The tour guide makes the tour; Context Tours offers guided tours led by architects, historians and food writers.

By Diane Vadino

There's a surfeit of tour guides in Rome, ranging from uninformed hustlers wasting an hour of your time to the guides of Context Tours. They're perhaps the city's best informed guides. Docents include practicing architects, art historians and food writers; tours include a Rome market walk, a mythology workshop, an annotated lunch and an architectural drawing session. There are also trips out of town, including a deluxe, 12-hour outing to Pompeii by car led by an archaeologist or classical historian, with a stop in Naples for lunch. There's a slightly less expensive Pompeii trip by train and another to Villa Lante, an estate with gorgeous Renaissance gardens.

Go to Rome City Guide.