Visiting Rome

There is not one Rome, but many. The Rome of the emperors and the Rome of the Christian martyrs. The Rome of powerful popes and that of the catacombs where the first followers of Jesus would bury their dead. There is the Ancient Rome and the Medieval Rome, that of the Renaissance and that of the Baroque, and many more. There is Vatican City! We at Roma Experience have the passion and commitment to take you through the mazes of the Eternal City, Rome, Florence and Vatican City, to show you the best of a city that has attracted millions of visitors and pilgrims for centuries. You will discover Rome’s secrets and hidden gems, admire the highlights of a multi-layered metropolis, with thousands of years of history and incredible stories to be told. Read about Rome attractions and highlights in the next paragraph, or skip to the next section to learn about our most popular Guided tours of Rome and Vatican city!

Touristic Attractions

Learn more about Italy and about the history of Rome, read our in-detail free guides on how to visit the Vatican by yourself, on how to purchase a Colosseum ticket, or just how to avoid the crowd when in Rome, what to do at night, where to spend less, or even where to spend more if this is what you want during your Rome trip. Our free guides of Rome and Vatican City cover most, if not the most important sites in the Eternal City, and provide practical and historical information that would allow you to properly plan your Italian trip, decide your itinerary, select the touristic attractions to see or avoid, make up your mind about the budget to invest in this or that activity, possibly to decide what guided tour experience to join. And, if at the end of the day, you want to read, and learn, even more, take a look at our Rome blog as well!

Guided Tours of Rome

We have a wide range of day and night tours available in Rome and Vatican City. All our guided tours are designed with the goal in mind to make your stay in the Eternal City a memorable experience. Our tour experiences in Rome, Florence and the Vatican are led by the best English-speaking local guides. All itineraries include skip-the-line admission tickets, and we have a limit of maximum 12 people per group unless indicated. Private tours are also available for all the cities in Italy where we are present: Rome, Florence, Vatican City, Naples, Amalfi and Pompeii. Join our top-rated tours of Rome and the Vatican. Choose your preferred small-group Rome tour or private Rome tour below. You have an overview of our most popular itineraries below. Otherwise, you can browse all our city sightseeing tours from the top menu above, or search Rome tours by date, on our Small-Group Tour Calendar for Rome and the Vatican.

Rome Tours

When it comes to Rome Tours, you have many options to choose from. We have designed small-group tours of Rome and, to meet the needs and plans of all our guests, Private tours of Rome that cover all the main highlights and off-the-beaten-path itineraries in the Eternal city.

Most Popular Rome Tours

You can visit Rome ancient city and the Colosseum, or you can choose to talk a walk of today’s Rome city centre. Or both if you like! You can opt for a walking tour of the Papal basilicas with private car included, or take a stroll through the Jewish Ghetto and Trastevere to discover the Jewish heritage and one of the oldest most picturesque Rome neighbourhoods. If you are an art lover, visit the magnificent Borghese Gallery with a private tour guide, but if you love Roman history, make sure you don’t miss Rome ancient city and the Colosseum. There are many options you can choose from (jump straight to our Colosseum Tours section for more details.). We offer Colosseum Underground Tours in intimate groups of just 12 people or less, but we now also have an option for those who want to visit the Underground of the Colosseum and the Ancient City in a larger group of 24. Now you can also visit the Colosseum Belvedere and the Colosseum top tiers in the same tour with the underground area: take a look at our new and original All-In-One Colosseum Tour.

Off-the-beaten-path Rome Tours

Speaking of unique Rome tours, we are the only tour company in Rome offering a most amazing and unique Rome at Dawn. This small-group tour of Rome will allow you to see the city centre without being bothered by midday photo-bombing crowds. On a different note, if you travel to the Eternal City in a spiritual quest of Christian roots, or you just have a lay curiosity for religious history, we offer a small-group tour of the Roman Catacombs that is just perfect to explore how the faith in Jesus Christ was experienced in the first centuries after his death. Our Rome Catacombs Tour includes transportation to/from Rome City Center and the Catacombs on the Appian Way. So that you don’t have to worry about getting there! We encourage you also to consider our famous tour of the Papal Basilicas that includes all the major papal basilicas in Rome (except St Peter’s which you would visit on any of our Vatican Tour together with the Sistine Chapel,) churches as important and beautiful St John in Lateran, St Paul Outside the Walls and St Mary Major. Finally, don’t overlook this brand-new exceptional and unique Virtual Tour of Rome Ancient City and the Colosseum, that which the next paragraph discusses in detail. If you are an art lover and you are looking for a really unique experience, off-the-beaten-path consider our original Restoring Caravaggio: VIP Rome Tour. Another amazing, little known, off-the-beaten-path tour of Rome, believe it or not, is Nero’s Palace tour which you can explore and book at our Domus Aurea Tour page.

Virtual Reality Tour of Rome

You can now visit the Ancient Rome and the Colosseum on our unique Virtual Tour of Rome and Colosseum. This is a walking guided tour led by an expert archaeologist and tour guide, in a group of 12 people or less. So it is more than a 3D tour of Rome because you walk around Rome for real. You walk and stand in today’s Rome but you see the ancient Rome. You will see Rome as the Roman emperors and Rome’ citizens saw it 2,000+ years ago. If you ever wonder how antiquity can become a fully-immersive hi-tech experience, you have found your answer. Join our unique and original Virtual tour of Rome ancient city and the Colosseum. At the beginning of the tour, you will be given 3D glasses to use during the itinerary at selected viewpoints. We have an incredible number of accurate historical reconstruction of ancient Rome and the Colosseum that will simply leave you breathless. Great for kids!

Colosseum Tours

We at Roma Experience have designed a wide choice of Colosseum Tours to match everyone’s needs, wishes and plans. Choose your favourite tour below and plan in advance your trip to Rome. All our Colosseum tours are run by English-speaking amazing guides who just make the glorious history of Rome come to life. You will awe at the beauty of the ancient buildings, you will marvel at the architectural accomplishment of ancient Roman engineers, you will learn about the daily life of the Romans, you will admire the great deeds of famous gladiators, emperors and heroes that made Rome the Eternal City, you will enjoy a Rome day tour with your family and friends that, we hope, you will remember forever with a smile on your mouth and a sense of amazement in your heart. Choose below from some of the best tours in Rome, and join today the great family of Roma Experience.

Visiting the Vatican

Vatican City is the smallest state in the world, but one of the greatest, if you look at it from the point of view of the amount of artistic and spiritual achievements within its walls. Not many know that the Vatican is not actually the official seat of the pope, although the religious leader has his address there. The official seat of the pope is actually the Basilica of St John in Lateran, in the area called San Giovanni, not too far from the Colosseum. St John in Lateran is one of the four other Papal Basilicas in Rome, together with St Peter’s Basilica, St Mary Major and St Paul Outside the Walls. But the man of God has his office in Vatican City and it has been so for so many centuries now, that is difficult to think that he could be anywhere else. But there is a very important reason why the popes wanted to be in Vatican City. They sought to ideally connect with the first of all popes, St Peter, who is said to be buried right there, under the Basilica built in his honour: St Peter’s Basilica. The Vatican is, so to speak, a sort of diamond, a precious stone nestled in the city of Rome. And like a sun, around which many planets spin, it has hundreds of churches scattered here and there in the Eternal city; more than 800, actually!

How to Make your Vatican Tour Amazing

While Vatican City is a country in its own right, the connections with the city of Rome are so many that the two are almost one thing together. The history of Rome is so intertwined with that of the Vatican and the Church that words do not do justice to the complexity of the situation. So while you can go the Vatican hill — near the Roman neighbourhood of Prati, Ottaviano Metro Station on the A line being the closest subway stop to the Vatican museums — to visit the sites where St Peter was buried and other popes have been ruling for centuries, there are many other magnificent sites intimately connected with Vatican City. Two, in particular, are worth being mentioned here: The papal basilicas and the catacombs. There are four papal basilicas and tens of catacombs in Rome. Both played such a big part in the history of the Church and Vatican City that we recommend to keep this in mind when visiting the Vatican or planning a Vatican tour. To make your tour of the Vatican more meaningful, consider pairing it with a tour of the Catacombs and the other Papal Basilicas!

Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums

When planning your Vatican tour, it is important to remember that not all the sites within Vatican city are managed under the same administration. While most Vatican tours include Museums, Sistine Chapel and St Peter’s Basilica, please remember that the administration of the first two sites (Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel) is different from that of the Basilica of St Peter. This is why, Vatican Night Tours for example, only have access to the museums and the famous chapel painted by Michelangelo, but not access to the basilica. But even if you take a Vatican day tour consider this: if you go without a tour guide, you first see the Vatican Museums and then you get to the Sistine Chapel. Once there, if you don’t have a guide, you are sent back to the start. Whereas, if you are with an official guide, you can go directly to St Peter’s Basilica through a dedicated passage. This is important to know because if you are planning to visit both sites, you might need to go back to St Peter’s square and stand in line under the sun for another hour or so. To summarize, visiting the Vatican is amazing, but if you don’t know exactly what to do, you might waste some of precious time and energy. Taking a Small-Group Vatican Tour or a Private Vatican Tour is an effective way not only to learn and admire the highlights of Vatican City but also, at the end of the day, to save money and time.

Best Vatican Tours

Check out brand-new original tour From Dark To Light. This stunning full-day combo tour will take you through a unique itinerary that includes the underground exploration of the Roman Catacombs and Vatican City, including Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St Peter’s Basilica. During both tour sections, you will be in a small-group tour, led by an expert licensed guide. If you just want to tour Vatican City without the Catacombs, check out our original Vatican Experience: For this popular small-group Vatican tour, we have three different start times to meet everyone’s needs. There is a morning tour starting at 8:30 am, an afternoon tour starting at 1:30 pm, and finally an Early Morning Vatican tour starting at 7:30 am, before the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel open to the general public. This way you can see these famous sites without the notorious late morning crowd.

For more option please visit our top-rated page of Vatican Tours. All our Vatican City experiences include Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St Peter’s Basilica, except the Vatican Night Tour which includes only the Museums and the Sistine Chapel, but not the Basilica, as churches are closed at night. Even the big one!

Shore Excursions to Florence and Pompeii

If you are a cruise passenger arriving in Rome, Naples or Livorno consider one of our top-rated Shore Excursions. Visit the most famous Italian cities in just one day with a private driver and a private tour guide at your disposal.

Experience Rome. Experience More.