Step into authentic Italian culture with Walks of Italy, a leading provider of expertly narrated small-group and private tours across Italy. These award-winning experiences take travelers inside iconic destinations like Rome, the Vatican, Florence, Venice, Pompeii, Milan, and other classic Italian cities. Founded over 15 years ago by two passionate guides at the Colosseum, Walks of Italy has grown into one of the country’s most trusted tour companies. The brand is recommended by Rick Steves, Fodor’s, Frommer’s, DK Travel, and featured by major outlets including The New York Times, Forbes, Viator, and Tripadvisor. With millions of guests and an average rating of 4.9 stars, Walks of Italy is renowned for its quality, accessibility, and unforgettable storytelling. Every tour is thoughtfully designed to offer exclusive access, skip-the-line entry, and seamless logistics, so you can focus on soaking in the experience. Walk through the Colosseum’s underground labyrinth with an archaeologist, enter the Sistine Chapel at dawn alongside the Vatican Keymaster, and explore Italy through the eyes of knowledgeable local experts. With Walks of Italy, you don’t just see Italy’s heritage - you’ll feel it, taste it, and live it. So walk with us and turn your Italian vacation into a lifelong memory. Don’t just visit Italy… experience it.
Written by the business, not verified by us.Walks of Italy (www.walksofitaly.com) has a 4.4 out of 5 rating on OK.one, based on 102 user reviews collected here. It is listed under Travel & Vacation and its reputation is good. 85% of reviews are 4 stars or higher and 10% are 1 star; The business has replied to 64% of negative reviews. Last updated 2026-09-03.
Reviewers overwhelmingly had a great experience with this company. Travelers frequently praise the local tour guides for being exceptionally knowledgeable, passionate, and professional throughout the excursions. Consumers note that these guided walks provide deep historical insights while making complex topics engaging and fun. However, some people mentioned that crowded groups made it difficult to hear the coordinator or keep up properly. Some people also felt that certain itinerary plans, such as entering specific basilicas or major museums, were disrupted by unexpected closures or delays. Visitors also noted that navigating massive tourist crowds occasionally impacted the overall pacing of the journey.
Auto-generated from all reviews of this business. For reference only.Highly recommend this Alone in St Marks walking tour. It was much more meaningful to walk through St Marks & Doge’s palace with few other people. It was easy to get closer to certain artwork in order to see it better. It was much easier to hear and talk with the guide. Loved our guide and everything about it. Such a wonderful tour!
Our guide (forgot his name, tall guy wearing mouth mask all the time) was really below par, making the whole tour not worth the money. He felt the need to try to be funny every so many minutes (and unfortunately wasn’t), responded poorly to questions that popped up along the way or plainly said we don’t talk about fascist items we still see in the streets. When asked whether the Trevi fountain is less crowded late in the evening, he said he usually sleeps in the evening. After that last remark, I left the tour. He may have many masters and PHD’s, but a tour guide is more than just knowledge about history. An experience to quickly forget and a waste of my time.
Booked two different walking tours through your company. The private tour of the Vatican was excellent. Very highly recommended to all of our friends and family come here. The small group private tour of the Colosseum was frankly terrible. We handed in our earpiece about 45 minutes in. Our tour operator was perfectly fine, but when I signed up for a small group, the website suggested that was between six and eight people. We had nearly 20 in our group. None of them could keep up and within the first hour, we had barely scratched the surface. Beyond this, I booked the first opening tour nearly 9 months ago. Only a week before we arrive did I see that that was not kept and instead we were given the 10:40 AM experience. Which is just about the worst time of the day to do any tours outside in the sun in Italy in August. To say I was disappointed in this under expresses my frustration. So much so, that I ended up buying a small tour through another company for the next day at the opening time as I paid for. That was excellent. I doubt that anything can be done from your end for recompense, but I am really disappointed, and I will not be recommending walks of Italy to any of my family and friends who come here often if something can’t be done. Doug Vinish
I have book the Sistine Pristine tour and it a was a total bad experience! For 501 euro for 3 persons 1. "Get ahead of the crowds—and save hours waiting in line with an end of the day or early morning Vatican tour." - they where at leat 300 people in front of us! 2. The guide Jeb i think had a bad day or something or was in a hury!. he just keep talling us stuf but we really did not have the time to admire something or ask a question. 3. The only good thing was the shorcut from vatican museum to St. Peter. I will never ever get a tour from them. Way to much money for the experience.
Whilst in Rome, we went on a morning guided tour of the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palantine Hill last week. It was an excellent 3 hours. We had no problem finding the meeting place and the guides were easily identifiable. The earpiece worked fine, allowing freedom to look around whilst listening to the guide. The guide was very knowledgeable and imparted the information in an entertaining way. My friend and I enjoyed it a lot and definitely recommend it.
I booked a tour for our family with Walks of Italy (also called "Walks & Devour Tours") for the Private VIP Colosseum Tour with Roman Forum & Palatine Hill. First of all, we booked our tour for four people months in advance, and reserved an 8:30am slot (as the morning is the best time for this tour in late May, as Rome gets hot fast). A few months later, I was informed that our start time had been moved to 10:00am, with no options to rebook at a different time for the days we would be in Rome (5 days in late May 2026). We received instructions on where and when to meet our guide, for this small group (basically, our family) VIP tour. On the day of the tour, we arrived early at the designated location, but our guide was not there. An employee at a nearby cafe insisted that "the tour groups meet down those steps" and pointed to the pathway to the entrance of the Colosseum. We went down the steps and looked around but could not find our guide. When we returned to the designated area (still before the 10am start time), a guide from another company told us our guide had been there but had left a few minutes prior. We went looking for the guide "with the green WALKS sign" but could not find him/her. I tried calling the customer assistance number provided in the email but was put on eternal hold. More than an hour later I was finally able to speak to a customer service representative, who said "because you missed your guide, there is nothing I can do for you" (or words to that effect. Because our guide had our tickets/passes to get into the Colosseum and Palatine Hill, we had no way to even visit the Roman Forum. I logged into the government-run website to see if there was any way we could purchase scheduled-entry tickets for the Colosseum sometime later when we were still in Rome, and the only tickets were for late on our last afternoon, when we had already scheduled a "Small Group VIP Tour of the Vatican Museums" with Walks & Devour. I purchased these tickets, knowing that we could end up having another Walks & Devour Guide disappear/no-show leaving us to miss pretty much everything we had come to Rome to see. When I tried to cancel our VIP Vatican Museum Tour, I was told that we had already passed the refund window. When I explained what had happened, the customer service rep said there was nothing she could do.
Excellent experience. Informative, funny and did justice to the wonderful history of Florence. Great job!
Booked the Gladiator Gate tour months in advance, only to find out weeks before leaving for our trip that they were changing our tour and it would now not include the Gladiator Gate portion (which was the only reason we had booked this particular tour). Now we were left scrambling to find another company to do the tour with, luckily we were able to. Which means there were tickets available but this company just was not organized enough and oversold tickets. Let down by this company before we even got to Rome!
Very knowledgeable, friendly and entertaining guide. We enjoyed all of the information that the guide was able to give us based on their own personal work and study background.
We're happy to hear that you found the guide knowledgeable, friendly, and entertaining. We appreciate you highlighting the value of the information shared from their background.
This walk was wonderful and we enjoyed every minute. The guide was very informative and very pleasant. I would recommend doing Walks of Italy to everyone who visits Italy. Lauria Bell-Hughes
We're happy to hear that you found the walk wonderful and that you enjoyed every minute. We're also glad that our guide was informative and pleasant. Thank you for recommending us!
Silvia was really nice and helpful and explains everything we see. We really enjoy the tour. Thank you so much.
We're happy to hear that you enjoyed the tour and found the explanations helpful. We appreciate you taking the time to share your positive experience with us.
These people are crooks. I booked them for their "best selling" Pristine Sistine tour. Their website contains blatant lies and false advertising, which you don't realize until you are actually on the tour. This is what their website says: "Enter the Sistine Chapel just as it opens, ahead of the daytime tour groups." This is a lie. You have to wake up early and overpay (I paid $200) for NOTHING. It is only when you arrive that the guide tells you that the Vatican changed their rules years ago, and you do not enter the Sistine Chapel as it opens, and in fact it is not even the first stop on the tour. When we arrived at the Vatican, we waited to the side as other groups went in first, and then our guide proceeded slowly and babbled and it was clear that we would not enter the Sistine Chapel until around 10 am. You can see how badly this company rips you off when you look at the €25 museum admission ticket. You are basically paying $200 for a ticket that costs $28, with zero added value. I joined this tour with my partner so it was $400 wasted. The guide was also terrible, a complete amateur, and kept repeating himself. He began rushing us through, only to stop at random exhibits and babble for 5 minutes, offering nothing of value. I became alarmed when I looked at a museum sign next to one of the exhibits and it was far more insightful than our babbling guide. This tour was so bad that my partner and I left after around 90 minutes in. We proceeded to purchase the €5 official audio guide, sold by the Vatican, and it was infinitely better than our babbling guide. I would have disputed the charge on my credit card for the blatant false advertising that Walks of Italy engages in, clear lies on their website, but unfortunately it was too late for me to dispute it. As this company is run by crooks, I know there is no chance I will get a refund from them. All I can do is caution others not to spend $200 on a $30 ticket and guide, so others don't get robbed by these crooks like I was. EDIT: The response from management is predictably deceptive. I reached out to the company long before management responded to my review. I was asked for my contact information and told that management would contact me directly. They never did, and instead left a response here with fake concern, pretending they would like more information from me. I then contacted the company again. I was told that management was in the process of conducting an "investigation" and would reach out to me next week. This was over 10 days ago. It is clear they are crooks and just making fake responses here to look like a respectable company. Would never use them again. BTW, their false and deceptive language is still on their website.
Christian, Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We’re very sorry to hear that your experience on the “Pristine Sistine” tour did not meet expectations. We understand how important the early-access experience to the Sistine Chapel is to many of our guests. While we aim to provide priority entry and an early start inside the Vatican Museums, access procedures and routing are ultimately controlled by Vatican authorities and can change. We regret if this was not clearly communicated and are actively reviewing how this information is presented to ensure it is accurate and transparent. Regarding value, we’re sorry to hear that you felt the tour wasn’t worth the ticket price. Our pricing reflects more than just admission — it includes skip-the-line access, group coordination, VAT, and the expertise of a dedicated guide. Our guides are passionate professionals who aim to provide deeper context, storytelling, and insight that goes beyond what guests might experience independently. That said, we’re genuinely disappointed to hear that the guiding style and overall experience did not meet your expectations. We pride ourselves on delivering engaging, high-quality tours, and it’s clear we fell short in your case. Your feedback regarding pacing and commentary is being taken seriously and will be shared with our team. We truly value hearing from our guests, as it helps us improve. If you’re open to sharing any additional details, we would appreciate the opportunity to learn more. Thank you again for your feedback, and we wish you all the best in your future travels Walks and Devour
I purchased this tour just to go to the basilica well they said the basilica was closed and we would do the rest of the tour and skip the basilica however the basilica was open and they did not take us in. They told us to stand in line to go in on our own.
Thank you for your feedback, and we’re very sorry for the disappointment regarding the Basilica. Unfortunately, access can change at the last minute due to decisions made by the Vatican, which are outside of our control. In this case, we were informed that entry would not be possible as part of the tour, so the guide advised guests on how to visit independently. We truly understand how frustrating this must have been and appreciate you sharing your experience. Walks and Devour
Our tour guide was knowledgeable and articulate with his review of our tour visit. It started with a detailed breakdown of what we were about to experience and how best to observe and understand its history. The tour covered so much it was overwhelming for us. The experience of being there was unbelievable and once in a lifetime visit. Walk of Italy made it our best tour of our vacation.
We're happy to hear that you enjoyed the tour and appreciated our guide's knowledge. We aim to provide a detailed and memorable experience, and we're so glad it was the best tour of your vacation! Thank you for your positive feedback.
We're happy to hear that you found it well-organized and informative! Thank you for your positive feedback; we appreciate it.
I arranged five tours with Walks of Italy for our family in August 2025 -- three with two adults and two with six adults and four children. This included the Pristine Sistine, Premium Colosseum, Borghese Gallery, Florence in a Day and Venice tours. The tour guides were all very impressive with their knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject matter. We learned a great deal and enjoyed some unique experiences as a result of participating in the tours. I highly recommend Walks of Italy.
Andrea, We're happy to hear that your family enjoyed the tours in Italy. It's great to know that our guides' knowledge and enthusiasm enhanced your experiences in Rome, Florence, and Venice. Thank you for recommending our tours!
What an incredible way to experience the foods of Italy. How else could we tourist find such amazing tastes off the beaten path???
We're glad you enjoyed your experience! It's wonderful to hear that we provided you with an amazing way to discover authentic Italian cuisine beyond the typical tourist spots. Thank you!
Excellent guide. We were lucky in that not everybody was present so only 4 of us with the guide.
We're happy to hear that you found the guide excellent and that you enjoyed the smaller group size. Thank you for your positive feedback; we appreciate it.
Clear instructions about the meeting point, comfortable transport, a great guide who explained everything in detail, relaxed pace of the trip without rushing, small group of 14 people, and the perfect organisation of the tour by the company made this tour a very enjoyable one!
Thank you for such a thoughtful review! We’re delighted to hear that everything from the clear meeting instructions to the comfortable transport and relaxed pace helped make your experience so enjoyable. It’s wonderful to know the small group size and your guide’s detailed explanations stood out as well. We truly appreciate your kind words about the organization — and we hope to welcome you on another tour soon! Kind Regards Walks and Devour Feedback Team
The experience was amazing! As a photograher, access to the terraces and the cathedral after hours, devoid of crowds, was increcible. I would definately recommend this tour.
Thank you for your fantastic review! We’re so glad you enjoyed the special after-hours access — experiencing those spaces without the crowds really is something unique, especially for photography. It means a lot that you’d recommend the tour, and we hope to welcome you back for another unforgettable experience in the future! Kind Regards Walks and Devour Feedback Team
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