Enjoy Rome

A Rome tour operator with its own guides and offices

Enjoy Rome is a Rome-based tour operator that sells its own guided tours and skip-the-line tickets. Its "our story" section says the company was born in 1992 in via Marghera, later moved to offices in via Cavour, and is run by the Martella family, whom the page calls "the founders of one of the most dynamic tour operators in the capital." It has 2 operational hubs near Vatican City, on Via Vespasiano and Via Germanico. The company behind the site is ENJOY ROME di Marghera 8a Srl. The homepage headlines "Almost 30 Years of Experience" and says the family's earlier construction firm paved some of the very streets its guides now walk, including the sampietrini of via Celio Vibenna.

Rome is the core. The destination menu covers the Vatican, the Colosseum, Rome, Tivoli and Pompeii, and the site says it is "Now expanding their offerings to new destinations beyond the Eternal City," naming Florence, Venice and Naples; Florence and Venice already have their own tour lists. Prices are in euros.

Tours and tickets

The Vatican list is the longest. The homepage shows the Essential Vatican Skip-the-Line Tour of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica (3 hours, from €57.50 per person, 4.93 from 605 reviews), plain skip-the-line Vatican Museums tickets (from €24.38, 4.94 from 72 reviews), a Papal Audience Experience with a guided visit (4.5 hours, from €55), a Vatican Museums and Underground Tour of the Papal Tombs (3.5 hours, from €350) and a 1-hour Vatican Off-Limits Tour of the Round Room, Hall of the Muses and Niccoline Chapel. The site says it can offer that last one "Thanks to our long-standing prestige in the industry and strong relationship with the Vatican executive." A Vatican City Walking Tour By Night (from €250) was marked sold out. The Essential tour is described as led by "an expert professional guide" through the Museums and the Sistine Chapel before "exclusive guided access to St. Peter's Basilica," where the guide points out Michelangelo's Pietà; the underground tour adds the Vatican Grottoes beneath the Basilica, with an optional climb of St. Peter's Dome.

At the Colosseum there are the Gladiator Gate, Colosseum Arena, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill tour (3 hours, from €95, 4.91 from 57 reviews), Discover Ancient Rome with the first and second tiers (3 hours, from €35), a semi-private tour with arena-floor access (from €150), and audio-guide entries (from €22.40, or €49 with the arena). Rome tours include Rome by Night, Trastevere and the Jewish Ghetto, a bus and walking tour of the Catacombs of San Callisto and the Appian Way (from €85), a 4-hour trip to the Pope's summer residence at Castel Gandolfo with lunch in the papal gardens (from €100), an EUR architecture tour, and a Caravaggio and Raphael art walk ending with an aperitivo. The Trastevere walk starts at Largo di Torre Argentina, passes the synagogue from outside and ends in Campo de' Fiori, and the Castel Gandolfo trip includes the Pope's private gardens by electric golf car with an audioguide.

Day trips go to Tivoli (a 7-hour Villa d'Este and Hadrian's Villa tour by air-conditioned coach from €75, 4.88 from 69 reviews, or a transfer with entry tickets from Ponte Mammolo) and Pompeii (an 11-hour round-trip shuttle with 4 hours on your own from €60, or with a 2-hour guided tour from €108). Florence has an Uffizi tour, the Brunelleschi dome climb, Accademia tickets (from €37) and a 2-hour walking tour (from €29); Venice has a Doge's Palace and St. Mark's tour, a gondola ride (from €33), a walking tour with gondola (from €56) and a Murano, Burano and Torcello trip (from €31.25). Tickets-only products include the Borghese Gallery (from €43.75) and Tivoli (from €37.50).

Group sizes, guides and the day itself

The tour search filters by option: "Semi-Private (max 16 pax)," "Standard (max 25 pax)," "Private" and "VIP." It also filters by the spoken language, with French, Italian, English, German, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Chinese, Romanian and Japanese listed, and by start time. The site says it works "solely with licensed guides with degrees in Archaeology, History of Arts and PhDs." The Tivoli tour begins at "our central meeting point," and near the Vatican the company runs an office lounge with a bathroom, device charging, refreshments and a vending machine for guests before or after a tour.

Private tours are listed per person: the private Vatican tour and the private Colosseum, Forum and Palatine tour each from €1,500, and a Wheelchair Accessible Private Vatican Tour from €3,200. The site says that tour is "specially designed with wheelchair users in mind" and covers the parts of the Vatican Museums that have wheelchair access: the Pinacoteca, the Chiaramonti Museum and the Sistine Chapel.

Booking and support

Tours are booked online with a cart, and the homepage offers a 10% discount "if you buy two tours or more," and has a "Get your promo code" box and a newsletter for offers. Staff are available "9am - 5pm everyday," the booking office answers on +39 06 4450734 and +39 06 88373403, and the site claims "98% SATISFIED GUESTS." The family also lists 2 hotels in Rome, the 4-star Demetra Hotel and the 3-star Hotel Scott House. The homepage and tour-category pages do not set out a cancellation window or refund rule, so those need confirming at checkout.

What to check, and who it suits

Prices vary a great deal between the group, semi-private and private versions of the same visit, and the private tours are listed at a per-person figure that should be checked for the actual group before paying. The cancellation terms are the other open point.

Enjoy Rome suits visitors to Rome who want a long-established local company for the Vatican and the Colosseum, with a choice of group sizes up to 25, guides who speak many languages, and a place near the Vatican to wait before a tour. The unusual Vatican access tours, the papal audience visit and Castel Gandolfo set it apart for visitors interested in the papacy and for repeat visitors. Travelers mainly heading to Florence or Venice will find a much shorter list there.