Roma in un giorno: Musei Vaticani, Cappella Sistina e Colosseo

There was nothing on this booking that indicated it was 2 separate tours. The meeting location for the second one was what appeared to be an abandoned shop and the guide showed up just minutes before the tour was to start. The guide was knowledgeable but condescending and his jokes were completely inappropriate for our small group.

Since this was my 3rd time to Rome and have seen the Vatican and Colosseum in the past, I wanted my 37-year-old daughter to experience those places herself. I bought a 2-day extension on our Viking cruise to see Rome and bought a tour package to see the Vatican and Colosseum. Our tour of the Vatican started at 11:00 am and my booking information stated it would take only two hours. By 1:05 pm our tour guide was only a little more than a 1/2 done with the tour and we hadn't even gotten to the Sistine Chapel by then. Our second tour (albeit through a different tour company) of the Colosseum was to begin at 3:00 pm and we had to be at the meeting location at 2:45 pm. Our Viator customer service representative suggested these two tours and I "assumed" there would be enough time to do both tours; we were on our own to get transportation from the Vatican to the Colosseum. We felt the Vatican tour guide took much longer to explain all the frescos inside the Vatican as we watched other tour guides/groups pass us by. Because our tour of the Vatican wasn't done in time, we decided to leave the Vatican and briskly walked through the rest of the gallerias inside to scramble toward the exit and hailed a cab to the Colosseum meeting point. Because this was high peak season, I would highly not recommend doing both the Vatican and Colosseum in both days or allow at least 4 hours in between tours or do on two separate days. I understand every tour guide is different and some are more experienced with getting people through the time allowed for the tour, which was supposed to be 2 hours. And I don't think the Viator customer service representative understood how tight of a squeeze it was to fit both of these tours in together in one-day...and shame on them. I believe I was taken advantage of by the Viator representative to suggest doing both of these tours in one-day.

Our tour guide was excellent. She went at a comfortable pace and REALLY knew so much about everything that had to do with Vatican city. We highly recommend!

Why two stars? Well it would have been 1-star if they haven't turned up, but they did so an extra star. Well done. Six of us had a single day in Rome, we wanted to make the most of it. I kept in touch with the tour operator for several days before confirming details of our party and to set out expectations as the description is vague. The afternoon before I got a call to say they cannot show us around the Colosseum as the venue had ran out of tour guide tickets. Not a great start but we can work around that. We met at the agreed location with 3 other tourists on time then were escorted to a second location to pick up another 4 tourists on the tour and to be passed to another guide. This guide from another operator took us up to the Vatican queue and passed us to another guide. Don't be thinking if you book a large group, it's only for you! It seems like there are several operators and guides all merging each taking a cut. When we got into the Vatican we got our headsets but we struggled to understand our guide, not just our group of 6 but the entire group of 12 or so. The guides English was very good but she spoke with a very heavy Italian accent and at very fast and mumbled pace. Our guide seemed to get into many disagreements with other tour guides and seemed to be very knowledgeable on sistine chapel paintings but none of us picked anything up. Our group caught insightful pieces of information from other tour operators, I wish I had asked them who they were so I could recommend. As we were rushed at pace through the museum the group had no time to top and look and if you did stop for just a minute the radio was out of range and was useless. Some of the group were just frustrated and wanted to just explore at more there own pace and learn from the descriptions so they dropped behind. Our guide kept saying "Why are none of you asking questions?". Our group asked 3 questions, each time she said "I don't know". I was slightly out of radio range due to the crowds when we got to a large red stone bowl. I asked what it was and our guide said "we don't know. It was just a piece of furniture in the emperor's home". I later looked it up and it was called Nero's Bath, a significant piece of the museum. Two of the group decided to wonder off themselves as they were frustrated with the tour which lead to us hanging around for 15 minutes to wait for them in the only place of the museum there was nothing to look at. We decided to stick with the tour and perhaps after the tour was finished we could circle back and look at our leisure. However right after the Sistine Chapel the tour exists you right outside with no re-entry. This was not the fault of the tour operator, but I think next time we will book with a different operator at our own leisure. At the end of the tour, I asked our group "each say one thing they have learned?". A look of blank and bemused faces was hilarious until I told them how much they owed me for this "quality tour". A couple of days later I fed back to the tour operator these details via the WhatsApp conversation I had with them but never received a response. I requested via Viator the tour guide part of it be refunded. Our group received a small reimbursement which was better than nothing but no apology or indication our feedback would be taken onboard.

My trip was wonderful. It left on time. It was better than expected. The knowledge and professionalism of my tour guide made it a great experience!

We had a fantastic day and I mean all day. I was able to see so much of 3 places I never thought I would and the guide were great. They had so much information and you could ask any questions you wanted and always received and answer. I would do this again

The best part was Roberto in our tour in the coliseum. We were with our children and he make sure the kids understand and were able to see themselves back in time. Everything was on time no delay and no long lines to do will Highly recommend for someone with short time to explore Rome.

Excellent tour to avoid the lines and hear interesting information. Tour company and meeting point is on a side street above Colosseum- not far from metro stop or easy by taxi. Includes listening devices so you can hear the guide well. Daniella is great. It’s a very good overview of the Colosseum with some historical context.

Cristina de Santis due war, tour guide of the Colosseum and forum, excellent!!!! We liked it very, very pleasant and fun. Highly recommended.

Irene was knowledgeable and friendly! We enjoyed touring the Vatican with her! The coliseum was cool and a must do!