The Colosseum

The park sells five Colosseum ticket types. They all include the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, but each one opens a different part of the Colosseum.

• The standard ticket is valid for 24 hours. It covers the first and second levels, the Colosseum Museum, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, with up to 75 minutes inside the Colosseum.
• The official Only Arena ticket gives you 20 minutes on the arena floor. Three Full Experience tickets last for two consecutive days. One adds the arena, another combines the arena and underground, and the third takes you to the attic by panoramic lift.

Tickets appear 30 days before the visit date. Places on the underground and attic visits are limited, so they sell out before standard entry.

Free admission days work differently. You cannot reserve a free ticket, and arena and underground access must be booked. On the first Sunday of the month, free entry therefore covers the first and second levels.

Booking pages do not always use the park’s official ticket names, so check which areas are included.

• Colosseum & Roman Forum + Audio Guide covers the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Roman Forum, with commentary on your phone.
• Colosseum, Arena & Roman Forum + Audio Guide adds a self-guided visit to the arena floor and takes about three hours.
• Colosseum, Arena & Roman Forum: Guided Tour takes you onto the arena with a live guide.

Our Colosseum tickets page explains every ticket type, where you enter, how long you can stay and the maximum group size. It also covers where to buy and what to try when your date sells out.

The Colosseum opens at 08:30. The Forum and the Palatine open half an hour later, at 09:00.

Closing time changes three times a year:

• 29 March to 30 September 2026: 08:30 to 19:15, last admission 18:15
• 1 October to 24 October 2026: last admission 17:30, park closes 18:30
• 25 October 2026 to 28 February 2027: last admission 15:30, park closes 16:30

The park closes on 25 December 2026 and 1 January 2027.

Admission is free on the first Sunday of every month, and on 25 April, 2 June and 4 November. Free tickets cannot be reserved. You collect them in order of arrival at the ticket office on Piazza del Colosseo, by the Temple of Venus and Rome, or at Largo della Salara Vecchia.

The 08:30 slot is the quietest of the day. Tour groups begin arriving at about 10:00, and crowds are heaviest between 11:00 and 14:00. This is also the hottest part of a Roman summer afternoon.

The final hour before closing is the next quietest time, though you may have to move faster than you would like.

Our Colosseum opening hours page carries the full calendar, including holiday changes.

Metro line B stops at Colosseo, directly across the road from the entrance. Buses 51, 75, 81, 85, 87 and 118 stop nearby, and tram 3 runs past.

On foot it is 20 to 30 minutes from the Pantheon and Piazza Navona, and about an hour from the Vatican.

The address is Piazza del Colosseo. The entrance for individual ticket holders sits near the Arch of Constantine, at the Valadier Spur.

The Roman Forum and the Palatine have six gates of their own, among them the Arch of Titus entrance, Largo della Salara Vecchia and via di San Gregorio.

Coming out of the Forum on the Via Sacra puts the Colosseum on your left and the Arch of Constantine on your right.

Map & Address

Your ticket is issued in your name. Keep your photo ID visible beside it at the entrance.

The most common problem is a name on the ticket that does not match the photo ID. Bring your passport or driving licence.

Arrive about 15 minutes before your booked time. Your ticket only works for that entry time.

The receipt on your phone is enough at the door. Bags go through a scanner on the way in.

If a name needs correcting, contact the seller before you arrive. Our Colosseum tickets guide explains when the park allows a change and which corrections it accepts.

Guided groups can have up to 25 people, including the guide. Groups of 10 or more must use headsets.

The main entrance is step-free, and a lift reaches the second level. Accessible routes are marked, and accessible toilets are available.

On site there are toilets, baby changing stations, a Baby Pit Stop, an info point, audio guides, a refreshment point and a bookshop.

Expect uneven stone surfaces inside and difficult cobbles on the approach.

The park’s free MyColosseum app is available on iOS and Android. Its English and Italian audio guides cover the route from the underground through the middle gallery to the attic.

Small dogs weighing 5kg to 10kg can enter the open areas of the Forum and Palatine Hill in a carrier, free of charge. Dogs cannot enter the Colosseum or the other enclosed sites.

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Your experience begins before you ever set foot inside: the first sight of the Colosseum is always special. The crumbling ruin of the south side gives way to the imperious magnificence of the stunning north side.

The ornate structure is 57 metres tall, built using travertine marble sourced from quarries around Italy. It is almost tradition to pose gleefully outside the Colosseum when visiting Rome – the photo op might be cliché, but it is a memory you will undoubtedly treasure forever. 

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See the arena from above as you walk around the amphitheater. The second floor of the Colosseum would have been reserved for the wealthiest, most important members of Ancient Roman society. 

You can see the Colosseum from the spectators’ perspective high above the arena. Marveling at the sheer size of the structure, the ornate stonework and general sense of greatness are all part of the experience.

There are small exhibits and information points on the second floor. You can discover more about the Colosseum’s history while admiring the ancient artefacts unearthed during archaeological digs.

Climb to the second level and the corridor becomes an exhibition. The displays explain what you have been seeing. This matters on a self-guided visit because information is limited downstairs.

The displays explain who built the Colosseum, why they built it and how the games worked. Finds from the excavations sit alongside them, and every caption is in English.

The museum also tells the story of what happened after the games ended. By the 19th century the abandoned ruin had grown into a dense garden, and botanists recorded more than 420 plant species living in the stonework.

The park runs temporary exhibitions about the ancient world through the year, and they are covered by the same ticket. Troia and Roma, with more than 300 objects gathered from Italian museums and Troy itself, runs here from 12 June to 18 October 2026.

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Entering the arena is both an awe-inspiring and chilling experience. Standing where so much blood has been shed and thousands of lives were lost is humbling – it is easy to envision a time thousands of years in the past, when people were fighting for their lives in the sand, under the watch of 50,000 frenzied spectators.

From the arena floor you can get a closer look into the Hypogeum, and enjoy a unique perspective peering into the maze of tunnels below. 

If you have access to the arena floor, you will walk through the Gate of Death. The rather gruesome purpose of this gate was to ferry the dead bodies of defeated gladiators and executed prisoners out of the arena.

The Gate of Life was located on the opposing eastern side. This is where the gladiators would enter the arena before a battle.

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The most mysterious and fascinating part of the Colosseum is, without doubt, the Hypogeum. For years, archaeologists avoided the labyrinth of tunnels due to its sheer complexity, and it has only been fully opened to visitors since 2021.

The ‘backstage’ of the games is where the gladiators would prepare for battle, and wild animals were kept. You can see previously hidden secrets when wandering the Hypogeum; like the trap doors used to raise lions and other predators into the arena from below.

The Arena, Gate of Death and Hypogeum are special access only; they’re not included in the basic ticket price.

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A panoramic lift carries you to the upper levels, four people at a time. This limits how many visitors can go up together.

The poorest spectators sat at the top on wooden benches beneath a walkway lined with columns. Romans called this highest seating area the maenianum summum. Today’s Belvedere terrace on the third level stands where it once did.

From up there, you look down over the entire seating bowl and out across the building. You may have the terrace nearly to yourself while the arena below fills up.

The terraces run across the third, fourth and fifth levels. One of the flights up counts fifteen steps.

Nobody walks you round the attic, so the pace up there is yours, inside the time your ticket allows.

Access has been intermittent in recent years while work continues on the upper levels. Check that attic access is available before you plan the day around it.

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The park’s guided night visit begins after daytime admission ends and covers the first level, arena floor and underground. It runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 20:00 and 23:00, lasts about an hour and takes groups of up to 25 people. The last admission is at 21:50.

Book it on the park’s own ticketing site. Night visits are sold there and nowhere else, and tickets appear seven days before the date. The name on a night ticket cannot be changed at all after purchase.

The route starts at the northern entrance once used by emperors. It ends after passing a mural of Jerusalem painted inside the building centuries after the games stopped.

What you get for it is quiet. Footsteps carry, and so does your guide’s voice. Outside the walls, the traffic becomes the loudest thing in the arena.

You can also see the Colosseum lit at night for free from the higher ground of the park next door. It is one of the better half-hours in Rome. For guided options, see our guide to Colosseum tours.

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Once you leave the Colosseum, you’ll walk right into the Roman Forum. You are now standing in what was the absolute heart of the ancient world. Take a look around you at the ruins of towering temples and grand government halls. Imagine Roman senators and citizens walking these same stone streets 2,000 years ago. Take your time wandering the main paths, it’s an incredible walk through history.

The Forum is bigger than it looks and the ground is uneven. Plan for at least 90 minutes to explore, and remember there is very little shade on sunny days.

From the Forum, look for the path that leads up Palatine Hill. This was the most exclusive neighborhood in ancient Rome, where the emperors built their lavish palaces. Legend says this is the exact spot where Romulus and Remus founded the city. As you explore the peaceful, green spaces, you’re walking through the former homes of emperors.

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The top of the hill offers the best panoramic view of the entire Forum, with the Colosseum perfectly framed in the background. This is the photo you came here to get.