Ten days in Italy. Four thousand ways to spend them.
Which Colosseum ticket puts you on the arena floor. Whether the early Vatican entry is worth the alarm. Which Amalfi boat day actually stops in Positano. Every tour we cover, read and ranked before you pay for it.
The tickets that decide an Italian trip.
Six bookings carry most itineraries in this country: two in Rome, two in Florence, the coast south of Naples and a long lunch in the Tuscan hills. Each one has a right way to book it.
Rome runs on timed tickets, and they go early.
The Colosseum, the Vatican and the Borghese all sell fixed slots, and the good ones disappear weeks out. Below: the Rome days more travellers book than anything else in Italy, and the smaller ways in — the crypts, the tunnels, the food streets of Trastevere.
The Amalfi Coast is a driving problem with a boat solution.
All coast & Sorrento tours →
One road, thirteen villages, and a summer queue that turns forty kilometres into four hours. These three are the ways round it — the boat, the driver, and the day that starts in Naples instead.
Sorrento to Positano by boat
Skip the road entirely. The coast reads better from the water anyway, and most boats cut the engine somewhere quiet enough to swim.
Capri, the grottoes and the Faraglioni
Capri fills by eleven and empties by five. A boat day works the island around the ferry crowds and still gets you into the caves.
Naples, Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi
The classic sweep: down the Sorrentine peninsula, along the cliff road, an hour on foot in Positano, back before dark.
What Italy actually books.
The whole ranking →Not our shortlist — the tours more travellers take than any other in the country, in order, with what each one costs.
1
Vatican: Museums & Sistine Chapel Entrance Ticket
Skip-the-ticket-line Vatican Museums entry to explore Greek Cross Gallery, Maps, Raphael Rooms, and the Sistine Chapel at your pace.
From · $38
Read our review →
2
Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel Tour with Optional Basilica
from $79
3
Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palatine Guided Tour
from $78
4
Cathedral and Duomo’s Terraces Entrance Ticket
from $30
5
Doge’s Palace Reserved Entry Ticket
from $41
6
Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & St Peter’s Basilica Guided Tour
from $22
7
Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Roman Forum Guided Tour
from $52
8
Guided Tour of Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palatine Hill
from $55
Florence is small. Its queues are not.
Two galleries hold what most people came for, and both run on timed entry that sells out in season. Book those first, then let the city be the walkable, edible place it actually is.
In Venice, get off the main island by lunchtime.
St Mark's and the Doge's Palace take a morning. The afternoon belongs to the lagoon — the glass furnaces of Murano, the painted houses of Burano, and the long slow ride back as the light goes.
- 1Doge’s Palace Reserved Entry Ticketfrom $41
- 2Grand Canal Gondola Ride with App Commentaryfrom $39
- 3Boat Trip: Glimpse of Murano, Torcello & Burano Islandsfrom $29
What a day in Italy costs.
Every tour on the site sorted by price, with the best-reviewed pick in each band. A very good Italian day starts under the price of dinner.
Gallery tickets, street-food walks, a cellar visit, an hour on the water — the everyday Italy.
The full days: coast runs, Pompeii with an archaeologist, cooking classes that feed you lunch.
Private drivers, small-group island days and the once-a-trip splurge that earns its price.
Three Italian afternoons with no equivalent abroad.
Galleries and cathedrals exist across Europe. A licensed Vespa through a closed city centre, an asymmetric boat rowed standing up, and a dog that finds white truffles do not.
The Vespa Afternoon
Most Italian historic centres are ZTLs — limited-traffic zones where an unregistered car earns a fine in the post months later. Guided Vespa and Fiat 500 runs hold the permits, which is why a tour gets down lanes a hire car legally cannot. In Florence they climb straight out into the Chianti hills; in Rome the sidecar versions run at dawn, before the traffic wakes.
- 1Florence Vespa Tour: Tuscan Hills and Italian Cuisine★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,019 reviews
- 2Vespa Sidecar Tour By Night with Pickup★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,803 reviews
- 3Rome Morning Vespa Sidecar Tour in Rome with Cappuccino★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,771 reviews
The Gondola
A gondola is not symmetrical. It is built with a curve to one side so a single oar, worked from the right, drives it straight — eleven metres of wood balanced around one standing rower. The city sets the fare, not the gondolier, and it is per boat rather than per person, so a shared ride costs a fraction of a private one.
- 1Grand Canal Gondola Ride with App Commentary★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 18,908 reviews
- 2Grand Canal by Gondola with Live Commentary★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 13,681 reviews
- 3Shared Gondola Ride Across the Grand Canal★★★★★★★★★★ 3.9 · 6,645 reviews
The Truffle Hunt
Italy hunts truffles with dogs — usually a lagotto romagnolo — because a pig will eat the find before you reach it. White truffle season runs autumn into early winter around Alba and San Miniato; the rest of the year the black summer truffle keeps the dogs working. You walk the woods, you dig what the dog marks, and lunch is what you found.
- 1Truffle Hunting Experience with Lunch in San Miniato★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 383 reviews
- 2Florence Food Tour with Truffle Pasta, Steak & Free Flowing Wine★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 278 reviews
- 3Langhe: Truffle Hunting Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 210 reviews
The four Italian tickets you cannot buy on the day.
Most of Italy can be arranged from a hotel lobby the night before. These cannot. They run on fixed capacity, timed slots and release calendars that have no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Da Vinci’s Last Supper Guided TourSmall timed groups, fifteen minutes in the room. Tickets are released in blocks and the usable slots go the day they open.
- 02Borghese Gallery and Gardens Guided Small-Group TourThe gallery admits a fixed number of visitors per two-hour window. In spring it books out weeks ahead.
- 03Colosseum & Forum with Audio Guide App -Optional ArenaThe arena floor and the underground need a guided ticket sold in limited numbers — a standard entry does not include either.
- 04Skip-The-Line Uffizi Gallery Timed Entry TicketTimed entry every day it opens. The early slots go first, and they are the only ones that beat the coach groups.
Rain in Italy is a reason to book something indoors and long.
October and November are the wettest months across most of the country, and a Roman downpour empties the streets in minutes. The answers are all under a roof and all better booked ahead: a kitchen with a rolling pin in it, two galleries that need timed tickets anyway, the tunnels under the city, an opera house.
Italy changes shift at aperitivo hour.
All evening tours →
Navigli District Canal Boat Tour with Aperitivo
Read our review →
Winner 2025 Florence Sunset Food & Wine Tour by Eating Europe
Read our review →
La Fenice Opera House Entry Ticket with Audio Guide
Read our review →By place — where are you staying?
Rome593 tours
Florence274 tours
Venice110 tours
Naples122 tours
Milan102 tours
Sicily185 tours
Sardinia92 tours
Amalfi Coast & Sorrento147 tours- Every city and region →
By experience — what are you actually booking?
Rome, Florence, Venice — and what to do with the rest of the fortnight.
PompeiiThe newest Italian tour reviews.
All recent →
Tivoli: Villa D’Este Entry Ticket and App Audio Guide
Read our review →
Hadrian’s Villa & Villa d’Este Day Trip & Lunch
Read our review →
Timed Entrance to Leaning Tower Pisa & Cathedral with Audio
Read our review →
Vatican City: Sistine Chapel, Museums, Basilica Private Tour
Read our review →
Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel Skip-the-Line Guided Tour
Read our review →
The Three Tenors at St. Paul’s Church Concert Ticket
Read our review →
The Three Tenors in Sorrento: Opera Arias, Naples and Songs
Read our review →