Private Colosseum Tour

05 July 2019: My parents and I reached the Colosseum for a tour at 3:45pm. Tour starts at 4pm and we were supposed to meet at 3:30pm. We reached the office and the employee, whose name was Hussein, told us we missed the tour and there is no way we can join anymore. He said the only solution is to get a refund from the tour website we booked from OR come back tomorrow at the same time (No possible as the next day we were going to the Vatican) OR pay 10 euros more and join another tour at 5:15pm. HOWEVER, we would be unable to see the Palantine Hills and Roman Forum, which was suppose to be altogether. These were the only options he gave us. So obviously my mother and I weren't having it, no way will we pay MORE and get discounted from what we already paid for beforehand. This Hussein fella was really unhelpful and he said there was no other way. The reason why we reached late firstly was because my dad is old and cannot walk very fast, secondly, the goddamn agency office was inconspicuous and difficult to find. But excuses aside, I think it was really unreasonable to turn people away who reached BEFORE the tour started even though we came after the slated meeting time. So later on, after the Hussein fella was being really unhelpful, a female guide came in and was told us the same thing the guy said - No choice, but we could come back tomorrow. Just then, two other latecomers came, an African-American couple, and were told the same thing. But the lady was not having any of it and she complained as well. Comparing the sub-standard service to the Vatican tour she went to this morning and saying that the Colosseum tour is basically unprofessional and inflexible (Mind you, this was under the SAME agency providing both the Vatican & Colosseum tours). So after the employees were clearly overwhelmed, they called the manager and asked him to settle this problem. So the manager came and he gave us the same three options at first and we began arguing our case once more. All of a sudden, the guide lady said that we can attend the Palantine Hill and Roman Forum part, joining the Colosseum tour which we missed halfway, AND come back the next day to compensate for the missed Colosseum part. If you said this at the very start, there wouldn’t be any problem and we would just go to the Vatican earlier the next day and come back at 3:30pm to this damn place to do the Colosseum portion. So yes, we accepted it and we were on our merry way, going to the Palantine Hill & Roman Forum thinking that the lesson learnt on that day was punctuality. 06 July 2019: My Dad decided not to join us anymore as, he said he would slow us down and he was unable to take this pace any longer. Which was really sad and that was completely not what I wanted, flying my elderly parents all the way from Singapore to Italy for vacation, and having to resort to this was not the way to go. So mum and I headed to Vatican in the morning, bearing in mind we had to reach the Colosseum again by 3:30pm to avoid being left out of the tour agency again. We finished Vatican, rushed down to the Colosseum and reached at 3:25pm. There was a different employee there, this Italian chick, and she registered us and all. Then she said, the tour will start at 4pm, we leave here at 4pm. What on earth is this double standard??? So basically, that Hussein fella just wasted our time the day before. Worse of all, a white American family came in at 3:50pm, way beyond the punctual, slated meeting time of 3:30pm, and were allowed on the tour. I don’t know if it boils down to a race thing, cos if it is, that is messed up but I choose to look past that. I just choose to see that the male employee that turned my family away on the first day cos we were “late” is a lazy dog and I am going to spread this on every platform I can possibly find and make sure that this Hussein fella is fired from this job because he is so incompetent.

Roberto, la nostra guida, ha reso la visita molto interessante! Persona molto simpatica e professionale.