Perhaps the only place in Rome as well-known as Vatican City is the Colosseum. It is also, along with the Vatican City Museums, one of the few places that you should consider buying tickets well in advance. Individual tickets must be purchased from Parco Archeologico del Colosseo, either online or on its app, unless you choose to join a group tour with a private guide.
We waited until we were in Rome to buy Colosseum tickets so that we could select a day with decent weather forecasted. Looking at the available tickets online, we realized very quickly which week is spring break as the Colosseum was close to sold out for the third week of March. We bought tickets during the first week of March, a few days in advance.
As best I can tell, Parco Archeologico del Colosseo sells tickets up to 30 days in advance. In the summer I’d buy tickets as soon as possible and hope you get good weather rather than waiting until you are in Rome to decide when to visit the Colosseum.
I’ll try to explain the official Parco Archeologico del Colosseo ticket options as simply as possible. All visits to the Colosseum are for a certain date and time slot, which you must select at the time of purchase.
You have several choices, first starting with the type of ticket: the “ordinary ticket” (€18 each); “full experience arena ticket” (€24 each); or, the “full experience undergrounds and arena ticket” (also €24 each). Translated for the Colosseum: basic ticket, basic ticket with a walk out onto the arena area, and basic ticket with a walk out onto the arena area and in a few underground passageways.
Your second choice is purchasing tickets either with or without a tour guide. In general if we have a choice between tour guide or not, we are not getting a tour guide. We just don’t like being locked into a group.
Our preference was “full experience undergrounds and arena tickets”, but those were sold out, so we bought “full experience arena tickets”. There are also more expensive specialty tickets, such as a guided tour at night, but we did not consider any of those.
If you buy Colosseum tickets direct from Parco Archeologico del Colosseo then your ticket will include a visit to Roman Forum / Palatine Hill. You are buying a combination ticket whether you want to or not.
If you do not want to visit the Colosseum, a separate ticket for Roman Forum / Palatine Hill only is available (€16 each).
Full experience tickets distinguish themselves from ordinary tickets in two key ways. First, the ordinary ticket is a 24 hour ticket, so you must visit both the Colosseum and Roman Forum / Palatine Hill during a 24 hour window. The full experience ticket is a 48 hour ticket, which allows a longer time frame to visit the sites. Note that you are allowed only one entry to each site.
Second, full experience tickets include entry to restricted sites in Roman Forum / Palatine Hill, the “S.U.P.E.R.” sites. As it turned out, we thought that the real value of full experience tickets is having a 48 hour admission window and access to the S.U.P.E.R. sites, not walking out onto the Colosseum arena floor.
Let’s say you do not plan in advance and arrive in Rome during the height of tourist season. Then you may have no choice but to buy a ticket to visit the Colosseum on a private group tour. Not a problem. There are ticket sellers for private tour companies roaming the grounds outside the Colosseum asking everyone if they need to buy a tour ticket. If you want to join a Colosseum tour, you will find one.
Now, to the visits.
I suspect most folks go to the Colosseum first, because that is the more popular destination and you have a timed entry reservation. With our 48 hour tickets we chose to go to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill first.
Visits to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill are general entry. When we arrived in mid-afternoon, the line to enter was short, about a dozen folks deep, just waiting to pass through the metal detectors.
No maps or brochures of the site are available at entry. Either we missed them (doubtful), or none are given out (likely). To orient ourselves we used the online map contained in the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo app. It is better than useless but not by much. Plain old Google Maps does a decent job here as well.
We hoped that tour groups and school groups would be gone by mid-afternoon. Nope, plenty were still there. Fortunately the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill are wide open places. There is no set route and you can walk around as you please. Few locations are crowded at any one point in time. The only place we ran into crowds was at the overlook on Palatine Hill above the Roman Forum.
Palatine Hill was our first destination, almost by accident. After passing by Arco di Tito, most people turned right and headed downhill towards the Roman Forum. So we turned left and hiked up the hill.
Most of the S.U.P.E.R. sites are located in Palatine Hill, specifically Aula Isiaca con Loggia Mattei (display of frescoed ceiling and walls); the Museo Palatino (a small, nicely done museum, mostly statues); Neronian Cryptoporticus (a tunnel between palaces, hosting an interesting light show); and, the Casas of Augustus and Livia (the houses were unfortunately closed on the day of our visit).
Make sure to keep your tickets accessible as each is checked at the entrances to S.U.P.E.R. sites. We saw a lot of tourists holding ordinary tickets being turned away at these sites.
After a thorough exploration of Palatine Hill, it was time to head down the staircase to the Roman Forum. At the bottom, unsure of where to go, we made a left turn and started walking. That may have been the single best decision we made because at the end of that path we came to the Rampa Imperiale di Domiziano (Ramp of Domitian), Oratorio dei Quaranta Martiri (Oratory of the Forty Martyrs), and Santa Maria Antiqua, a church with paintings dating from the 6th to 9th centuries – our favorite S.U.P.E.R. site.
After wandering around the open forum area, we stopped at the final S.U.P.E.R. site, Curia Iulia (a Senate House). It’s just a large building, as you can see from outside, with a few small displays inside. Not really super at all.
We finished our day walking past Tempio di Antonio e Faustina, Tempo di Romolo, and Basilica di Massenzio before stopping in at the Museo del Foro Romano. This small archaeological museum has displays just as you would expect, focused on everyday items used by the Romans.
The best part about the museum isn’t the displays, but rather walking out back, past the Tempio di Venere e Roma, to an outdoor area. Here are the best views of the Colosseum, as you have an elevated viewpoint above the crowds below.
Thankfully we had a 48 hour ticket because we ended up spending close to four hours walking through the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. It would have been one hell of a long day if combined with a Colosseum visit.
After spending a few minutes looking up local restaurants, we headed over to Ristorante la Nuova Piazzetta for an early dinner of mussels, diavola pizza, and amatriciana con pasta fresca. Choosing a restaurant from online reviews can be dicey at times, but this one turned out to be great.
The next day we arrived at the Colosseum 15 minutes before our reserved time, as recommended. Try not too arrive too early, because there are hundreds of people milling about in the area and no benches to sit on.
When the time comes for your visit, first show your ticket at the entry gate. There you are given a strip of colored tape if you have access to either the arena floor or underground. We got orange tape for the arena floor stuck onto our jackets.
Next up is security and a trip through a metal detector. Then follow the path to the actual ticket takers. After your tickets are scanned you are finally allowed to venture into the Colosseum.
You and the other 50 or so folks with the same time slot are now joining hundreds of individual tourists, tour groups, and school groups already in the Colosseum – not to mention the next group coming up behind you.
After a quick detour to get a first glimpse of the Colosseum from ground level, the path leads to one end of the arena. Stephanie and I just walked along following other folks. At this point we had absolutely no idea where we were going or what we were doing. There aren’t any signs. You just walk.
Finally we came to an employee at the bottom of a staircase who looked at us and said: “orange tape, you want to go first to the arena floor,” pointing to a path leading away from the stairs. We turned left and headed to the arena floor. It is a nice vantage point to view the Colosseum and not too crowded.
But a lot of people take Instagram photos on the arena floor. A lot.
Several minutes later we left the arena floor and went back to the staircase. This is the start of the ordinary tour. Up we went. At the top of the stairs is a concourse housing numerous displays about the Colosseum, not unlike a small museum. Because of the displays, the walkway in this area is somewhat compact and quite crowded. We hustled past the displays pretty fast.
Finally we made it to the highlight of the tour, walking around the inside the Colosseum on the second level. When you first walk out the railing is packed with folks excited to see the full Colosseum. The trick at this point is to realize that the walking tour goes around the entire inside of the Colosseum, and the viewpoints on the opposite side are not at all crowded.
Before you take a set of stairs back down to ground level, you’ll have a chance to go into a bookstore. It was so full of people that we did not even consider going in. Surprisingly there is no sign mentioning that a second, smaller bookstore is on ground level near the exit. That bookstore was empty when we walked by it.
Just before the exit you will have views from the arena floor level. It is not the same view as from the “full experience arena ticket” area, but close enough. In other words, you don’t need the “full experience arena ticket” to see the Colosseum from the arena floor level.
After about an hour we finally stumbled out of the Colosseum.
Honestly the Colosseum was somewhat of a letdown. It was very crowded and seemed somewhat familiar, probably from all of the pictures we have seen of it over the years. I’m glad we went, but for us it was not nearly as interesting and enjoyable as the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.
Garrett and Stephanie
The Travel Blog page contains collected links to all of our travel posts. Check it out if you have not already done so.
Want to subscribe (or unsubscribe) for email notification of new blog posts? It is only two to three emails a month. Send your name and email address to slowtravelchronicles@gmail.com, and note subscribe (or unsubscribe) in the subject line. All email addresses will be kept confidential and not sold to any third-party. You won’t get any marketing junk or sales pitches from us.
thanks for the tour!
Enjoyed this! Brought back memories of our trip.