Meet your guide just outside the Vatican Museums entrance on Viale Vaticano, where you'll check in and receive your timed entry tickets. Once inside, your guide leads you through the Candelabra Gallery, Gallery of Tapestries, and Gallery of Maps, pointing out key works of Roman and Greek art along the way.

Still inside the Vatican complex, you'll move into the Sistine Chapel for one of the most awe-inspiring moments of the day. Your guide prepares you in advance with stories about Michelangelo's ceiling frescoes, including The Creation of Adam and The Last Judgment, before you step inside to take it all in.

Board a comfortable, air-conditioned vehicle for a short drive from the Vatican to the heart of historic Rome.

Your walking tour begins in one of Rome's most theatrical baroque squares. Your guide explains the history of the piazza, from its origins as an ancient stadium to the rival fountains commissioned by competing popes, as you take in the grand architecture surrounding you.

A short walk brings you to the outside of one of the best-preserved ancient buildings in the world. Your guide covers the engineering genius behind the 2,000-year-old unreinforced concrete dome and the building's transformation from Roman temple to Christian church.

Enjoy a view of Rome's most famous Baroque fountain, designed by Nicola Salvi and completed in 1762. Standing nearly 26 meters tall, the fountain depicts the god Oceanus at the center of a dramatically sculpted facade built into the rear wall of Palazzo Poli. Your guide provides the history and context from a vantage point nearby before the group moves on.

Next, a lunch break (food not included in price of tour) near the Trevi Fountain gives you time to rest your feet and refuel before heading to the Roman Forum.

A short walk from the Colosseum, you’ll find yourself amid the sprawling ruins of the Roman Forum, once the political and commercial epicenter of the Roman Empire. Trace the footsteps of emperors and citizens as your guide brings the area's highlights, like the Arch of Titus, to life, detailing what daily life was like in ancient Rome.

Timed entry takes you inside the Colosseum's first and second tiers, where your guide sets the scene for the gladiatorial combat and public spectacles that once filled this iconic arena. You'll leave with a clear sense of the scale and spectacle of ancient Rome at its peak.