Tickets for the Colosseum in Rome include an obligatory time-slot reservation and go on sale only a month in advance, but tours can be booked months earlier.
The Colosseum is a highlight of many visits to Rome. Admission tickets include the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, but only entry to the Colosseum requires a reserved time slot. Official tickets are released 30 days in advance and often sell out quickly, while guided tours can usually be booked several months ahead.
Quick Guide to Colosseum and Roman Forum Tickets
Best ticket for most visitors: The €18 standard ticket includes Levels 1 and 2 of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.
For arena access: Choose the €24 Full Experience Arena ticket for access to both the arena floor and the main spectator levels.
When tickets go on sale: Official Colosseum tickets are released 30 days before the visit and may sell out quickly.
Booking earlier: Guided tours can usually be reserved several months ahead.
Timed entry: Only the Colosseum requires a specific entrance time. The Roman Forum and Palatine Hill are visited separately without a time-slot reservation.
Names and identification: All tickets and tours are personal. Book using the exact names shown on each visitor’s passport or official ID.
Sold out? Check again closer to the date, as returned tickets may reappear, or book a guided tour with admission included.
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Ticket Options · Which Ticket is Best? · Tours · Super Sites · Visiting Tips
Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill Tickets
The following tickets and passes are available to see the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and related sites in the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum in Rome:
| Ticket Option | Price | Colosseum Levels 1 & 2 | Arena Floor | Underground | Attic Level 3 | Forum & Palatine | SUPER Sites |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard (Colosseum, Forum, Palatine) | €18 | ✓ | — | — | — | ✓ | +€4 |
| Forum Pass SUPER (No Colosseum) | €18 | — | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Only Arena | €18 | — | ✓ | — | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| *FULL EXPERIENCE: | |||||||
| – Arena | €24 | ✓ | ✓ | — | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| – Underground and Arena | €24 | — | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| – Attic | €24 | ✓ | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
NOTES:
- *Despite the name “Full Experience”, no ticket pass gives access to all parts of the Colosseum.
- Separate tickets to see the Colosseum only are not sold to individuals.
- IDs (or passports) are checked before entering the Colosseum — book tickets and tours using the names that match your official documentation. Names cannot be changed later.
Archaeological Park of the Colosseum in Rome
The Archaeological Park of the Colosseum in Rome consists of the following two separate ticketed areas:
- Colosseum — the large amphitheater
- Roman Forum with further access to the Palatine Hill, Imperial Forums, and so-called Super Sites.
Your ticket gives you one entrance to the Colosseum (at a reserved time slot) and a separate entrance to the Forum (and all related sites). You may visit the two sites in any order, but only the Colosseum has a specific time slot.
Seeing both on the same day is sensible, but depending on your ticket, you have 24 hours or two days (full experience tickets) to complete the visit.
You must see the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Imperial Forums, and all Super Sites in the same visit — if you exit the park area, you cannot reenter later.
Which Colosseum Ticket Should You Buy?
First-time visitors may find it surprisingly difficult to decide which Colosseum ticket to buy, as no single ticket gives access to every part of the amphitheater.
For most visitors, the standard 24-hour Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine ticket is sufficient. Adding the Super Sites pass is worth considering — pay the small supplement at the ticket office before entering the Forum area.
The only downside of the basic ticket is that you are not allowed to enter the arena floor — you’ll look down at the arena from the upper spectator levels. The Only Arena ticket will give you access to the arena floor but not to the upper levels.
The Full Experience Arena ticket probably gives the best balance if entering the Arena is important. It also gives access to the first two levels of the amphitheater.
The Full Experience Underground and Arena is worth considering if you have a specific interest in seeing the service areas below the theater, where the gladiators and animals were kept before being hoisted into the arena. It does not give access to the spectator levels, which many visitors find more interesting. (Limited availability.)
The Full Experience Attic – Visit with the Panoramic Lift ticket gives access to the third level and attic with a panoramic elevator ride, but not to the arena and some lower levels. This is more about the view than about archaeology. (Very limited availability.)
Many visitors find seeing the exterior of the Colosseum for free quite sufficient and settle for the Forum Pass SUPER, which gives access to the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Imperial Forums, and the Super Sites.
Special tours are sometimes available, such as nighttime visits in summer, and usually only sold a few days in advance through the official website. (These tours are quite expensive but popular and often sell out.)
If Roman history or archaeology is not really your thing, you can see quite a lot of the Colosseum and the Forum ruins for free simply by strolling along the Via dei Fori Imperiali from the Colosseum to the Vittorio Emanuele II monument. This monument offers super panoramic views of the Forum, as does the Musei Capitolini.
Tips on Colosseum and Roman Forum Tickets
Official individual Colosseum tickets are sold online through the ticketing service linked from the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo website. Commercial tour operators also sell guided visits that include admission, usually at a higher total price. (Only colosseo.it and ticketing.colosseo.it are official websites.)
Colosseum tickets go on sale 30 days in advance and sell out very quickly. As name changes are not allowed in the final week before the visit, many resellers return unsold tickets, making it often easier to buy Colosseum tickets days rather than weeks before visiting.
You can buy Colosseum tickets in person from the ticket office at Piazza del Colosseo, but only if time slots are not sold out online for the day.
If you don’t want to deal with the uncertainty of tickets becoming available, consider a guided tour of the Colosseum, which can be booked months in advance.
Tickets for the Roman Forum (in a variety of different names) are available from many resellers. Forum tickets are sold with open admission within 30 days. Roman Forum tickets don’t sell out, so never pay more than the official price — currently €18.
Tours of the Colosseum
There are literally hundreds of guided tours of the Colosseum on offer at major sites such as Viator or GetYourGuide. It is worth comparing not only prices but what is on offer. Almost all tours include the full ticket for visits to the Roman Forum, even if not included in the guided tour.
Guided tours of the Colosseum are generally a good idea, as there is very little information available at the Colosseum. Download the official app for free, although it may not necessarily work on your phone as it should on the day of your visit. Paid apps or guidebooks may offer a better user experience.
There is no need to pay over the odds for a guided tour of the Colosseum and Roman Forum.
Guided tours of the Colosseum range in price from €18 to well over a hundred euros for private or small group tours. Depending on what is offered, a price between €40 and €60 seems fair.
If a Colosseum tour for €18 is available for your date and includes the required admission ticket, it is unusually good value, as €18 is also the price of the basic individual ticket. It is not available every day, but this illustrative example was bookable for several time slots about ten days in advance.
Tour operators are masters of advertising and the upsell, so compare the details rather than relying on promotional labels. Don’t fall for any of these:
- “Half price” is meaningful only if the tour is genuinely sold at the advertised full price at other times.
- “From prices” — a low price, but the tour is only available at the special price at one time slot months later in the year.
- “Small group” is nice but only worth the surcharge if the actual number is mentioned (and equal to your definition of small).
- Multiple-sites tours can be a good deal and time saver, but not if you need to get to the next venue on your own and spend time forming a new tour group.
Check the cancellation policy: many tours may be cancelled up to 24 hours before the reservation. There is usually little reason to accept a tour with a much stricter cancellation deadline.
Express tours of the Colosseum take just more than an hour. Highlights tours of the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill usually are around 3 hours, but you may stay longer inside the Forum at the end of the tour if desired.
No one skips the lines at the security and ID checks when entering the Colosseum.
Super Sites at the Colosseum and Roman Forum Archaeological Park
A variety of smaller archaeological sites, mostly inside the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill area, are classified as SUPER Sites and included with certain tickets. These sights are somewhat less super than the name suggests, but all are worth seeing, and certainly worth the €4 surcharge if not included in your existing ticket.
The Super Sites include:
- Palatine Museum (lower floor)
- House of Augustus (closed on Monday)
- Livia’s House (closed on Tuesday)
- Aula Isiaca / Loggia Mattei
- Domus Tiberiana
- Santa Maria Antiqua (including Ramp of Domitian and Oratory of the Forty Martyrs)
- Temple of Romulus
- Curia Julia
- Horrea Piperataria
- Casa dei Grifi
Access is mostly from inside the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, so don’t exit the archaeological park before visiting, as re-entry is not possible. No discounts are given if these sites, which have different opening hours, are closed on the day of the visit.
Not all of these sites are always open, and some may only be seen a few times per day on guided tours (no extra charge). Last entry to some Super Sites is often almost two hours before the Forum closes. Even in the high season, the very popular House of Augustus is closed on Monday and Livia’s House on Tuesday.
Access to the Super Sites is included in the Full Experience tickets. It may be added to any other ticket for €4 at the ticket office before you enter the Forum area.
The Forum Pass SUPER gives access to the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Imperial Forums, and the Super Sites but not to the Colosseum.
The entrance to the Imperial Forums is near Trajan’s Column, or use the underpass from the Roman Forum.
Colosseum and Roman Forum Visitor Information
Visits to the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum (PArCo) in Rome involve two areas: the Colosseum amphitheatre and the Roman Forum ruins (including the Palatine Hill and Super Sites). Both areas are open daily and only closed on 25 December and 1 January.
A visit to the Colosseum takes around 60 to 90 minutes, while the Forum area takes 90 to 120 minutes. Add another 30 to 60 minutes for Super Sites.
Although Colosseum tickets may say “the permanence period” is 75 or 90 minutes, you may stay longer in the general area. The arena access is usually limited to 20 minutes, but you may, of course, stay off the arena for much longer.
Opening Hours of the Colosseum and Roman Forum
The Colosseum opens daily at 8:30 and the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill at 9:00. Closing times depend on the season:
- 19:15 — 29 March to 30 September 2026
- 18:30 — 1 to 24 October 2026
- 16:30 — 25 October 2026 to 28 February 2027
Last admission is an hour before closing time, which is really too late even for a rushed visit.
Super Sites have individual and shorter hours.
When is the Best Time to Visit the Colosseum?
The best time to visit the Colosseum is first thing in the morning. The 8:30 and 8:45 time slots are best.
Although all visitors have time slots, security and ID checks take time — no one skips the line here. Queues form later in the day. It is best not to book a time-reservation activity for directly after your planned Colosseum visit.
Large tour groups are less likely to visit over lunch, making it also good to enter between noon and 13:00, but this time slot and early afternoon can be brutally hot in summer.
Late afternoon is generally quieter too, with fewer large tour groups.
Many Super Sites are closed on free days, so avoid visiting on or near the first Sunday of the month.
On free Sundays, you must collect a ticket in person on a first-come, first-served basis at the ticket office. Online reservations are not possible. (A better savings idea on free Sundays is to visit several free smaller sights, which are usually less crowded, and you’ll easily save more than the cost of a regular Colosseum ticket.)
Other Sights Near the Colosseum and Roman Forum
A visit to the Colosseum and Roman Forum fills most of a day, but there are many further nearby sights worth seeing when in this part of Rome.
Two blocks from the Colosseum is the Basilica Minor of San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in Chains), home to Michelangelo’s large Moses and the relics of St Peter’s chains. Admission is free.
The Capitoline Museums complex (Musei Capitolini) contains outstanding ancient Roman sculptures and offers one of the best elevated views over the Roman Forum from the Tabularium Gallery.
The Palazzo Venezia and Vittorio Emanuele II Monument have wonderful views of Rome, but admission may be steep. I prefer the views (and exhibitions) of the Capitoline Museums.