Vatican / Colleseum tour

[bitofabelly]

Travelling to Rome for s few nights this summer, kids will be 13,10 and 8. Don't want to go to museum heavy but the colleseum and Vatican/cistine chapel on list. Can anyone recommend a tour guide geared towards kids for these visits.

Yes, Angel Tours, they were great when we went with our two young Ds's. We did the Colosseum with them, so nice to bypass the HUGE queues.

angeltours.eu/rome

Plus this book is brilliant:

www.amazon.co.uk/Rome-Monumental-Ancient-Reconstructions-Monuments/dp/8881620006/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1492369354&sr=8-5&keywords=Rome+past+and+present&tag=mumsnetforum-21

There are some cheap used copies on Amazon.

It shows the view of the building (ie colosseum or the Forum) now and an overlay that shows how it looked in the past. Really helpful to visualise whats now gone.

Double check the opening days for the Vatican, if I remember correctly it's closed one day of the week. It's incredible, the scale of it is just ginormous!

My youngest's favourite place to visit was the Trevi Fountain especially in the evenings.

rometourswithkids.com/vaticantourwithkids.html

We used this company last October. We did the colosseum/forum one afternoon and the Vatican/cistine chapel on another. 2 different guides and both were great!
They are tailored to your family only and the age of your kids. Well worth the money.

Don't book a tour guide for the Colliseum.
You need to book an underground tour from the official site " coop culture" . It's an additional price on normal admission but half the price of a private tour. You get an excellent guide and see all the secret bits not covered in a normal admission. These include the underground sections were the slaves and animals were raised up and the very highest tier of the arena.
You get a time and skip all the queues. Have done it several times with children and laps and all enjoyed it.

Not sure about the Vatican. Have only done St Peters. Walk to the top - amazing.

We booked a private early morning tour of the vatican and st peters which was fab. Meeting at 630, into the vatican at 7. Not specifically for children as those tended to be in the afternoon and the place is rammed, I wanted the space and time to enjoy the setting. We felt very privileged to have a private breakfast in the vatican courtyard. For me it wasn't enough time in the museum but at 3 hours it was long enough for the children. We went with city wonders but there is one with 'dark rome' too.