The Colosseum

Each part of the building keeps its own last entry. The underground stops at 16:40. The arena floor stops at 15:00 on the Full Experience Arena ticket and at 18:00 on the 24h Only Arena ticket. The attic is open from 8:30 to 14:30 only. Across the road, the Domus Aurea opens Friday to Sunday with visits every 15 minutes from 9:00 to 16:30. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings the Colosseum reopens from 20:00 to 23:00 for the guided night visit.

The first Sunday of the month, 25 April, 2 June and 4 November are free. On those days there are no online tickets: you queue at the ticket offices on Piazza del Colosseo and at Largo della Salara Vecchia, in order of arrival.

Plan around: From 1 to 24 October, last admission is 17:30 and the park closes at 18:30. Book a morning slot and keep the Forum for after lunch.

The park sells eight tickets. Three cost €18: the standard Colosseum, Forum and Palatine ticket for 24 hours, the 24h Only Arena ticket with 20 minutes on the floor, and the Forum Pass SUPER, which skips the Colosseum altogether. Three Full Experience tickets cost €24 and last two consecutive days: Arena, Underground and Arena, and Attic. The underground with the educational tour is €32. A Night at the Colosseum is €50, the Full Experience ticket plus the 60-minute guided visit.

EU citizens aged 18 to 25 pay €2 on the standard and Full Experience tickets, with ID. Every ticket is issued in the visitor's name and is checked against an identity document at the gate. One name change is allowed by midnight on the seventh day before the visit, only for a clerical error in the name, the wrong ticket type bought in the same transaction or a serious documented reason.

The official ticket shop is ticketing.colosseo.it. Third-party sellers resell the same tickets with a guide or a service fee on top; the tours we compare below name which park ticket is inside each price.

Plan around: bring the ID of the person named on the ticket. Your ticket: Full Experience Underground and Arena, €24, if your date is still on sale; Full Experience Arena, €24, if it is not. A ticket in someone else's name is refused at the gate.

Timed tickets go on sale 30 days before the visit day: the standard ticket, the Underground and Arena ticket and the Attic ticket. The night visit goes on sale 7 days before, like the Full Experience Arena ticket. The Full Experience Arena ticket is the exception: it opens online 7 days ahead, and the ticket office sells it on the day. The Forum Pass SUPER has no time slot and can be bought any day for use within 30 days.

Underground slots are the first to go. They are sold online, in groups of up to 25 with a park guide, with a last entry at 16:40. If your date is more than 30 days away, nothing is on sale yet; if it is less than a week away in high season, check the Arena ticket and the tours with the arena floor inside.

Plan around: set a reminder for 30 days before your date. The underground sells out first, the standard morning slots next.

The standard route climbs from the ground-level gallery to the first tier and the second. From the second tier you look down on the arena platform and the exposed hypogeum. The museum rooms on the second tier show finds and models of the machinery.

The arena floor is a separate timed entry; on the 24h Only Arena ticket it is through the Sperone Stern. You stand on the platform at the level of the games. The underground is reached with a park guide only: the corridors, the bases of the lifts and the passage towards the Ludus Magnus barracks. The attic, from the third ring up, gives the view over the Forum and the Palatine. Until 8 November it is reached by lift, 8 people at most. From 9 November the lift is for reduced mobility; everyone else climbs steep steps.

Plan around: 75 to 90 minutes is what the park gives you inside. The arena and the underground sit inside that time, not on top of it.

The metro stop is Colosseo on line B, two stops from Termini, or Colosseo-Fori Imperiali on line C; buses 51, 75, 81, 85, 87 and 118 and tram 3 stop at the Colosseum.

The Roman Forum and the Palatine have five entrances: Largo della Salara Vecchia on Via dei Fori Imperiali, Via Sacra by the Arch of Titus, Via di San Gregorio, Via del Tulliano and Via del Foro Romano. The Forum entry is on the same ticket, with no slot; the nearest gate to the Colosseum is Via Sacra by the Arch of Titus.

From Fiumicino airport take the train to Termini and change to metro line B. The getting-there page has the entrances on a map and the walk from Termini.

Plan around: be at the Colosseum gate 15 minutes before your slot; entry at a different time from the booking is not possible. Security is at the entrance and the queue moves by slot time.