Rome: Haunted Ghost Tour with Dowsing Rods & Storyteller

4.69

(666 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

We met our guide right on Sant’Angelo Bridge, which I’d crossed before in daylight but never really noticed. At night it felt different — the statues looked like they were watching us, and the Tiber below was just this slow black ribbon. Our guide, Marco (he wore a scarf that kept blowing into his face), handed out these dowsing rods. I laughed because I didn’t think I’d actually be holding one of those in Rome, but here we were. He said something about executions right where we stood, which made me glance down at my shoes — kind of silly, but you can’t help it.

We wandered through narrow alleys that smelled like old stone and rain from earlier. Marco told us about poisoners in a square where the windows seemed too quiet for a city like this. He pointed out Via Giulia and joked about popes sneaking around — “Nobody’s innocent here,” he said, grinning. The streetlights flickered on the wet cobbles and for a second I thought I saw someone behind us, but it was just another couple catching up to the group. That’s when Marco showed us how to use the dowsing rods. Mine barely moved, but someone else’s spun around and she jumped back laughing (nervous laughter — I get it).

I didn’t expect Campo de’ Fiori to feel so heavy at night. There’s this burnt smell from somewhere — maybe someone cooking nearby or maybe just my imagination running wild after hearing about witches burned alive there. Marco told us real stories about people who died horribly right where we stood; he didn’t sugarcoat it or make it sound like a movie. It felt honest, almost too much at times. We ended near Piazza Farnese with its gloomy palace walls and honestly by then I was looking over my shoulder more than once.

Rome changes after dark — you notice things you’d miss in daylight: a cold breeze from an alleyway, bits of old graffiti half-scratched off stone, the way locals walk past without looking up. The ghost tour wasn’t what I expected; it stuck with me longer than most things do when traveling.