Guide for Ancient Rome

[tone]

If I wanted to walk around Ancient Rome, like the Colesseum and Forum and other sites, do I need a guide? Are there any guides or tours on site? Just thinking it might be difficult to know what is everything without a guide.

[carlmm]

In my opinion you do not need a guide but a really good guide book.

 

Even without anything just to wander around this ancient site is an atmospheric experience and thus worth a visit, yet to understand the various buildings and places you need more information than it is provided on site.

 

A really good guide book will give you good maps, drawings and in depth information. A guide book that concentrates more on restaurants, little stories and similar rather than history and art won't do it.

 

The problem with human guides is similar - their talk is often superficial and trivial.

Only once I had a really good guide, and this person was a privately known nun who had studied Roman art and history for many years.

In this case obviously, if you have an excellent knowledgable guide, she is better that any book.

[carlmm]

To add a practical information: There are audio guides available on site yet I do not know their quality.

 

AUDIO GUIDE

available: only Foro Romano, only Palatino, Foro Romano and Palatino.

languages: English, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Russian, Chinese, Arabic

hire duration: 2 hours Foro Romano or Palatino, 3 hours Foro Romano and Palatino

price: € 4,00 Foro Romano or Palatino, 6,00 € Foro Romano and Palatino

[cruisemom42]

There are several options. Like carlmm, I usually prefer a good guide book and map. If you are interested in going this route, I can make some recommendations.

 

If you're interested in an in-depth tour of the Colosseum, Forum, and Palatine Hill, I can highly recommend Context Rome small group tours. I think the tour is called Roma Antica.

 

On site, you will probably only find guides for the Colosseum available. (Which is a shame, because the Colosseum is the most easily understandable of the sites!)

 

Rick Steves has some free podcasts for several sites, including the Colosseum, the Forum (which is the hardest to understand without some background knowledge), and the Pantheon.

[cruise kitty]

Agree with Cruise Mom, Colosseum easy to do on your own, The Forum is fabulous, but a bit confusing, really not a lot of signs, or info on site. Be sure to have a good guidebook & do a little research ahead of time, here's a website I found helpful:

 

 

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/Forum_Romanum/_Texts/Huelsen*/home.html

[daryleann]

The map is very interesting but most of the pages are in Latin so not really useful. But thanks for the link...

[cruisemom42]

Agree with Cruise Mom, Colosseum easy to do on your own, The Forum is fabulous, but a bit confusing, really not a lot of signs, or info on site. Be sure to have a good guidebook & do a little research ahead of time, here's a website I found helpful:

 

 

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/Forum_Romanum/_Texts/Huelsen*/home.html

 

Nice website! I will have to polish up my Italian and read it thoroughly. Thanks for posting.

 

(For others: Some pages are available in English, some are not. For any particular page, there is an American flag icon at the top. If the icon is grayed out, the page isn't available in English.)

[jmlstix]

Check out www.ron-in-rome.com. We used him for a private tour. He

was waiting for us at our hotel when we arrived. It was great having

someone to show us around, helped with train, buses. We did a walking

tour for most of the day. He's an American living in Rome. Very nice, and

the tour was great. Best part his rate was 100 euro/day. Very reasonable

for all the time/information we received.

[texancruzer]

Well, some of us arent very good with guide books, especially in places like Rome.

 

The reason is - there is soooo much it becomes what I call "visual overload"

 

She was very good in that she didnt drown me with dates and stiff facts, which tend to go in one ear and out the other. Her stories of how the people lived and used the area, item etc. made the place come alive for me and helped me digest the immense amount of things to see.

 

Some people can use a book or an audio tour and do just fine. I do better with a guide who can interact with me (= answer a gazillion questions :o) and tell me the little things not found in the guidebooks.

 

You have to decide what works best for you. Sometimes money is a factor and it should be. But for us - on our first trip to Rome we didnt really know if we would get back there or not....(we did and will again !) so we hired a guide and tried to see as much as we could. For me, it would have all been a jumble without our wonderful guide.

[cruisemom42]

Yes, the key is to know your own style and what suits you best. I am happiest when I'm able to wander a site on my own, guidebook in hand, to really experience it on my own terms. :) But that's because I've done my research/reading in advance and already have a handle on many or most of the "information" a guide would provide.

 

I too would find facts and dates flying out of my head on a guided tour. But if I read them in advance (and then usually again on site or afterwards), I do tend to remember a lot.

[texancruzer]

But if I read them in advance (and then usually again on site or afterwards), I do tend to remember a lot.

 

You are very lucky. I loved history in school but could never remember dates and names and places and keep them all straight. I would read them and then "poof" they would either be forgotten or all jumbled up. I passed my history classes - but barely. Still do that.

 

Now, I can remember lots of other stuff........ :o And thinking back to both our trips to Europe, I can remember lots of the things our guides told us about how they lived, worked, played etc...... but I couldnt tell you when :rolleyes: LOL

[CoralReef]

It's really personal preference. If you are a guidebook person like me, the Blue Guide to Rome by Alta Macadam has wonderful step-by-step tours of the Forum, Colosseum, and Palatine, with excellent historical perspectives. For the Vatican, the Rick Steves guidebook is very good. To avoid carrying excess weight, I make double-sided copies of just the relevant pages from a guidebook, for each day of touring.

 

If you are an audiotour person, the Rick Steves podcasts are very good, and free!

 

If you prefer a guide, I wouldn't take chances on a random person at the site. I've heard some of them saying things that just aren't true. I can recommend www.througheternity.com for solid, informative, and entertaining historical commentary.