Underground Colosseum Tours via Tour Company - Any experience?

We would like to take a tour of the underground colosseum, arena, and 3rd tier (5th if possible). Acquiring tickets through Coop looks very challenging and possibly impossible. Has anyone purchased tours via Dark Rome, LivItaly, The Roman Guy, Walks of Italy, Italy-museums.com, or any other tour company?

I am looking at this myself. I am having trouble finding one that departs at a time that either allows me sufficient time to get there from the cruise ship in the morning or an afternoon departure that allows me enough time to get back.

Yes, the tours seem to be at 8 AM. We are going to spend a couple of days in Rome, so we can be flexible with time and 8 AM sounds good to beat the heat. However, 8 is not feasible coming from port. I thought I saw some tours at 11 and 1, but I do not remember which company.

I am looking at this as well- Context tours sounds wonderful, but they don’t do the underground portion. Some of my party are set on doing this.

The Coop website is confusing, or at least, I find it so!

We did the underground and 3rd tier of the Coliseum in October of 2016. It is worth it! I wish I could remember the name of the tour company we had. We booked it through Viatour, but given that that is just the agency, the tour company was different. Our tour started at 11. Once we got into the coliseum, another guide took over--he worked at the site--and he explained everything about the arena and the underground. Then our own guide took us up to the top (amazing views) and then on to the Forum and Palatine Hill. The whole tour was roughly 3 hours, but then she left us on our own on the Palatine Hill and we were able to spend as much time as we wanted revisiting the Forum. One note of advice: if you do one of these, bring lots of water and pack a sandwich or two in your purse. There really is nothing on these sites for food and if you plan on spending time there, you will get hungry--and tired. So much to see.

Thank you! I will check Viator. The Coop website is very confusing!

We used Walks of Italy for both Underground Colosseum and Sistine Chapel and they were wonderful. Groups were very small and we bi-passed everyone. Felt like VIPs. The guides were amazing and their knowledge unsurpassed. I would use them again in a heartbeat.

I have one booked April 22 with The Romanguy, easy to work with so far. Tour is at 9:35

Thank you! I will check Viator. The Coop website is very confusing!

If you look at tours through Viator usually a 10% discount code will show up after awhile

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We used Livitaly for both the Colosseum and Vatican. Our experience was outstanding! They take a maximum of 6 per group.

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We used Walks of Italy and I second that our guide was amazing. An archeologist who works the Forum site. Our group was relatively small- about 12 or 15.

However we were combined with another group for the underground portion of the tour and due to the tight spaces, I found it hard to hear and see the (different) guide during this portion. I am not sure of this, but I seem to recall this combining of groups might be a factor due to timing/frequency logistics of the colosseum administration, not necessarily by Walks of Italy.

Point is: if you can get a smaller group, and that holds for the underground portion as well, I would think the experience would be a bit better. More pricey though!

Whichever you choose, it will be worth it. I thought from the photos that the Forum was just a bunch of rubble. But the stories were amazing when recreated by our guide. (and I went to school in Italy and minored in Art History! Age does increase wisdom! Ha!)

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Ive used both. I used Joe Banana Limos the first time and just this past summer booked through the coop on my own.

My recommendation, is if it is your first time, it is very nice for a tour company like Joe Banana Limos to take you there and give you all the instructions as it is quite overwhelming when you are new to Rome. I found it extremely helpful and would highly recommend a stress free booking with a tour company.