Attention, the visit of the Colosseum is linked to that of the Roman Forum and Palatine that you will see later. This order is the one we recommend but if you buy the tickets with Getyourguide in that case it is better to invert it to avoid walking less. Just follow the instructions in reverse. Start by visiting Piazza Venezia and Piazza Campidoglio, then the Forum exiting through the Palatino and finally the Colosseum.
- Brief description: The Colosseum in Rome was the place where gladiator fights and Christian sacrifices in front of lions took place. A marvel that you cannot stop seeing. Next door you can't miss the Arch of Constantine, outside the building, as well as the Roman Forum (next visit on our route).
- Visit duration: 1.5h
- Schudule: the opening time normaly goes from 9:00 a.m. to 6:30-7:00 p.m. in summer and spring and around 4:00-5:00 p.m. in winter and autumn (always one hour before sunset). Last admission 1 hour before closing. In any case, as the schedules can change, the best thing to make sure is to consult their official website.
- Ticket price: €18 the official price, free for children under 18 years of age, €24 if you choose the Full Experience (includes a visit to the Colosseum arena but it is not worth it at all because the vision is practically the same and Nisiqueira has a mystique special because you can never really be in the center of the Colosseum.
- The tickets include the Colosseum on one side and the Roman Forum and the Palatine on the other (once you enter one of the two sites you have 24 hours to enter the other but obviously the ideal is to see it all on the same day so you don't have to come back again).
Here it happens as with the Vatican Museum. It is impossible to buy tickets online because the robots of the agencies take them all. There is always the option to buy them the same day at the ticket office but again the queues are unbearable. Below we explain all the options in order of preference.
- How to buy tickets for the Colosseum online: through Getyourguide you can simply buy the ticket without a guide. That is why it is the cheapest option (€36.90 adult, €12 under 18 years). The excuse to justify the overprice is a 25-minute video that you can see in their offices where you will have to go to look for the ticket. Look at the address where to go when buying the ticket because it is not the Colosseum. It can vary but it is usually next to Piazza Venezia, in Piazza d'Aracoeli 16.
- Guided tour of the Colosseum and Roman Forum: if you want to do the entire visit with a guide who will take you and explain it to you, then we recommend you book it with Civitatis (€45) or including a walk through the Arena (€54). But be aware that the complete visit, Colosseum and Palatine, lasts more than 3 hours.
- Other options to buy online tickets for the Colosseum: if you search the internet you will see that the three most popular websites are Civitatis, Viator and Getyourguide. In general, we prefer the first (the other two always have a much more expensive final price than advertised). Keep in mind that they are only intermediaries but if you try to go to the final agency the price ends up being the same and it is always more difficult to claim if something goes wrong. Be careful if you search for Headout because they offer the standard ticket with an additional fee of only 5 or 6 euros depending on the time of year but user complaints are continuous so we DO NOT recommend them.
- How to buy tickets for the Colosseum the same day at the ticket office: if for whatever reason you have not been able to buy tickets online, you still have the option of doing so at the ticket office the same day. Before there were two ticket offices but the ones on Via del Foro Imperial have been closed since 2023 (they may reopen but so far we have had no news). Now only the Palatino ticket offices are open. In our App you have them geolocated so that you can find them without problems. In this case, it is best to go around 2:00 p.m. because that is when the vast majority of tourists go to eat and the queues are very low. But keep in mind that around 4 or 5 p.m. the tickets sell out, so don't be too tight on time either. In any case, if you want to go first thing in the morning, they open at 9am.
- Official website to buy tickets to the Colosseum: we have already told you that it is impossible to get them on their website. But if you still want to try this is the link for the normal tickets, CoopCulture. The tickets are put on sale in two packages, 30 days and 7 days before the date (figure that they dump them at 9:15 a.m. according to them). If you are very lucky and can buy the ticket online, they will make you choose the time of entry. Attention if you go with children: their tickets are free but since you have to book them through another link you can not risk having yours but not theirs, so if by a miracle you find an available slot buy it for them too even if you have to pay for them (with an agency you will always have to pay for your ticket anyway).
- How to get there: if you are following our route, it is a 5-minute walk from Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore (via Merulana / Via Mecenate / Via Domus Aurea). If you go directly you have a metro stop on the blue line, Colosseo that leaves you right there. The 75 bus also stops here. In any case, if you arrive at the top and you don't see the way to "go down" to the Colosseum, the easiest way is to enter the subway on one side, go down the stairs and exit on the other. But be careful if you have bought the Getyourguide ticket because they will make you pick it up next to Piazza Venezia. In this case, they themselves will recommend that it is better to visit the Forum first and then the Colosseum (contrary to how we recommend it on our Route, but it is as easy as following the directions in reverse).
- Where is the entrance to the Colosseum: between the exit of the metro stop and the Arch of Contastino (you will recognize it from afar because it has a white tent). At the end of the visit to the Colosseum you will leave to the south. But be aware that if you go with a guided tour they will meet you somewhere else (usually near the metro exit).
- Explanation of the visit: if you go with a guide they will tell you everything and more. In case you go on your own, here's a little explanation.
The Romans absorbed the cultures they conquered and they did of course the Greeks. The Colosseum is actually two amphitheaters in the Greek style but facing each other. But not only that, but in the style of the Japanese they copied and improved. The Greeks could only build on sloped embankments, the Romans were able to do so on flat surfaces.
The holes that you will see in the walls were caused in the Middle Ages when they removed the iron staples that joined the blocks to reuse them. The staples prevented the rocks from shifting. For this reason, despite the fact that the Colosseum has suffered two major earthquakes, it has withstood the passage of time (although a part did collapse in one of them). From that moment it was used as a quarry to build churches. Luckily, in the 17th century it was consecrated by the Pope and from then on it is no longer deconstructed but it is not reconstructed either.
The Colosseum is built on top of the pond of the house that Nero built for himself after the famous fire (this is the main reason why he is accused of causing the fire). Actually, the hole in the pond was used to make the backstage and above it (what can be seen today) it was covered with sand to absorb the blood of the gladiators.
On the first level of the Colosseum, a small piece of the grandstand has been rebuilt with original marble. You will see it quickly. When you are on the first floor, in the gallery part, you will see that there is a mini exhibition about the history of the Colosseum with related objects, models and drawings (the most worthwhile of all this is the great model of the Colosseum) .
Other Colosseum facts that you may find interesting
- 5 floors
- elliptical shape
- Stone on the outside (travertine), covered with marble, bricks on the bottom, covered with sand.
- 74,000 spectators, all seated except the top floor
- Zone by classes (and gender, women on the top floor)
- 400 years in use
- exotic animals and gladiators
- The gladiators had contracts for 5 years, renewable
- Normally 5 days of games in winter and 5 in summer (exceptionally due to the inauguration there were 100 days of games in a row)
- 90% of the time it was free
