hihi,
i was wondering about having contiki arrange my taxi from the airport to the hotel. if i'm travelling w/ 3 others, is it cheaper to get a taxi ourselves or go w/ contiki even though they charge per person?
also in rome, is there time to go on the optional excursion of the coliseum and forum and also go to vatican city afterwards? i want to do all of that but i'm worried about getting closed out.
thanks for your help!!!!

It's probably cheaper to get your own Taxi than using Contiki shuttle if you have 3 people traveling with you. One thing to think about is will yours and 3 other people's luggage fit in one taxi. I am not sure about that, I guess depends on the size of all of your luggage. The one good thing about Contiki shuttle is that you don't have to worry about Taxi driver scaming you. Rome is famous for Taxis trying to scam you.
On my tour a few people went straight from the optional Imperial tour to the Vatican museum. They got to the museum at about 10:30 and waited 3 hours to get in. I went to the Vatican on my first day in Rome. I got there at 12:30 and was prepared to stand in long line. To my suprise I got in right away with no line. I don't know if I was lucky or if it's usually slows down by the end of the day. My guess there are less people at the Vatican at the end of the day. But that's just a guess and something to think about. Also I read in the advise section that it's common in Europe to cut in line. So if you really want to go and the line is long, that might be an option for you.
Also as a note, the optional Imperial Tour doesn't take you inside the Colloseum. If you want to go in, you have to go on your own time.

get the contiki transfers!! so many people on my trip got ripped off by taxis chargins so so much!

search for the vatican opening times on the web and yeah. W e went to the vatican at 9am and already the line to get in was over 2kms long! it was huge!! we jumped the line as we were willing to pay 55 euro's to a guide (ok we got 10euros back at teh end when we returned the headsets)
I didnt do the imperial tour, instead me and a few went through the colloseum, we had walked all around rome already as we got there a day early. Oh and in italy - time doesnt mean much, somethings it says open but then you get tehre and its not so yeah.

Hello!

If you are planning on tacking a cab from the airport to tthe hotel, I suggest you ask contiki how much it would cost you. also, ask the driver approximatily it would cost you. That way you would know if the cab is tring to rip you off. Like every where...they always try to make a buck of you!!!