UPDATED MAR 2020. Most of the time, people call me Katie. But for one sunny day in January, I was simply known as Gladiator! Ok, ok, I’ll admit that maybe that was only in my head and maybe I’ve seen the movie Gladiator one too many times. Anyway, I had wanted to visit the Colosseum since I saw that movie. It was high on my bucket list and it’s actually a little surprising that I have lived in Italy for a year and a half and still not seen it. I decided it was finally time to make it happen, so I took a day trip to Rome and joined a guided tour of the Colosseum with Walks of Italy. Here’s how it went.
Maximize Your Visit With This Guided Tour Of The Colosseum In Rome
Disclaimer
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Basic information for taking a guided tour of the Colosseum
Location: Rome, Italy
Company: Walks of Italy
Tour: VIP Colosseum Underground Tour w/ Roman Forum and Palatine Hill
Cost: 99 Euro (check their website for up to date information)
What to bring:
- Water bottle (this collapsible one
would be convenient for travel) - Good walking shoes
- Camera (I used a Sony Alpha a6000 and my GoPro)
- Cash to tip your guide
- Tissues for toilet breaks just in case
- Hat & sunglasses
would be convenient for travel)
and 
The tour I chose
I partnered with Walks of Italy to share this experience with you and chose the VIP Colosseum Underground Tour With Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.
It ran for just under four hours and was packed from start to finish.
I wanted to see as much as possible and this was a great choice for me to be able to do that, but they offer a variety of guided tours of the Colosseum and other sights in Rome.
Benefits of a guided tour of the Colosseum
I think however you see the Colosseum, it’s best to do it as part of a tour.
Going there and taking a selfie means you miss out on so much interesting information about this historic arena. One of the benefits was having someone to share the stories with you which brought the whole place to life.
Another benefit was the ability to skip the lines. Once I saw the lines for people wanting to enter the Colosseum, I knew I made the right choice.
With the tour, you get to walk past everyone in the line (sorry guys!), go through security, and get exploring. For a place as iconic and popular as the Colosseum, this is a huge time saver. I don’t know about you, but anytime I can spend less time in line and more time exploring, I am happy.
Add a personal touch to your tour
If you’d like to add more meaning to your tour and learn about what it’s like to have The Colosseum as your daily office, pick up a copy of my latest book, “Your Vacation, My Office
.”
It profiles people who work in the travel industry around the world, including a tour guide from Walks of Italy, to offer a behind the scenes look in their amazing offices with real talk perspectives.
Go underground
My favorite part of the tour was being able to go underground to where the Gladiators and animals were held.
It’s hard to imagine what it would have been like for them, but this is as close as you can get and it was equal parts eerie and fascinating.
Learning about the logistics of moving the animals and people to the arena was quite fascinating for me.
The tour allows you a complete experience because you see above ground and underground the Colosseum.
I love this guided tour of the Colosseum because you can skip the lines and go underground.
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My tour guide
My tour guide for the day was Julietta who was incredibly knowledgeable when it came to Roman history. She was like a walking encyclopedia.
Not only was she knowledgeable, but she was also a people person with a passion for sharing history with others.
With humor, candid nature, and contagious passion for history, she was very easy to listen to and learn from.
Tour the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill
After exploring the ins and outs of the Colosseum, we walked to the nearby Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.
These were an added bonus in the tour for me because my real ‘must-see’ was the Colosseum.
Even though I didn’t know much about them beforehand, I’m so glad they were part of the tour because it was fascinating.
This is what made the tour great value for money in my opinion because you got to see so much.
You don’t only get to see the Colosseum but also underground it and then these two sites and skipping the lines the whole time.
Small group tour
One of the downsides of doing walking tours can be getting lost in a large group.
When the groups are large sometimes you can get stuck at the back not being able to hear what the guide is saying. Or sometimes it’s more commercialized, moving at a pace to keep the majority of the group happy with limited flexibility or room for questions.
This is not the case with the Walks of Italy tours and it’s another huge benefit of the tour.
We had a small group going through the Colosseum and they max it out at 24 people. This allowed us to have a more personalized experience, where we could ask questions whenever they came up.
We still moved along at a good pace and were able to see a lot in our 4 hours, but it didn’t feel like a rushed big group which I appreciated.
We were each given an earpiece that wirelessly connected to a microphone that Julietta was wearing. This way we didn’t have to be standing directly in front of her to hear what she was saying.
You can control the volume individually and it was especially helpful as we were going through the more crowded areas.
Overall thoughts
I love the feeling when you take a chance on something and it ends up working out. This was one of those experiences for me.
In my opinion, the tour was great value for money with all that is included and the ability to skip the lines.
If you want to not only see the Colosseum but also experience it and learn more about it, then I highly recommend taking one of the tours with Walks of Italy.
For more information:
Visit the Walks Of Italy website and follow them on Facebook & Instagram
Other guides to help you plan a visit to Italy
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