5 Reasons to Tour Rome’s Underground Crypts and Catacombs with City Wonders @City_Wonders

Check out our 5 Reasons to Tour Rome’s Underground Crypts and Catacombs with City Wonders! Did you know if the discovered catacombs of Rome were lined up, that they would stretch from Rome to Florence? That’s a LOT of Rome underground and the catacombs date back to 2000 years ago when the very early Christians buried their dead and practiced what was then a forbidden faith in Rome. Fascinating!  To kick off the new year, our family visited Rome — and it’s fascinating underground.  After days of navigating the city ourselves, we were looking forward to a special tour we were going to take with a tour company, City Wonders. We experienced City Wonders Rome Crypts and Catacombs Tour. We can’t rave enough about it! For all the scoop, you can check out these 5 Reasons to Tour Rome’s Underground Crypts and Catacombs with City Wonders Tour company to learn more about our the crypts, catacombs and how easy City Wonders makes touring Rome – and Rome’s Underground!

It was such a treat to have City Wonders guide us and teach us about the underground world of Rome. City Wonders is currently offering 34 tours in Rome. Additionally, they offer 19 other tours within the Vatican. Some of their tours are even designed specifically for families. While The Rome Crypts and Catacombs Tour was not, our kids, aged 8, 11, and 13,  absolutely loved it and did great!  The specific tour we took was 3.5 hours and provided a wealth of information and enabled us to tour FAR more of Rome’s Underground World than we ever could have accomplished on our own plus it was far more fascinating with a tour guide who could share incredible knowledge with us every step of the way.

5 Reasons to Tour Rome’s Underground Crypts and Catacombs with City Wonders

1. City Wonder’s AMAZING Underground Guides

Our underground guide, Melanie, was extremely knowledgeable, funny, efficient, flexible, and terrific with the kids. She even knew us by name! Our kids adored her. Oh, the kids got to hold the flashlight at different points as they each took turns leading us through Rome’s catacombs. How cool is that? Melanie did an impressive job at gaining entrance swiftly through back doors, seamlessly securing tickets, avoiding crowds, and all without any hassle or wasted time. We could have even come close to seeing all 3 sites in one afternoon on our own.

2.) Interactive Learning plus Stress free Travel in a Luxury Bus 

City Wonders took an enormous amount of stress off our family as we traveled to the 3 underground sites. Our superhero bus driver, Antonio, drove us safely through the streets of Rome as we relaxed in the luxurious bus and took in the beautiful above-ground sites.

As we rode, our bus guides, Rebecca and Melanie, told captivating stories, through an excellent sound system, about both the sites we were passing and the ones we were about to see. Our kids remarked multiple times that that Rebecca and Melanie explained everything really well. While we rode with another City Wonders Crypts and Catacombs group, once at the site we toured in our small group. There is a maximum of 20 people per group, which makes it really easy to always see and hear.

3. Enormous Size of the Catacombs Requires a Guided Tour for the Full Scoop

If lined up, the discovered catacombs of Rome would stretch from Rome to Florence. The Catacombs of Priscilla alone are 8 miles long. Walking through the oldest level (2nd century) was an experience like no other. We got to see bones, open and closed burial chambers, inscriptions, and an ancient painting too special to reveal here. The knowledge shared by our guide was invaluable.

4. Get a Taste Rome’s Archaeological lasagne

Archaeological lasagne is clearly evident at the Basilica of San Clemente. As we walked through 4 layers of history down to 1st century Rome, we were in awe by how much could be seen at a single site. Not to mention that we felt a sense of history going back in time nearly 2000+ years! Because there was so much to see all over Rome in the Crypts and Catacombs tour, we moved at a pretty good pace but without feeling rushed. Even my daughter noted how much she appreciated the pace. I did not need to worry about my kids getting bored. They were engaged the entire 3.5 hour tour. Awesome!

5. Bones Galore in the Crypts and Catacombs

Bones, bones, and more bones! At the Capuchin Crypt, chambers of bone art display the bones of 3,700 friars. A resounding, “Super cool!”, from all of us. The kids were bursting with questions for Melanie! For my husband and I, the Capuchin Crypt left us pondering our own mortality. We’d tried various audio guides earlier in the week but there is just no replacement for the interactive learning that City Wonders gave us.

With The Rome Crypts and Catacombs Tour by City Wonders we were able to learn a ton about the fascinating underground world of Rome. If you truly want to see Rome, you must go underground!

City Wonders Rome Crypts and Catacombs Tours Pricing

The Rome Crypts and Catacombs Tour by City Wonders costs $72.76 per adult and $67.48 per child, which includes the entry price to each site. When you consider the ease and efficiency with which we visited these three sites and the extra information we gained from the incredible guides, it all makes this tour well worth the price!

More About City Wonders Tours

City Wonders offers pretty incredible 1 day tours throughout Europe in Italy, France and the UK in cities like Rome, Venice, Florence, Paris, London, Naples, Milan, and the Vatican. The tours are interactive and led by English Speaking guides who are full of fantastic insider knowledge. Each group has a maximum of 20 people so this makes it very easy to hear your guide and participate with the group too.

The official description of our tour is:

Uncover ancient secrets hidden beneath the surface of modern Rome, including the ‘Bone Chapel’, a pagan shrine, and subterranean catacombs where early Christians buried their dead and practiced their forbidden faith!

Check out their website to book a tour and learn more here: http://www.citywonders.com.

Note: Thanks to City Wonders for hosting our family on this tour to facilitate our featured review. As always, all thoughts and opinions are our own.