Mystery & Majesty - Private Tour of Rome's Magnificent Arches

This is a fully private Rome tour plus Colosseum ticket with a real focus on ancient Roman history. You will spend 2.5 hours with your guide in far and away the most beautiful parts of the city, places which many tourists never see, places which are replete with the most interesting architecture - be it religious or pagan. This guided portion covers the most important, majestic, Triumphal Arches in ancient Rome and the Roman Forum. You'll tour the mythic Palatine Hill and walk the length of Circus Maximus too, as made famous in popular culture by the epic movie "Ben Hur". The second portion, priority entry into the Colosseum, is self-guided. It is recommended that you spend approximately 90 minutes therein with a guidebook. Why? Because as every honest Rome tour guide will tell you, there's not a great deal of information to impart when inside the Colosseum. The really interesting things about ancient Rome can be found in the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill archaeological areas, and you'll tour these sites with an expert Archaeologist guide.
The most striking ruins in ancient Rome are perhaps the few triumphal arches which have survived the ravages of time. A very great number were leveled down the centuries, ergo those which remain are crucial for historians, archaeologists, and ourselves. Your guide will attempt to shed new light on life in antiquity.
For the most part, monumental arches in ancient Rome celebrated military victories, but many were used to push political agendas and enforce legislation. Important political events were also recorded by way of friezes, carvings, and sculpture. Three of approximately forty triumphal arches which were erected in late Republican and early Imperial Rome still stand either in full or in part inside the Roman Forum. We study these in-depth as well as the remains and foundations of the fallen arches of Augustus and Tiberius. In addition, this tour visits important gateways in the Servian Wall, which defended Rome from c. 400 years BC. You will enter the Roman Forum to see the Arch of Titus, Arch of Septimius Severus, and the foundations and remains of the arches of Gaius and Lucius, Augustus and Tiberius. The early Christian Arch of Constantine, Arch of Dolabella (set in beautiful, green surroundings opposite the Palatine Hill), Argentarìs Arch, and Arch of Janus in Forum Boarium will forever remain in your memories of Rome.