Package Tours

Airlines, large travel agencies and tour companies offer discount packages combining airfare and hotels. Many, however, stick to large international hotel chains, usually in uninteresting neighbourhoods. You can often do better at a small hotel in the centre.

Standard Guided Tours

Tours, booked by your travel agent, leave the driving, hotels, language barriers, and all decisions to the tour company, but they often take out much of the fun in the process. You see the company’s neatly packaged idea of Rome, not the Rome you can find travelling on your own. It’s also hard to meet the locals when surrounded by a large group of compatriots.

Study Holidays

Art history is so much better when the teacher can show you real paintings. History, culture, painting, cookery and language courses are all available. The following websites have more information: www.specialtytravel.com, www.shawguides.com, and www.infohub.com.

Rome Bus Tours

City-run ATAC bus No. 110 makes a three-hour circuit around 80 sights with no guide. It leaves daily from outside Termini every 25 minutes from 8:35am to 8:15pm Mon–Fri, every 20 minutes from 8:40am to 8:20pm Sat–Sun. The €16 ticket allows you to hop on and off. If you want a guide’s commentary, take a ride with Green Line Tours, American Express or Carrani Tours.

ATAC bus

• 800 431784

• www.atac.it

Green Line Tours

• via Farini 5A

• 06 4815764

• www.greenlinetours.com

American Express

• piazza di Spagna 38

• 06 72282

Carrani Tours

• Via Vittorio E. Orlando 95

• 06 474 2501

Walking Tours

Enjoy Rome runs three-hour walks of Ancient Rome, Rome at Night (both daily), the Vatican and Trastevere and the Jewish Ghetto (both thrice weekly). The tourist office has recently also been sponsoring free guided walks, usually at weekends.

Enjoy Rome

• via Marghera 8a

• 06 445 1843

• www.enjoyrome.com

Bicycle Tours

Enjoy Rome also runs very cheap, four-hour bike tours of Rome, including bike and helmet rental. Or rent a mountain bike (the ancient cobbles are very rough) to ride down Via Appia Antica on a Sunday.

Italian Lessons

A company geared toward holiday-makers is Italiaidea, offering courses lasting two to eight weeks, a 15-hour “survival Italian” crash course, and walking tours, weekend trips, as well as cooking classes geared towards language skills.

Italiaidea

• 06 6830 7620

• www.italiaidea.com

Art Lessons

Rome certainly doesn’t lack for inspiration. To bring out the Michelangelo in you contact Atelier Alupi who run week-long workshops three times a year in drawing, oil and watercolour painting. The Istituto Italiano Arte Artigianato e Restauro will teach you about art restoration in a weekend course, or the techniques of fresco or stained glass in two-week courses.

Istituto Italiano Arte Artigianato e Restauro

• 335 7201670

• www.scuolarestauro.it

On-Site Tours

Some churches, museums and ancient sites offer guided visits, often for free. Many museums also feature self-guided tours on portable tape players for a nominal fee.

Private Guides

The tourist office keeps lists of several licensed private guides available for hire. The rates vary widely; expect to pay at least €15–20 an hour.