Ultimate Rome Tour

1) Small group size – 8-10 people. This is a fraction of the size of many tour company tours, but is designed to feel like a family vacation and allow you to truly experience the Italian culture.

2) Guides – Full-Time service of Adventure On Tour guide and local experts

3) All tours and admission at no extra cost – more than 20 activities

Rome walking tour, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Colosseum Tour, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum, Piazza Navona, Vatican and Sistine Chapel Tour, St. Peter’s Basilica, Santa Maria Maggiore, San Clemente, Santa Maria degli Angeli, Tivoli, Hadrian’s Villa, Baths of Caracalla, Campo de Fiori, Borghese Gallery, Catacombs Tour, Private Car Tour, Victor Emmanuel Monument and more.

4) Group transportation – train, bus, private car tour

5) 6 nights accommodations – in a memorable unique hotel downtown around the corner from the Trevi Fountain. This location makes it easy to step out your door and into this walkable city of adventure, culture and fun!

6) Meals – Meal time is a very important time in Italy. Enjoyed slowly by Italians for conversation, pleasure and culinary delights. Although we offer most meals, there are times when we are not together as a group during meal time. We did this to minimize interruption to your free time and maximize your time to see the amazing sites you don’t want to miss, so we leave these few meals up to you (with recommendations of course).

7) Tips and Gratuities – All of our tours include tips and gratuities for drivers and other activities. This is done on purpose to remove any conflict of interest for our local guides so they don’t feel compelled to take you to shops where they may get a kick back.  This happens quite often on many tours, so we hire only the best to avoid the problem.

8) Free Gifts – Each tour participant will receive a European power adapter and group luncheon before the trip date. Power adapters are a necessary part of travel in Italy because they use a different electrical system than in the U.S., so just for signing up for our trips we give you one for free to take on the tour. Also, because there are many details to go over before the trip, we provide the opportunity to get together for a group lunch for anyone who is able to attend.  Past tour attendees have found this lunch a great way to get personal questions answered, hear additional details about the tour and get to know others going on the trip, including your guide.

9) Tour price – Guaranteed as soon as you have placed your deposit. Even if the tour price goes up, you will not have to pay the additional amount.

10) Single Supplement – For some of the tours, a single supplement is offered. If you would like to make sure you have a room all to yourself, you can pay an additional fee.

11) Travel Agent Referral – Because you may want to extend your vacation on either end of the tour we will get you in contact with a AAA travel agent to help with flights and accommodations before or after the tour.

12) You are responsible for your drinks and free time sightseeing. Please see our terms and conditions for important details about the above information.

Day 1) Welcome to Italy

Welcome to Rome! After your airport transfer brings you to our penthouse apartment overlooking the Colosseum you will have time to get settled. At 5pm we will gather up and head out on a walking orientation tour of the area. Half way through our walk we will stop for dinner at a family run establishment just outside of Campo De Fiori. After dinner we finish our walk in the moonlight ending at the Spanish Steps. A short metro ride back to the Colosseum ends our day with some wonderful night pictures.  Activity level – Heavy

Day 2) Private Car tour and Tivoli

We spend the morning on a private car tour around Rome with stops at exciting  places like the Catacombs and the Baths of Caracalla before we head out to Tivoli to see Hadrian’s Villa. While here we enjoy gorgeous views as we eat lunch. After lunch we head to see Hadrian’s Villa, then are taken back to our place in Rome.  Activity level – Heavy

Day 3) Ancient Rome

We start the day with an amazing guided tour of the Colosseum including the Hypogeum and the third level. After the tour you have free time to explore the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill as much or as little as you’d like. We meet back together in the evening for a wonderful dinner in our own neighborhood. Activity level – Heavy

Day 4) Vatican Day

The Vatican Museum winds around for over a mile of amazing and wondrous sites that end at the Sistine Chapel. Our local expert guide will lead us through this awe-inspiring museum. After our tour we will have lunch together, then walk to the front of St. Peters Basilica and enter. Once inside you will be set free to take as little or as long as you’d like to see the inside of the basilica. After the basilica you are free for the remainder of the day to explore on your own.  Activity level – Heavy

Day 5) Church Day

This morning is free time. You have the option to go the see the Pope on his Wednesday speaking to start your day. We will meet as a group at the penthouse to head off on a tour of a few amazing churches, Santa Maria Maggiore, Basilica San Clemente and Santa Maria degli Angeli. We will have amazing Persian food for lunch and dinner at a local pizza place back by the Colosseum.  Activity level – Moderate

Day 6) Borghese Day

A guided tour of the Borghese Gallery starts this day off wonderfully. After the tour we have plenty of time to walk the Borghese Gardens for as long or as little as you like, since you are free for the rest of the day until Dinner. We will meet for dinner at the penthouse and walk a couple blocks to an amazing restaurant for our farewell dinner and talk about how much fun we had this week.  Activity level -Moderate

Day 7) Depart Italy

After breakfast we bid our farewells and head out with the airport transfer or to other places in Italy and Europe.

An important part of traveling and having a true Italian experience is getting around the towns, activities and hotels. On this trip you will need to be able to handle the following things, with a smile.

1) Attend to your own luggage in all aspects of the trip. For example, lifting your suitcase onto trains, buses or boats, carrying it up stairs in hotels, and pulling it down streets, sometimes on uneven ground for several blocks at a time. (Hint: Pack light with a small suitcase)

2) Be able to be on your feet for hours at a time. This can mean walking through towns or museums, both moving and standing still. There will, of course, be breaks, but there is a lot of walking in Italy.

3) Sleeping accommodations will always be clean and comfortable with appropriate amenities. Some places will have no (or weak) air conditioning as well as street noise since we are centrally located in each town.  Be prepared for shared room accommodations.  Earplugs may prove to be helpful.

4) For each tour we will be giving a transportation and town orientation after which is it expected you will be able to navigate the city on your own.

Before you go on your tour, here are some things to think about:

1) Sightseeing on Your own

If you are arriving early, use a guide book or an information booth to get acquainted with the town. Try using public transportation and a few words of Italian. You will receive some suggestions when you register for the tour.

You will have plenty of free time on this Tour. Having a plan in advance of what you want to see or do during your free time will help you get the most out of it. Before you leave on your trip either use the suggestions we’ve sent you, head to your local library or search the internet to find out what other things you would like to see while you are in Italy.

2) Transportation

Flying in to Italy for our tours often has you starting in one town and finishing in a another town quite a distance away. The best way to handle this is to talk to your travel agent about an “open-jaw” flight. All this means is flying into one town and out of another. Or if you are purchasing your own flight, you can do this with multi-destination on a travel booking site like Kayak.com. The hassle of having to catch extra trains is not worth the few dollars you might save.

Prior to your departure, you will be receiving detailed directions to the hotel from the airport as well as contact information for the hotel and the guide. This information can also be used for pre or post tour accommodations.

3) Weather

We work very hard to schedule our tours during the most comfortable times of year, but weather in the spring and fall can be somewhat unpredictable. Make sure to pack appropriate clothing and shoes.

For more specific weather information and an expected forecast go to weather.com a few days before your departure.

4) Packing

For ideas on what to pack, check out these downloads (coming soon)

Travel Insurance
The time and expense that you have put into planning and paying for your trip warrant protection through the purchase of travel insurance. Look for a company that has “emergency medical transportation” – this is important when traveling and preparing for the unexpected. Emergency services are very costly. This coverage is very inexpensive in comparison. Nowadays with homeland and foreign security issues, flight cancellations, baggage handling, medical emergencies and other unexpected interruptions, it is wise to purchase travel coverage.

Passports
Learn about the process for obtaining passports from the US Postal Service: Passport Application Information

Visas
Learn about the process for obtaining visas at the US Department of State.

If you prefer to use a visa service to handle your visa applications,
we recommend CIBT Global Visa and Passport Professionals.

Embassies
Get the official list of US Embassies.

Center for Disease Control
Learn what immunizations are needed and how to prepare for travel to specific regions at the CDC Website.