City Wonders

My friend and I agreed the City Wonders tour of the Vatican Museums was the highlight of our trip to Italy! We spent almost four hours on a guided group tour – with a trained art historian – to see the Sistine Chapel, Raphael’s Rooms, St. Peter’s Basilica, and more.
I loved hearing background that would elude the average visitor (including me without a guide!). Before we entered the breathtaking Sistine Chapel, our guide spent at least 30 minutes explaining the significance of each of the panels, presenting the ceiling as ancient puzzle that’s only beginning the be solved. For example, in «The Creation of Adam,» theorists find the outline of a human brain, formed by the angels and robes surrounding God; according to the doctor who pioneered the hypothesis, Michelangelo meant to evoke God’s bestowal of intelligence on the first human.
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Had a great private tour. Just two of us plus our guide made the tour quaint and we could take our own pace. Our guide was patient, knowledgeable, courteous and spoke very good English. She knew details about art, rooms and Rome. It was a very good experience. Booking the trip was easy and fast. My biggest problem is I cannot remember our guides name, I would love for everyone to know just how good she was.

I’m going to rate each tour I took individually as I took 4 of them.
Ghost tour of Florence– Guide was good and overall I could understand (Australian) him. The only problem I had was he kept talking even though there was a street performing band playing loudly (we had those individual headphones but I couldn’t hear a word he was saying). ⁴⁄₅
Ghost tour of Rome– Apparently Australians like ghosts because this was another Australian giving it. This tour did not have the individual headphones but they weren’t necessary. Great guide. You could tell he was enthusiastic about what he was doing. ⁵⁄₅
Underground and Palentine Hill of the Colosseum– Our guide was good and provided great history and answered questions. Keep in mind though (and I’m not basing my score off this) this tour has a ton of walking both upstairs and downstairs on steep stairs. I didn’t anticipate to be this tired and sweaty at the beginning of April. 4/​5, would have been ⁵⁄₅ but I sometimes did have difficulty understanding her accent.
Catacombs and Crypts of Rome– 2 Guided. One German and one Australian. I regularly had problems understanding the German one and it seemed like others did as well. Tour seemed a bit rushed of each site. The tour also really did need headphones in the catacombs. I regularly couldn’t hear the guide because some loud Spanish guide behind us had a mike and kept blabbing loudly about the dead bodies. ³⁄₅ Also quite honestly, this was a tour I think I would have been just as fine going by myself. At the catacombs you can get a guide who works there and the catacombs weren’t that crowded.
This would have been overall a 4 star review if it wasn’t for the red tape I experienced with City Wonders. After the first 2 tours I was on my way to the 3^rd. I left over an hour early for what should have been 25 minutes away (this was in Rome which can be very confusing on city buses) and for the life of me couldn’t find the location despite having their crappy map ad using Google Maps. They have an emergency line which is just their customer service line so basically not helpful. Around 20 minutes before the scheduled 15 minute check in time I called up all confused. I had a woman with a strong Indian accent named «Amanda» (because come on now, what Indian is going to be named Amanda?!) who wasn’t helpful. It was like she also didn’t even know how to get to the meeting place and was very difficult to understand. I asked if she could just place me on the tour the following day as I booked a total of 4 tours costing me over 200 Euros. She gave me a hard time and said to call the next day but that she would have to charge me a rebooking fee. WTF? Yes I understand the terms of buying a ticket through them. I understand that IF it is a matter of entry tickets and headsets (not really headsets though but I wouldn’t have complained about that), but the ghost tour is just a walking tour and you do not enter any buildings! They wanted a rebooking fee for 1 person! I asked to speak to a manager and she told me there was no manager on duty. I then asked to speak to anyone other than her and she told me «no I cannot do that»! I’m an independent contractor out of CA and told her that along with writing reviews on here and on Tripadvisor and this woman would not budge. I figured I would just call the manager tomorrow. I called early the next morning and got to that morning tour over an hour early just in case! I spoke to an Italian man named Georgo. He was much more customer service oriented than «Amanda» and empathized with me or at least acted like it. He said he would put me on the tour that day but that he would still have to charge me a rebooking fee but would drop it from 15 Euros to 10 Euros. I still was angry about that because there wasn’t again no individual tickets or equipment that they needed! I asked to speak to his manager and was placed on hold for awhile. Eventually he agreed to just not charge me a rebooking fee. He was nice about it and definitely was easier than awful «Amanda» but just note there is a lot of red tape with this company. They will also still charge you something even if you cancel a few days before a tour.
I intend on returning to Rome someday and will never book with City Wonders/​Dark Rome ever again, recommend to others, or refer my clients to.

We used City Wonders (Dark Rome) for the Colosseum tour and it was totally worth it. We decided to go with the underground and top tier tour and we were glad we did. Every step from doing research, communicating via email and signing up for the tour was a breeze. The email confirmation had all the information you need so that was extremely helpful.
For the Colosseum tour, we met about 15 mins from the start. There were quite a few other City Wonders tour going on at the same time so make sure you follow your assigned tour guide. English was well spoken so it was easy to understand. The tour guides knew their stuff and we didn’t wait in any lines. There are a lot of tour providers around Italy, but City Wonders is one of the biggest and best.

For my first trip to Rome, I’d decided to orient myself around the city by booking onto the Dark Heart tour on the first night and it proved to be an excellent choice.
Having had a lovely meal nearby, I had time to look inside Sant’Andrea della Valle (the meeting point) first before joining Luca and his colleague for the registration — it’s a splendid church and worthy of at least a look inside.
Once the rest of the group had arrived, Luca did a great job of introducing himself to us, then each of us to each other as well. I was the only Brit amongst a sea of Antipodeans and we all gelled quite quickly as Luca led us off the main drag towards Campo de Fiori for the first stop on the tour.
The fascinating story of the free thinker Giordano Bruno, remembered by an imposing statue, was well told with an emphasis on how Campo de Fiori was nicely positioned on the pilgrim route towards St Peter’s.
At this point, the rain that had been threatening began to fall quite heavily, but we were all made of strong stuff, with Luca bravely refusing to put up his hood in order to be better heard as he was passing on his stories.
Next came Palazzo Farnese, the graciously appointed French Embassy and the vast fountains and more fascinating tales as we wended our way through Rome’s lesser travelled streets, with a particular favourite being the story of the two sisters who «assisted» other women who had tired of their husbands for one reason or another!
The tour was advertised as a 90 minute walk, but by the time we reached the end point at Ponte Sant Angelo, more than two hours had passed, during which we had learnt a great deal about the history and culture of Rome.
Luca was an excellent host — a clear voice, well spoken, amusing and serious by turns, determined and enthusiastic in his role as our guide. It was my pleasure to offer him a little tip as a thank you for a hugely satisfying and illuminating stroll through Rome’s history.
Highly recommended.

Excellent, professional tours!
We booked an all day tour to Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii. City Wonders was very organized and professional. The guides were helpful and friendly. They were also entertaining and their narratives and banter passed the time. We had a great trip and would definitely use them again.

4 tours in Rome so far:
Vatican semi-​private: It is worthwhile to show up before the general public at 7:45 (yes, way too early, but there is a coffee bar open right across the street from the meeting point). Valentina is a knowledgeable guide, albeit somewhat flat and, well, boring. Not a jaw dropping storyteller.
2^nd, The Angels and Demons tour guide (5 stars), on the other hand, could teach a thing or two about keeping the herd of tourists spellbound for 1 ½ hours outdoors in a freezing cold. Dates and names go down easier when you have a good story behind it.
The 3^rd, family with kids Colosseum tour, is another 5 stars. Kids entertained, parents enlightened. What more could we ask? We could ask for the City Wonders to pay more attention to special requests. Of course, I cannot expect to be catered to when paying for a group tour, but, private? Yes, of course, I can and did expect for my request to be taken seriously, which was to arrange for a guide who can hold our child’s interest. And that brings me to the 4^th tour…
The last (private) tour of Borghese Gallery. Emiliano is an educated and a pleasant guide, who is able to hold off his cigarette craving for 2 hours. Ok, he could not hold attention of our pre-​teen. As a matter of fact, he hardly seemed to notice him, but we (parents) thoroughly enjoyed his erudite discourse. No, we really did, but not our kid, who, at the end of 2 hours, was dangerously close to tears. This is not Emiliano’s fault, of course, but of the City Wonders’s, which disregarded my written request.
Overall, good experience. Solid 4 stars here.

We Paid for a semi private tour of the Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael’s Rooms and St Peter’s Basilica on November 7, 2015 at 8:10AM, then was told this morning that St. Peter’s Basilica was closed until 1PM. She had told us to wait in the museum until 1PM and we can gain access to the basilica through the Vatican Museum. However, the tour was over at noon, and the tour guide left.
We waited until 2:30Pm trying to figure out where to go, then we found out we could not access the Basilica, because the security would not let anyone access the church without a tour guide. The information booth became very hostile towards us and told us to go outside and see the Basilica from the street. Thanks City wonder Tours for leaving your customers in the dark and lying to us.

While in Rome we did several tours with City Wonders. The first was the skip the line at the Colosseum. Well worth it. First off the line was at least a 2hr wait. Second of all our guide really liked what they did. Very enjoyable conversation and he shared a lot of interesting facts and history about the building. The tour meandered through the Roman Forum and up Palatine Hill to the royal palaces. Good pace and a wealth of knowledge. Very entertaining.
The second tour we did was a day trip to Pompeii. I was concerned about the travel time but our guide did a wonderful time filling the time with old stories of Rome and Pompeii. When we arrived in the city we met with another guide who walked us all through Pompeii which was awesome. After the city tour we went to Vesuvius and made the steep climb up. It was harder than I though but well worth it.
The last tour we took in Rome was of Vatican City (Vatican museum, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peters’s Basilica). The museum was interesting but honestly the guide was a bit annoying. She tried to educate us instead of entertain us. That might have worked for some people but for us it didn’t. So the museum part was a bit of a drag. Cool to look at but we could have skipped it. And as for the Sistine Chapel, it’s so crowded that you really just have to get in, look, and get out — whether you’re with a tour or not that part kinda sucks. And the guards are really on the hunt to prevent people from taking pictures or video. Finally when we get to St. Peter’s Basilica it got a little better. More space, less heat, and more interesting to me. Regardless it was an adventure for us so it was worth it. Especially considering the 2hr (or longer) line outside.

We typically avoid guided tours as we like to take our time in museums. The long lines at the Vatican make that near-​impossible, so we booked a 12 person semi-​private tour with City Wonders (via the «Dark Rome» brand name) to see the Vatican museums, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica.
Our tour guide, Francesca, was very knowledgeable of the history surrounding the art and buildings we toured and held our attention. The tour was extremely well organized and even included a 5−10m talk (with pictures) about the origin and meaning around some of the art in the Sistine Chapel.
The only major downside to booking a tour this way is the tour takes you through and out of the museum area — so after the tour is over, you can reenter the Basilica, but not the Sistine Chapel or museums themselves.

The wonderful folks from City Wonders took us on a tour of Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii. There were four in our group and 20 others on our bus from Rome to Pompeii. The two tour guides and the bus driver were all magnificent. Our driver, Andrea, had to be the best driver in Rome. He was smooth, efficient, and VERY skilled. Our tour guides were Robert and Elena. They were both very knowledgeable and skilled as tour guides. That said, Robert came across as the better communicator. He had a natural, easy-​going style which was coupled with the knowledge of an historian. Both directions of our 3-​plus hour bus ride was occupied by a most fantastic historical commentary. He roamed the dining room at our lunch stop and touched base with every table. ALWAYS in communication. Elena was pleasant and knowledgeable also, and also gave an interesting lecture. These folks were fabulous. We wish them well, and will definitely book with City Wonders in the future.

Toured the Vatican today with 2 boys (15 and 13) and Tiffany managed to keep even their attention! She was really impressive and it was clear she loved her job. Our travel agent talked us into booking tours ahead if for no other reason than to skip the line and she was absolutely right as the line was literally around the block. It could take all day just to get in. To have such an engaging guide was a huge bonus. City Wonders apparently has access to parts other tours do not too like the Bramante staircase which was very cool. It wasn’t cheap but nothing about visiting Rome is. I highly recommend the tour and I hate tours.