One Day Tours in Rome

Rome Tours

Each tour is a half day tour.  Put any two tours together to make a full day.

 

Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museums, St. Peter’s Basilica 

We start with the main highlights of the Vatican Museums, the richest and most visited museum in the world. The museums include the famous Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel, built by Pope Sisto IV in 1475, with masterpieces from Botticelli, Perugino, Signorelli and the breathtaking Genesis and Last Judgement by Michelangelo. Finally, we will visit Christendom’s largest church, St. Peter’s Basilica, built over the tomb of the Apostol Peter. In the basilica, we will see one of the best pieces of sculpture in the world: the “Pieta´” by Michelangelo. We will end the tour in the magnificent St. Peter’s square, which holds more than 300,000 people, feeling embraced by Bernini’s colonnade, admiring Michelangelo’s Cupola and the ancient Egyptians obelisk, which once stood in the circus of emperor Nero, where the Apostol Peter was crucified.
*Prices do not include entrance fees into museums. Entrance fee to the Vatican Museums/Sistine chapel is 25 euros. This includes the “skip the line” reservation fee.
Pick- up is at your Hotel.
 
Reservations will be confirmed with payment at the time of booking with a check, or Pay Pal. Your tour is fully refunded if canceled 30 days in advance.

 

Ancient Rome 

We will start with the Flavian Amphitheatre, also known as Coliseum, sitting almost 80,000 spectators. For its inauguration, in the year 80 AD, the Emperor Titus organized 100 days of celebrations, with “venationes”  (combats between beasts and men), and gladiator’s games. We will then visit the Roman Forum, the pulsing heart of the Roman Republic, where the Senate met, where Julius Caesar was cremated and Antonio pronounced his famous speech, which Shakespeare reported from the old historian Plutarco. If we still have the energy we can proceed to the Palatine Hill, the pulsing heart of the Roman Empire, where Romulus founded the city of Rome and where all the emperors lived, from Augustus till after the end of the empire.
*Prices do not include entrance fees into museums. Entrance fee of the Coliseum and Forum is 13.5 euros.  Pick- up at your Hotel. 
Reservations will be confirmed with payment at the time of booking with a check or Pay Pal. Your tour is fully refunded if canceled 30 days in advance.

 

Renaissance and Baroque Rome 

This is a walking tour through the heart of Rome, through its medieval and renaissance alleys. The tour includes: the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish steps, the Pantheon, Navona’s square, Campo de Fiori, famous for its food and vegetable market and where lived Vannozza Caetani, the famous mistress of Pope Alexander the VI Borgia and mother of Lucrezia Borgia. During our walk, we will highlight several other monuments and churches, for example, the church of San Luigi dei Francesi, with its stunning Caravaggio paintings.
*Pick- up is at your Hotel. 
Reservations will be confirmed with payment at the time of booking with a check or pay-pal. Your tour is fully refunded if canceled 30 days in advance.

 

The Roman Catacombs 

Old Romans could not bury their dead inside the city walls, so they did it along the most frequented ancient roads, for example, the Appian Way, the “Regina Viarum”, queen of all the roads, as the ancients called it. The first long road built specifically to transport troops outside the smaller region of greater Rome. The main part of the Appian Way was started and finished in 312 BC. We will exit the old city walls, take a bus and ride along the Appian Way, until the famous Catacombs. We will learn why these cemeteries are called catacombs, we will visit one of them and we will stroll over the old Roman stones and enjoy the famous landscape with the umbrella-pine trees.
*Prices do not include entrance fees into museums. Entrance fee to the Catacombs is 8 euros. Pick- up is at your Hotel.
Reservations will be confirmed with payment at the time of booking with a check or Pay Pal. Your tour is fully refunded if canceled 30 days in advance.

 

The Roman Major Basilicas (St. John in Lateran and St. Mary Major) 

If you were a pilgrim, then visiting the four major Christian Basilica would be a must. If churches are of interest, this is the city to find them. In this tour we will visit two of these major Basilicas, St. John in Lateran and St. Mary Major (the four basilicas are St. Mary’s, St. John’s, St. Peter’s and St. Paul outside the walls).
As it is written in Latin on the façade of St. John’s in Lateran is the “Urbis et Orbis Ecclesiarum Mater et Caput” (mother of all the churches of Rome and of the world). It was the very first Christian church, built by Emperor Constantine on imperial-ground and it was the residence of the Popes from the IVth century until the first Jubileum (Holy Year) of the year 1300. We will visit the basilica, the medieval cloister, the first baptistery in history and the “Scala Santa” (holy stair) said to be the staircase that Jesus climbed to be tried by Pilatus in Jerusalem. It’s said to be brought to Rome by St. Elena, the mother of  Emperor Constantine. This staircase can be climbed only on one’s knees and it leads to the “Sancta Sanctorum” (Most Holy), the old private chapel of the Popes with the most precious image of Christ, said to have been made not by human hands (“acherotipa”).
We end the tour at Basilica of St. Mary Major the first official church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. We will see how Mary became so important for the Christian’s as the heir of the female goddesses of the pagan world. The church itself is one of the best preserved early Christian churches in Rome, featuring stunning mosaics of the 5th and 13th century.
*Prices do not include entrance fees into museums. Entrance to St. John’s medieval Cloister is 3 euros.  Pick- up is at your Hotel.
Reservations will be confirmed with payment at the time of booking with check or Pay-Pal. Your tour is fully refunded if canceled 30 days in advance.

 

Legends and Ghosts of Rome (2.5 hours, evening tour)

We will talk about some of the most famous figures of Roman history, visit the places where they used to live and where their Ghosts still appear these days from time to time.  From Giordano Bruno to Donna Olimpia, to Lorenza Feliciani, to Beatrice Cenci, you will hear some of the most revealing stories of Rome.
*Prices do not include entrance fees into museums. 
Pick- up is at your Hotel.
 
Reservations will be confirmed with payment at the time of booking with a check or Pay Pal. Your tour is fully refunded if canceled 30 days in advance.

 

Medieval Trastevere and the Jewish ghetto 

We will visit the oldest part of Trastevere, the Roman quarter on the right bank of the Tiber River. It was the area next to the ancient Roman port where most of the foreigners used to settle. It was here that St. Peter found already a Jewish-Christian community during his first trip to Rome, 49 AD. We will see the remains of the oldest synagogue in Rome, dating back to Augustus time. We will learn how the Jewish community lived here for centuries before being relegated in the ghetto area by pope Paolo the IV Carafa in 1555. We will then cross the river and visit the Jewish ghetto that lasted as a segregated area until 1870 when Rome was not anymore under the sovereignty of the Pope but became Italy’s capital.
*Prices do not include entrance fees into museums. 
Pick- up is at your Hotel.
 
Reservations will be confirmed with payment at the time of booking with a check or Pay Pal. Your tour is fully refunded if canceled 30 days in advance.

 

Women of ancient Rome walking tour 

We will visit the Rome archeological area, Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum and the Coliseum following the history of women who were the protagonists of their time. Rea Silvia was the virgin mother of Romulus and Remus.  Lucrezia,, the woman who was instrumental in ending the monarchy and starting the Republic Servilia. The long-lasting lover of Julius Caesar, Clodia, loved by the poet Catullo who called her Lesbia and hated by the orator Cicero who called her pervert prostitute. We will visit the house of the vestal virgins, women who had to stay virgin for 30 years in order to safeguard the sacred fire of Rome. We will talk about some of the great or infamous empresses, Livia, lover and then wife of Emperor Augustus, Agrippina minor, mother of Emperor Nero and killed by her own son, and other special women of power like Poppea, Domitia, Faustina.
*Prices do not include entrance fees into museums..
Pick- up is at your Hotel.
 
Reservations will be confirmed with payment at the time of booking with a check or Pay Pal. Your tour is fully refunded if canceled 30 days in advance.

 

The Rome of the courtesans walking tour  

“A courtesan is an honest prostitute,” said  Johannes Burckhardt,  the secretary of the Pope Alexander the VI Borgia.  We will learn about renaissance Rome through the life of the most famous courtesans of the end of 1400 and beginning of 1500: Vannozza Cattani, long lasting lover of the Pope Alexander the VI Borgia and mother of Lucrezia Borgia; Giulia Farnese, the most beautiful woman of Rome, sister of a Pope and lover of another Pope, the divine Imperia, lover of the richest man in Rome, the banker Agostino Chigi.. During our walk that will take us through some of the most intricate streets of the city, we will learn how these women were able to thrive in the Renaissance Rome of beauty and corruption. We will also visit the church of the courtesans where they used to find clients and where some of them were buried.
*Prices do not include entrance fees into museums. 
Pick- up is at your Hotel.
 
Reservations will be confirmed with payment at the time of booking with a check or Pay Pal. Your tour is fully refunded if canceled 30 days in advance.

 

Women of Trastevere walking tour 

From Tanaquilla to Cleopatra, to Agrippina, this bohemian area of Rome saw some of the most famous women of this ancient city. But it was starting from the 1300 and especially during the 1500 and 1600’s that the area witnessed the life of many special women. Jacopa dei Settesoli, called by St. Francis “brother Jacopa” and the only woman allowed next to him on his deathbed. Santa Francesca Romana, one of the patron saints of Rome and one of the most loved. La Fornarina, long lasting lover of Raphael, the queen Christina of Sweden, one of the most famous women of 1600, patron of the arts and involved in many high-level love affairs with men and women alike. During our walk, we will visit this very special area of Rome, that still today attracts many locals and tourists, especially during the evening hours. We will talk about the terrible condition of women during the Catholic counter-reformation. The tour will end at the “international women’s house of Rome”, an ex-convent, prison, and reformatory for many women from  1600 to the present time.
*Prices do not include entrance fees into museums. 
Pick- up is at your Hotel.
 
Reservations will be confirmed with payment at the time of booking with a check or Pay Pal. Your tour is fully refunded if canceled 30 days in advance.

 

The origin of Christianity walking tour 

How did Christianity, initially despised as the religion of women and slaves, end up being the only allowed religion of the Roman empire and still now the most followed religion of the world? We will see how Christianity developed on top of the most important religions of the Roman empire, The Pagan, the Jewish and the Mitra religions absorbing and transforming elements from all of them.  We will visit a very special church, St. Clemente, that in its three layers of architecture shows this transformation.
*Prices do not include entrance fees into museums.
Pick- up is at your Hotel.
 
Reservations will be confirmed with payment at the time of booking with a check or Pay Pal. Your tour is fully refunded if canceled 30 days in advance.

 

The tours that are listed above are all half-day tours.  Put 2 tours together to have a full day!  

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