Question about Touring Rome and the Sistine Chapel

[sailingmickey]

We are planning on an Italian/Croatian cruise next June (2009) We hope to spend 3 days prior to the cruise in Rome and week after the cruise in Italy and I have a few questions.

 

Any suggestions as to the best way to tour the Sistine Chapel (alone or with a tour group)

 

Has anyone attempted to learn Italian before going to Italy? Was it useful?

 

Any other suggestions on must see in Rome? We have been to Florance before.

[cberge]

We are planning on an Italian/Croatian cruise next June (2009) We hope to spend 3 days prior to the cruise in Rome and week after the cruise in Italy and I have a few questions.

 

Any suggestions as to the best way to tour the Sistine Chapel (alone or with a tour group)

 

Has anyone attempted to learn Italian before going to Italy? Was it useful?

 

Any other suggestions on must see in Rome? We have been to Florance before.

Do a search on this board using the keywords for your questions as there is a lot of info and these questions are asked a lot.I suggest that you check out some guide books from the library to do some homework on all the sights to see and then decide on a guidebook to take with you,A good map will help too...Streetwise Maps are good.Learing a few words of Italian will be of helpful as in hello,thank you etc.,and a small phrase book can go a long way,but you will find most speak English.After you have read the boards if you have any questions then just repost.

[Keith1010]

Many times we will not use a tour when we stay in a city for a pre-cruise. But when we were in Rome two years ago and stayed there for a pre-cruise we used a tour company for two tours. One was a tour of the Vatican Museum and the other was a tour of the Colloseum and Ancient City. Both tours were wonderful and we highly recommend them. We found them through Cruise Critic.

 

We used a company called Rome Walks. They offer a variety of tour both private (for up to four people) or group tours that range in size from about six to ten people. We went with the group tours.

 

They have a great web site at http://www.romewalks.com

 

You can e mail them with questions and they are very responsive.

 

For each tour we had a different tour guide who was perfect for that particular tour. For the Vatican Museum our tour guides expertise was in art which was perfect for this tour and for the tour of the colloseum and ancient rome our tour guides expertise was in roman history.

 

Each tour was about four hours and we did them over two different days and still had lots of time to do other parts of Rome on our own.

 

We didn't learn any Italian before our trip.

 

Keith

[GMoney]

Hi Keith - I just booked with Rome Walks based on your same suggestion in another thread. So far, they have been very helpful and accommodating. Thanks for the tip.

[Keith1010]

Hi Keith - I just booked with Rome Walks based on your same suggestion in another thread. So far, they have been very helpful and accommodating. Thanks for the tip.

 

I'm glad to hear that they have been very helpul and accommodating to you. We were very pleased with them (before with their timely and comprehensive responses to our e mails) and with the tour itself. Have a great time.

 

Keith

[FloridaBuckeye]

SailingMickey,

I just replied to a post by Diatomo looking for some recommendations. A group of about 100+ of us cruise critic members (look for the carnival freedom may 1st roll call thread for the grand med that I started) just got back from the med. My wife and I did pre-cruise Rome and loved it.

We had the DK Eyewitness books for Rome and Italy. In fact the DK Eyewitness guide for Rome has suggesting walking tours in each neighborhood. Plus it contains many great photos. I would highly recommend these books. If you don't want to be carrying the book, you can always get the top 10 version of the book (thinner and smaller) or you can get thos pocketmaps that open up. We bought one at brookstone and it was great too. I wont post the links for these books as you can go to http://www.amazon.com and type in "DK Eyewitness Rome" and the book should appear. These were very very helpful.

 

For the tours, we did a walking tour the second night we were in Rome (as the first night we just went walking around in our neighborhood Piazza Navona, near the Pantheon and that was plenty). We did our walking tour with http://www.Icontours.com and we did the pasieggiata evening walking tour with our guide Morgan (from california). She was great and provided great insight along the way. We got to see many things and began at the vittorio corso monument (the wedding cake as they call it) and ended in the very bohemian neighborhood of Trastevere (where they say the Romans go to eat).

 

The third day we were in Rome, we had Stefano from Romecabs (http://www.romecabs.com) pick us up. He was awesome. We got a full 9 hour tour of the city. He also recommended a place for lunch, and even took us out to the Appian Way (per my request). A tour bus wouldn't have done this for us. We paid extra for a vatican museum guide, and she allowed us to only wait probably 10 minutes in the line to get in. The line was averaging 3 hours the day we went. So its well worth it to get the guide. Our guide also took us to see the highlights within the museum so we wouldnt have to waste our time. Romecabs will offer this guide to you at the time you book the full 9 hour Rome tour. Make sure to ask to get Stefano as your tour guide for the day, as we had him and he was great. He has like 9 drivers for his company and I think some others do tours as well. But Stefano is the owner and is very well versed. Just get it confirmed as he was great and is in high demand.

 

Hope this helps you. Good Luck and have fun.

Watch out for the Gypsies. We saw them on the spanish steps. Just be astute whereever you are at with many people there.

 

If you have any questions, email me directly at gabriel.resendez@gmail.com

Thanks,

Gabe

[sailingmickey]

Thank you to every one who replied. I intend to follow through on all of your suggestions:)

 

Do a search on this board using the keywords for your questions as there is a lot of info and these questions are asked a lot.I suggest that you check out some guide books from the library to do some homework on all the sights to see and then decide on a guidebook to take with you,A good map will help too...Streetwise Maps are good.Learing a few words of Italian will be of helpful as in hello,thank you etc.,and a small phrase book can go a long way,but you will find most speak English.After you have read the boards if you have any questions then just repost.