Rome - where to get tickets

[chickenpieandchips]

Sorry, head is spinning.
Taking kids (teens) to Rome in April. Looked at direct ticket sites for the Vatican and colosseum. Do I book direct? Do I get a tour (especially of the colosseum), do direct tickets from the authorised sites do tours or headphone things?
If not, can anyone recommend some teen friendly tours for there. Enough for the interesting facts, but not too long. There seems like loads of choice.
Any other places we should go. The church made from bones?? Not going to overload the itinerary and they won't want a tour of all the old sites so need a few great choices.
Thank you.
Staying near Ottaviano metro.

I think you can get tickets, I'm just trying to avoid paying ridiculous prices if you can get it cheaper, or at least getting the right ticket and not buying the first thing a ticket seller sells me.

We just buy at the entrance official ticket booth at the Forum. We've never bought tickets for any Roman attractions in advance, but that's probably as much our play it by ear approach!

I've just booked tickets for the 31st March too! Did it online. As you say I would have loved to go to the arena area too but I read that tour operators snatch up those tickets so probably very little hope of getting them. There's so much to see anyway so it's not a big deal. I've been about 15yrs ago, but but taking DCs for the first time.

Yes apparently the touts buy loads of the tickets as and when they are released and then sell on for more expensive rates. Glad you got it sorted!

I’ve only read the first page but what a great thread! We are looking at Rome (or Venice) for the Easter holidays and this thread is very informative!

@SagittariusDwarf @DataColour
How was your trip? Any further tips/good restaurants.
Weather looks warm next week. Think my DD thinks she'll be sunbathing for 3 days!

hi @chickenpieandchips we had a great time in Rome! LOTS of walking around as others have said. The Spanish Steps are pretty steep. We hired Lime scooters a few times and zipped around the streets.

Vatican was predictably packed even though we had early morning tickets. I was impressed at how organised it was though. We had a guided tour but we ended up abandoning half way through because she was spending ages on things we weren't too interested in, and going straight past things that looked cool! The only tickets available at the time I booked was for guided tour though. I was tbh a bit underwhelmed with the Sistine Chapel, I think several hours of wandering through a packed Vatican Museum beforehand killed it for me a bit. But there is a LOT of interesting stuff in the museum, generally.

We loved the Colosseum and again got there early morning which was great as we were one of the first in. We paid 6 euros each for a self guided audio tour thing which was more than sufficient and meant we could go at our own pace. The museum on the second floor is good.

Foodwise I recommend Ristorante Al 34 - it was very busy and had a good atmosphere, and had a decent menu. I was also recommended Hosteria Romana but we didn't make it there in the end.

It was warm (23/24 ish) - shorts weather for me, but definitely needed a light jacket too.

You will have a great time!!

@SagittariusDwarf thanks you.
So you didn't scream in the Sistene Chapel 😂?

hahaha i did not, but I did think of that poster who did!!! 😃

If any of your teens are fans of.cats, you'll possibly change bus at Torre Argentina and there's a cat sanctuary there. The place they live is where Julius Caesar was murdered

This was one of my favourite parts of my trip!

@Getuppa that's on my list! We have a cat so it's a must.

It's our last day here and currently waiting for the flight home. Kind of glad to be going home as we are all exhausted!! It's been full on. Saw everything we wanted to see. The ancient ruins were amazing of course. My DCs favourite thing by far to do was to go biking along the Appian way. We hired bikes from the Appian Antics cafe. Another hit was the catacombs tour and the Capuchin Crypt. Also did the Baths of Caracella which was amazing which I actually preferred to the other sights as it was amazing but no crowds. Climbing up St. Peter's dome was great, almost worth the 2hr wait to get in!
Downside was the sheer amount of traffic, it's deafening and the sound of the insessant ambulance sirens will haunt me for a long time!

If you get digital tickets for the Colosseum, make sure you download them onto your phone in advance. When we went, so many people were milling around, putting huge pressure on the phone network, that we struggled to download the tickets and poor DH had to run a few hundred metres to get somewhere clear.

We are finding it completely impossible to get colosseum tickets that include the arena. Planning to go to the Roman forum to get the combined ticket, can I ask how busy both these venues were?

Just back from Rome too.
The best thing we did was actually a day trip by fast train to Pompeii and Herculaneum. We had a great guide - Askos tours- and it was amazing.
Vatican we did the tour with their own guide and she was great.
We did audio tour of Colosseum and Forum and I regret not getting a guide and the underground tickets, but it was still great.
Loved the Pantheon, Torre Argentina for the cats and Domus Aurea with VR headsets.
Don’t miss the Capitoline Museums! Must see with a fab cafe on the roof.

I pre-booked the colosseum tickets, but not the area area as there was no availability, I think tour companies snap up those tickets, so it's nearly impossible to get an arena ticket, and you can't go in there without a guide.We went in at the given time slot with no queuing. I couldn't see the normal queue as it was a different entrance I think. But generally, the whole area was very very busy. Too busy!!

The Capuchin Crypt museum as a great audio guide that they give out with the ticket, really engaging and interesting. Our guide for the catacombs of st, Sebastian was great too. Pantheon audio guide was good also. We did the old fashioned way and read a guide book whilst exploring the colosseum and Vatican. There are plenty of information points in the colosseum/forum/palatine hill area too.

for useful tips regarding visiting the colosseum and avoiding the crowds
a good reference is
https://colosseumtoursinrome.com/

there are also options for purchasing tickets and tours should you wish

Our underground tour was led by an English speaking guide