20 May 2023
This tour was a colossal waste of money!!! Our tour guide, Andrea, was disorganized and not knowledgeable about the colosseum underground. We had a problem gaining entry because only two barcodes were scanned and there were two of us plus the guide. I could see that Andrea was not scrolling far enough down on her phone to show the third barcode, but she waved me off and instead went over to the administration office while we waited 10 minutes for the clerk to print off hard copies of our tickets. Once in the underground, Andrea provided little interpretation other than to point out Roman arches and natural water sources, and she was unable to answer questions in any meaningful way. For instance, when I asked how many animals could be housed underground she replied, "different numbers at different times." In spite of our guide, the underground was worth seeing; it was very interesting to see where the fighters, animals, etc. were kept as well as the elevator used to bring them up to the ground level. That said, a private tour is unnecessary. I recommend people save themselves a lot of money and go with a group. I definitely do not recommend this particular tour offered by Gemini Tours.