Although I'd love to spend 8 hours a day eating and shopping in Rome I couldn't visit such a historical city without seeing some of the breathtaking (and world famous!) ancient sites it has to offer.
I spent a lot of time researching different tours and decided to book the Roman Guy's "Colosseum Underground Tour with Roman Forum & Palatine Hill" . This tour allowed us to skip the long line to enter the colosseum and also provided us exclusive access (it's closed to the general public) to the underground tunnels beneath the arena floor where animals and gladiators were kept before battles. We were then brought to an upper level of the colosseum (also closed to the general public) where we had an amazing view of the balconies and also the as the Arch of Constantine which is located right next to the colosseum.
We then walked from the Colosseum over to Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum where we learned some unbelievable historical facts about how Rome came to be. I would highly recommend this tour if you are interested in skipping lines, access to exclusive areas, and learning the story behind everything you see as you explore these amazing sites. You can find the link to this tour here.
The following day I booked a tour of the Vatican and the tour I decided to book was Dark Rome's "Vatican Sistine Express and St Peter's Basilica Tour". We had to arrive at the vatican for 7AM but I chose this particular tour because we were given early access to the Sistine Chapel 1 hour and 30 minutes before the general public. Following the Sistine Chapel we walked through the Vatican Museum to St Peters Basilica which was equally as breathtaking. I was unable to locate my exact tour on Dark Rome's website but they have a similar tour which includes the Vatican Crypt here.
