It was a nice tour. Unfortunately the forum only seen from 'far' instead of an actual tour through it. We came from Palatine Hill, something was explained and that was it. We would have loved to walk through it and admire everything up close. So that was very disappointing. Especially because it was super busy and therefore impossible to book a tour for the forum alone. Furthermore, the guide did his best and he made a lot of jokes, much appreciated because I think we were all exhausted by the heat.

The tour started 30 minutes late, apparently the group was being replenished by recruiters at the bus stop and metro exit. When it started, we bumped into another group at the entrance without queuing, with whom we were put together. Accordingly, the wait through the security check took some time. Our guide was very nice and funny and fed us enough information and anecdotes. There was ample time for photos as the tour ended inside the Coliseum and we stayed inside longer. We then went to the Roman Forum on our own, only having to follow the flow of tourists. In the forum itself we were more than 2 hours or until the Palladin was closed. Again, no queuing with the ticket.

We had booked a 1-hour express trip to the Colosseum with a subsequent ticket for a self-guided tour of the Roman Forum and Palitinerhøjen. The guide Maia herself was very nice and welcoming and full of humor. Because we only had a one-hour tour, we entered in the middle of the tour, which the rest of the company had been on before (probably forum romanum). However, Maia welcomed us. The reason why I don't give the actual guided tour anymore is that I didn't get that much wiser (I had also read up from home). There were some fun pointers and interesting knowledge that I didn't know about, but because the tour itself just took place in the same areas that a regular ticket would give access to, there was nothing extraordinary about the tour. You could therefore have walked around and read the information cards yourself. So it's probably about how much knowledge you've researched from home.