Will be in Rome for a couple of days in May. Any suggestions for nice hotels and tours ?

I'd recommend a food tour. We do one and/or a cooking class everywhere we go. Rome's was exceptionally good. You also learn some cool tidbits of info. For example, we walked to the Jewish ghetto for fried artichokes and learned all the little gold cobblestones represented someone taken during the holocaust / ww2.

We did a cooking class in Florence. If could only choose one it'd be tough. Both were great.

We'll be in Florence in March. Which tour did you do?

Captain Winky said:

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We'll be in Florence in March. Which tour did you do?

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In Florence, this is the cooking class we did. We met at market then took a bus to a little house/kitchen in the countryside. We made pasta, pizza, tiramisu, and gelato. This was like 6-8 years ago, so may have changed but would recommend based on our experience.

Walkabout Florence Cooking Class

It's been a few years, but we used this company for the Vatican, Roman Forum, Colosseum, and a cooking class. All were excellent.

Walksofitaly.com

Pretty sure that's also who we used for our food tour in Rome.

Walks of Italy if you wanna see the big sites - Vatican, Coliseum, and they have food tours and cooking classes.

We did a golf cart tour of all the Rome sites a couple years ago. They can get way closer to the sites and zoom through traffic. Was nice being outside and there was still plenty of walking.

Be prepared for insane crowds around Rome this year. Its a jubilee year for Catholics that happens every 25 years and Catholics will be in pilgrimage to the Vatican. The city is going to be very very crowded, especially the Vatican

That's a good tip. For the Vatican tour you can book private tours through providers that let you in before they open. You start at like 7 am but it's worth it to get a head start through the museum. It also makes it cooler starting early so that helps too.

We used Italia Tours for our Vatican day last year. Saw pretty much everything that we could and didn't really have to wait in lines.

Thanks for the help with the tours !

Any suggestions on hotels ?

I got back a few weeks ago. Gonna be INSANELY busy in June. Book everything you can now. We went at what is traditionally the lowest of low seasons and it was way busier than normal. They think this will be the busiest summer ever.

If interested in Catholic / Christian history, get the Scavi tour. It takes you under St Peter's Basilica to see St Peter's tomb. Only about a dozen folks at a time and it books months in advance. You can only get it on the Vatican's Scavi tour website via an antiquated request for tickets.

Walks of Italy tours are pretty good. Our tour guide of St Peter's was obviously not a Christian, because he got some basic Christian history stuff very wrong. Otherwise good tour.

Hotels depend on what you are doing in the city. But Id recommend to book in the historic center, away from Termini station (kinda sketch near there).

- Tour the Colosseum
- Golf cart tours are great
- Guided, private tour of the Vatican
- Just walk through the core areas and find restaurants to eat outside (especially around Spanish Steps)

Second what others have said around booking these things in advance as it was insanely busy last year even in August (when it was hot AF).

Look at AirBnB's too, we had some good ones in Rome if you are open to that.

The Steelers bar is a must. Owned and run by a Canadian who is always there. He's a huge Pittsburgh Steelers and SEC fan. Far more exciting than the coliseum.

Leeman said:

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Thanks for the help with the tours !

Any suggestions on hotels ?

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Stayed here a few years ago and highly recommend. Great location and customer service

https://www.hotelartemide.it/it?utm_source=GMBlisting&utm_medium=organic

Couldn't recommend these hotels enough. Stayed here in Rome and the Savoy in Florence.


https://www.roccofortehotels.com/hotels-and-resorts/hotel-de-russie/