This tour includes an English-speaking Driver and his air-conditioned Mercedes Car at Your disposal for 9 hours -
Private English-speaking guide for visiting the Coliseum, Roman Forum with its monuments.
THE ENTRANCE FEES AND THE RESERVATION FOR THE COLISEUM AND THE ROMAN FORUM ARE INCLUDED!
We reserve Your tickets in advance: so, You don’t have to stay in the line for entering.
This wheelchair accessible shore excursion to Rome from the port of Civitavecchia starts at your cruise ship you meet Your English-speaking driver: your private tour guide will be waiting for You by the Coliseum. We have decided to arrange for You a private tour in the morning where You need a guide for the archaeological area. After lunch, You'll be left in the surroundings of the Trevi Fountain and You'll go there alone. If You feel like, it is possible to arrange for You the same guide in the afternoon too, but the price will change a little.
ROMAN FORUM:
Tour Highlights: Coliseum - Temple of Antoninus and Faustina - Arch of Titus - Arch of Septimius Severus - Basilica of Maxentius - Curia (Roman Senate) - Temple of the Vestal Virgins - Temple of Saturn - Via Sacra - Temple of the Divine Julius - Temple of Castor and Pollux - Temple of Augustus - Arch of Constantine.
COLISEUM:
Of all the monuments in Rome, it is the Coliseum that thrills the most. The great symbol of eternal Rome still exerts a powerful hold. Built by the emperor Vespasian in the grounds of Nero’s palatial Domus Aurea complex, the Coliseum was inaugurated in AD 80. To mark the occasion his son and successor Titus held games that lasted 100 days and nights, during which 5000 animals were slaughtered. Originally known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, the stadium had a capacity of 50,000 people. This amphitheatre, bathed in the blood of so many Christian martyrs, surpasses in size any other human endeavour. It is a huge mountain of stones, 57 meters high and the circumference of 596 meters. From every part of its ruins, one can see what was the purpose for which it was designed: a monument of human carnage, in which the emperor Trajan killed ten thousand prisoners in one hundred days. It is still possible to see the door known as sanavivaria from which came the living flesh, and the door known as sandapilaria, through which they carried away the dead bodies. At the entrance of the Coliseum there is a fountain, where, according to an ancient legend, the gladiators went to wash their wounds after the battle. The pillar of this fountain was also the first milestone of the Empire and all the streets of the Roman world started from that monument of slavery and blood.
TREVI FOUNTAIN:
The water of this fountain was brought to Rome in 19 BC by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa to feed the baths he built at the Pantheon. The water was called Virgin, as a tribute to a girl who indicated its source to thirsty soldiers. In 1453 the Pope Nicholas V erected above the spring, in a locality known as Trejo, the fountain (the artist was Giovan Battista Alberti). The Trevi fountain became important for the Urbe that thanks to it was returning to have water from a spring, after using for centuries the water of the river Tiber. Later, Clement XII had it built as we see it now, by the Roman Nicolò Salvi. This famous fountain was built in 23 years and it covered in full one side of Palazzo Poli.
SPANISH STEPS:
The famous Spanish Steps have acted as magnets for visitors since the 18th century. The piazza was named after the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See, although the staircase, built with a legacy of the French in 1725, leads to the French church Trinità dei Monti. At the foot of the steps, the fountain of a sinking boat, the Barcaccia, is believed to be by Pietro Bernini, father of the famous Gian Lorenzo.
PIAZZA DEL POPOLO:
The square one admires today is of extraordinary beauty and harmony and it is the result of a long history dating back to Roman times. In the first century AD, Agrippina - famous for her inclination to resort to the poison to get rid of enemies, including her husband the Emperor Claudius - decided to have her tomb built here. The current form of the square, however, is relatively recent and dates back to the early XIX century and is due to the restructuring carried out in full Napoleonic occupation (1808-1814) by Giuseppe Valadier, who became the favourite architect of two Popes. A large oval replaced the open space at the centre of the square where stands an obelisk since over two centuries, to which Valadier adds a base with four circular fountains and many lions in Egyptian style. On one side of the square, under Villa Borghese, the same architect creates the Pincio Gardens: an overview typically French, with neoclassical sphinxes at the first level, statues of men wearing the Phrygian cap on the second level and finally an arch with a fountain. Until the beginning of the XIX century, in Piazza del Popolo were held, in the presence of a large crowd, even executions. According to a legend, in the early middle ages Nero’s spirit haunted this place where his ashes had been deposited in the Domitian family’s tomb. This is why the people destroyed the Mausoleum and they built the church Santa Maria del Popolo, one of the most interesting in Rome. It was probably built in the XI century, but it was completely rebuilt in the early Renaissance. Among the many works of art to be seen in this church, noteworthy are the paintings by Caravaggio, Saul on the road to Damascus and Crucifixion of St. Peter.
This wheelchair accessible shore excursion from the port of Civitavecchia to Rome ends at Piazza del Popolo where You’ll find our driver with his minivan for the return to Civitavecchia port.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
