[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by darockwilder

We did Rome and Florence in 2008. It was pretty awesome, like people have said just eat food everywhere. Maybe not directly adjacent to tourist sites, walk a couple blocks away and the prices might be more agreeable. Beware of pickpockets, it's common. Someone tried to take my little travel book from my cargo short pocket on a bus because it probably looked like a wallet. May is a great time weather wise! If you want to go to the Vatican book a tour that can skip the line, we used Angel Tours which was great but that was a long time ago. We stayed at a B&B in the Trastavere area and just took the bus everywhere or walked.

Pretty much every tour is marketed as "Skip the line", usually all it means is you don't have to get in line for tickets. Look for tours that have other descriptions and find out exactly what it means before you book.

The best advice for tours (Vatican, Colosseum, whatever), is to get the earliest possible tour you can. I don't mean go as early as you wake up, I mean book the first possible tour of the day.

That's pretty much the only way to get ahead of crowds.