two days if you do not feel like touring for the whole day.
Part 1: Best of Rome - 9am - 2pm
We begin our tour of the History of Rome at the very beginning - the Palatine Hill, where it all began. According to tradition, it was on this hill, almost 3,000 years ago, that the twins Romulus and Remus laid the foundation stones of what would become the Eternal City. We separare fact from fiction, legend and propaganda as we bring you the real story of the hill and its surroundings - enjoying magnificent views of the Circus Maximus on the North Side, the Roman Forum on the South Side, as well as the skyline of Rome, with all of its towering churches, monuments and domes, including that of St. Peter's Basilica, which you will visit at the end of the tour!
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From the Palatine Hill, we move on to the Roman Forum, scene of triumphal parades, political meetings and speeches, funerals, animal sacrifices and bloody games. All of these events have left their mark on the area, and are still evidenced today by the ruins of the buildings and monuments that have stood defiantly for over 1,500 years. As you stand in the Roman Forum, you cannot but feel the history that is all around you, and your Real Rome Tours guide will explain this history to you in a way that makes it easy to understand, bringing the area to life for you!
We exit the Roman Forum by the Via Sacra, which takes us into the Colosseum, skipping the public lines to get in. Inside, we take you to the first and ground level, for some of the most amazing and vivid views of this theatre of death. No description can prepare you for your first impression of the Colosseum once you are inside - you have to experience it to feel it! Standing there, at the same level of the gladiators, you can look around you at the remaining walls and easily imagine the screams of the mob of 50,000 Roman spectators, baying for blood!
Leaving the Colosseum, we take you along the via dei Fori Imperiali, past the remains of more Roman Forums of the Imperial Age, which are best survived by the majestic Column of Trajan, until we reach Piazza Venezia. From here, we invite you to climb the steps designed by Michelangelo to reach his small piazza, Campidoglio, which lies atop the Capitoline Hill, once the home to the mighty Temple of Jupiter.
Leaving this part of Ancient Rome, we delve deeper into the city, exploring how less well-preserved parts of the Ancient city are still felt all around the city today. The Sacred Area, today home to Rome's stray cats so called the Cat Sanctuary, is a recently-excavated site which has revealed the existence of 4 temples in the Field of Mars (Campus Martius) - the area where the Roman army trained and this area will be further explored in the next hour of our tour.
A short walk from the Sacred Area brings us to the next highlight of our visit - the Pantheon. The greatest surviving example of a pagan building transformed into a Christian Church, this edifice has stood the test of time, surviving to this day in almost exactly the same condition as when it was first built 18 centuries ago. It continues to astound, marvel and mystify even today's great engineers, just as it has always impressed Rome's citizens, immigrants and pilgrims over the years. Even the great Michelangelo was moved to say, upon first seeing its immense dome (still today the biggest diameter-dome in Rome) that it must have been built
"not by man, but by angels".
We exit the Roman Forum by the Via Sacra, which takes us into the Colosseum, skipping the public lines to get in. Inside, we take you to the first and ground level, for some of the most amazing and vivid views of this theatre of death. No description can prepare you for your first impression of the Colosseum once you are inside - you have to experience it to feel it! Standing there, at the same level of the gladiators, you can look around you at the remaining walls and easily imagine the screams of the mob of 50,000 Roman spectators, baying for blood!
Leaving the Colosseum, we take you along the via dei Fori Imperiali, past the remains of more Roman Forums of the Imperial Age, which are best survived by the majestic Column of Trajan, until we reach Piazza Venezia. From here, we invite you to climb the steps designed by Michelangelo to reach his small piazza, Campidoglio, which lies atop the Capitoline Hill, once the home to the mighty Temple of Jupiter.
Leaving this part of Ancient Rome, we delve deeper into the city, exploring how less well-preserved parts of the Ancient city are still felt all around the city today. The Sacred Area, today home to Rome's stray cats so called the Cat Sanctuary, is a recently-excavated site which has revealed the existence of 4 temples in the Field of Mars (Campus Martius) - the area where the Roman army trained and this area will be further explored in the next hour of our tour.
A short walk from the Sacred Area brings us to the next highlight of our visit - the Pantheon. The greatest surviving example of a pagan building transformed into a Christian Church, this edifice has stood the test of time, surviving to this day in almost exactly the same condition as when it was first built 18 centuries ago. It continues to astound, marvel and mystify even today's great engineers, just as it has always impressed Rome's citizens, immigrants and pilgrims over the years. Even the great Michelangelo was moved to say, upon first seeing its immense dome (still today the biggest diameter-dome in Rome) that it must have been built
"not by man, but by angels".
Tour Details
Your guide will now bring you to the Trevi Fountain, where you will learn the history and original purpose of the fountain, the significance of its location and the origin of several of the fountain's legends. You will have time to throw your own coins in the fountains, ensuring another visit to the Eternal City in the future!
The final stop on the first part of our itinerary brings us to the Spanish Steps - situated in one of Rome's most beautiful piazzas, Piazza di Spagna, and again, rich in history. Your guide will explain this history and allow time for photographs, before ending the "Rome" section of the tour.
The Vatican is a short metro ride from Piazza di Spagna, and you can choose to either travel with your guide on the metro or join us one hour later for the Vatican portion of the tour.
Tour Details
We begin our Vatican tour in the Vatican museums, skipping the public lines to get in. We take you down some of the most world-renowned galleries in the world today, including the Gallery of Tapestries, Gallery of Maps and the Gallery of Candelabra. These galleries, along with the courtyards, small rooms and even the corridors are rich with priceless works of art - statues, oil paintings, frescoes, mosaics, tapestries - as well as being richly decorated on every wall and ceiling.
From here, we take you to to admire some of the most impressive fresco paintings in the world - those of Michelangelo on the ceiling and walls of the Sistine Chapel. The stubborn, awkward and reluctant genius from Florence had to be coerced, threatened and even beaten on his back by the Pope with his cane in order to complete the decoration of the 120-foor long vault, which he finished over 4 years, to the wonder of all his contemporaries. He returned 30 years later to fresco the 40-foot wall behind the Pope's altar with his vivid and frightening masterpiece "The Last Judgement".
Today, thanks to over a decade of careful restoration, both works can be admired and studied in detail, which your guide, an expert in Art History, will do for you. We will also discuss the history and various uses of the building in which you stand, still today the place of election of every Pope.
Leaving the Sistine Chapel through a special door reserved for authorised guides, we will take a shortcut to St Peter's Basilica*, again avoiding the long lines from St Peter's Square. Here you will see such magnificent sculptures as Michelangelo's Pietà, Bernini's Monument to Alexander VII, the 13th-century bronze statue of St Peter and Bernini's amazing Baldacchino above the altar of St Peter.
You will also be able to admire the accomplishment of the 9 "maestroes" - the chief architects who, over a 120-year period, masterminded this amazing building. Bramante, da Sangallo, Raphael and of couse Michelangelo are among the most famous of these names.
Tour Details.
From Kings and Emperors of Ancient Rome, to warrior Popes and brilliant artists and architects, we explore all facets of Rome's history on this tour, leaving you with a knowledge and appreciation of the Eternal City that you would not believe possible at the outset. Along the way, you will have plety of opportunities to take some splendid photographs, and we bring you to the best viewing points to do so. This is a long tour, punctuated by short breaks for gelato or coffee, and with a one-hour lunch break, that will leave you tired but, we hope, enlightened and with the inspiration to learn more about the history of this most fascinating city!
Note 1: If you are arriving by cruise for just one day in Rome, you will not arrive into Rome in time to join the Small Group Tour. We have created a variety of options for private tours for parties arriving by cruise, with both walking and driving tours available.
Please check out our Cruise Excursions page for details and rates for private parties.
Note 2: If this seems like too long a day for you, and you have 2 days in Rome, you can still take the same tour and split it over two days. You may join our group for the Best of Rome tour in the morning, which is 5 hours long, and take the Vatican City portion of the tour (3 hours) on another day.
For group tours, you may take the Vatican portion on Saturday and the Best of Rome on Sundays only.
Note 1: If you are arriving by cruise for just one day in Rome, you will not arrive into Rome in time to join the Small Group Tour. We have created a variety of options for private tours for parties arriving by cruise, with both walking and driving tours available.
Please check out our Cruise Excursions page for details and rates for private parties.
Note 2: If this seems like too long a day for you, and you have 2 days in Rome, you can still take the same tour and split it over two days. You may join our group for the Best of Rome tour in the morning, which is 5 hours long, and take the Vatican City portion of the tour (3 hours) on another day.
For group tours, you may take the Vatican portion on Saturday and the Best of Rome on Sundays only.
Tour Details
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What Our Clients Say
-
“Our tour guide was outstanding. His knowledge of Rome and history was impressive.
He had a natural ability to communicate this wealth of knowledge in a way
that was easy to grasp and enjoyable. I look forward to visiting Rome again
in the future and highly recommend your company to everyone.
Thank you for a wonderful day in Rome full of amazing memories!”
– Shauna, USA -
“We had a great tour and we were very impressed and overwhelmed with the guide’s
abundance of knowledge! He was great and made it wonderful because we learned so much!
The group size was small which was very nice.
I will definitely recommend your company to others traveling to Rome!
Thank you.” - Kim, U.S. -
“Tour with Richie was wonderful. Everything we expected and more.
It was singlely the best decision we made when planning our trip!
Richie was very knowledgable and we enjoyed spending the day with him.”
– Kristy, USA -
“All three of our guides' level of historical, archeological and artistic expertise
is to be highly commended. I cannot say enough positive words about all three tours.”
- Wendy, Connecticut. -
“Your 3 tours made our time in Rome really worthwhile.
The sunset one with Richie was great; he was so helpful and informative.
The Vatican tour with Alexandra was equally good
and we could not get over how much of a difference it made to the holiday.
Thanks too for the easy to understand directions and meeting places,
we had absolutely no problems at all.
You are all wonderful……..” – Jenny, Slough -
“We had a wonderful tour and Richie was a great guide!
He was wonderful with the children (ages 7 and 4) as well as us adults.
We highly recommend him to others!
Thank you for helping us have a truly wonderful experience in Rome!
Also, a special hello and thank you to Richie!!
We still talk about him!”
- Susan, USA.