The Flavian Amphitheatre — the Colosseum — is the largest amphitheatre ever built, an elliptical stadium of travertine and concrete that could empty its crowd through eighty numbered arches in minutes. Entry is by timed ticket only, and the standard ticket covers the first and second tiers, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill for 24 hours. It is the best-value ticket in Rome, provided you book it on the official site rather than through a reseller with a mark-up.
The Full Experience ticket adds the arena floor — walking out through the Gate of Death onto the reconstructed stage where the gladiators entered — and the hypogeum, the underground network of corridors, animal pens and lifts revealed when the wooden floor rotted away. Both are guided and limited in numbers, and both are what people remember. Book them when tickets are released (typically 30 days ahead at 9 a.m. Rome time); they sell out within hours in high season.
Give the Forum and Palatine their due. The Forum is the civic centre of the Republic and Empire — temples, the Senate house, the rostra where Mark Antony spoke — and the Palatine above it holds the imperial palaces and the best view of both the Forum and the Circus Maximus. Enter the Forum from the Via dei Fori Imperiali gate to avoid the Colosseum's own queue, and do it before the amphitheatre.
Stay in Monti, the neighbourhood that climbs from the Colosseum's north side, for wine bars and a ten-minute walk to the gate, or in the centro storico for the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. Night tours of the Colosseum, in the warmer months, are the quietest way to see the arena. A chauffeur from Fiumicino avoids the Leonardo Express-and-taxi handover; Rome's historic centre has limited traffic zones, so the driver will know the legal drop points.
Three things to get right
- Buy on the official site 30 days ahead at 9 a.m. Rome time for arena/underground.
- Forum first via the Via dei Fori Imperiali gate, then the amphitheatre.
- Night tours in summer for the empty arena.
Book it
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