Colosseum tickets: which one to buy, when they go on sale, and the name on the ticket

In this guide

💡 The Short Version: Buy from the official seller, ticketing.colosseo.it. Tickets go on sale 30 days ahead, each for a time slot, and each carries your name: keep ID with it at the entrance. The standard ticket is €18 for the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine; the Full Experience adds the underground and the arena floor for €24, or €32 with the park’s own guided educational tour. Or book a tour: a guided tour with entry, such as the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill tourad (from £59.14), adds a licensed guide, and is the fallback when the official slots have gone. For the ticket alone, and for the underground, the official version is far cheaper.

The tickets, compared

Official prices from colosseo.it, 29 September 2026; tour prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” price on 30 September 2026, converted at the ECB rate of 29 September 2026 (€1 = £0.857).

• EU citizens aged 18 to 25 pay €2 on the first three. Roma Pass holders pay €11.50 for the standard ticket, or use one of the pass’s free entries; see is the Roma Pass worth it?.
• Two more official tickets: the Full Experience Attic, which adds the panoramic lift to the attic and the third level, over two days; and 24h Only Arena, 20 minutes on the arena floor plus the Forum and Palatine. Both are sold at ticketing.colosseo.it.
• SUPER sites are extra buildings on the Forum and Palatine: the House of Augustus (closed on Mondays), Santa Maria Antiqua, the Curia and others.
• No printing needed: show the receipt on your phone.

The Colosseum from outside. Photo: Nicholas Hartmann, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Tours that include entry

Each of these includes Colosseum entry booked for the group, with a guide. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” price on 30 September 2026.

Colosseum, Forum and Palatine with a licensed guide

From £59.14 · 4.8 stars from 91,634 reviews · 2½ hours

Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palatine Hill Guided Tourad covers all three sites with a licensed guide. Upgrades add the arena floor or a smaller group.

Colosseum, Forum and Palatine, at a lower price

From £43.71 · 4.8 stars from 36,007 reviews · 2½ hours

Rome: Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Roman Forum Guided Tourad is the same route with an expert guide, at a lower price and the same rating.

Arena floor, Forum and Palatine

From £33.43 · 4.5 stars from 28,310 reviews · 2½ hours

Rome: Colosseum Arena Floor, Palatine & Forum Guided Tourad is the lowest-priced guided tour here, and goes out onto the arena floor.

Inside the Colosseum, with the arena floor at the centre and the underground passages beside it. Photo: Paul VanDerWerf, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

The arena floor, with an underground option

From £41.14 · 4.7 stars from 1,308 reviews · 2½ hours

Rome: Colosseum 3-in-1 Tour with Underground Optionad takes in the arena floor, the Forum’s temples and the Palatine, with an option that adds the underground.

The underground: official ticket or tour

The underground is the passages and cages beneath the arena, where animals and fighters waited. The official way in is the Full Experience Underground and Arena ticket: €24, or €32 with the park’s own educational tour, against a guided underground tour on GetYourGuidead from £170.56 (4.4 stars from 162 reviews, 75 minutes to 1½ hours). The park sells the Full Experience 30 days ahead like every other ticket, and says the underground is subject to availability, so book it the day your date goes on sale.

The passages beneath the Colosseum’s arena floor, seen from above. Photo: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

The official ticket against resold tickets

GetYourGuide also resells the standard ticket with an audio guide. Against the official €18 (about £15), which comes with the park’s free MyColosseum app and its audio guides in English and Italian:

What to see

The park calls the Flavian Amphitheatre the largest amphitheatre in the world; it took the name Colosseum from a colossal statue that stood nearby. The €18 ticket covers the Colosseum and the Forum and Palatine, and the Colosseum entry is the timed one, so plan around it.

The Colosseum

Booked slot · 75 minutes inside on the €18 ticket · 90 with the Full Experience

The entrance is near the Arch of Constantine, by the Valadier Spur. The €18 ticket takes you to the first level, the second level with its panoramic terraces, and the Colosseum Museum. There are 14 restrooms on the first tier, and bottled-water dispensers in the bookshops on the first and second tiers. Some steps and paths inside are very steep and uneven.

• The arena floor and the underground are not on the €18 ticket. The Full Experience Underground and Arena adds both, with up to 90 minutes inside and last access at 17:20; the Only Arena ticket gives 20 minutes on the arena floor.
• The attic and the third level come with the Full Experience Attic: the first level, the intermediate gallery, the third level and the attic, reached by the panoramic lift.
• Audio guide: the free MyColosseum app follows you from the underground through the intermediate gallery to the attic.

The Roman Forum and the Palatine

Open from 9:00 · one entry within 24 hours before or after your Colosseum slot

The €18 ticket takes you into the Forum, the Forum Museum and the Palatine. The Forum was the centre of Roman public life for more than a thousand years: its monuments include the Arch of Septimius Severus, built in 203 CE, the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina and the Temple of Vespasian and Titus. The Palatine above it was the site of the imperial palaces, among them the Domus Flavia and the Domus Augustana, and later of the Farnese gardens, the Horti Farnesiani.

• The SUPER sites come with the Forum Pass SUPER and the Full Experience tickets, not the €18 ticket: the House of Augustus (closed on Mondays), Santa Maria Antiqua, the Curia Iulia, the Temple of Romulus, the lower floor of the Palatine Museum and others. The House of Livia is closed for restoration (colosseo.it, 29 September 2026).
• The three entry and exit points of the Forum and Palatine are Largo della Salara Vecchia, the Arch of Titus and Via di San Gregorio.

The order to visit

1. The Colosseum at your slot, the first at 8:30.
2. The Forum, which can be entered from Piazza del Colosseo by the Via Sacra.
3. The Palatine last, because it is the uphill part: its paths are steep in places and the paving irregular.

If your Colosseum slot is in the afternoon, do the Forum and the Palatine first, from 9:00. A guided tour covers all three in about 2½ hours.

What to skip

• The Domus Aurea is a separate ticket, open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays only, with visits every 15 minutes from 9:00 to 16:30 (last admission 15:30). It is closed on the first Sunday of the month.
• The Colosseum Museum and the Forum Museum are included in the €18 ticket. Leave them if time is short.

The name on the ticket

• Every ticket is in the holder’s name. At the entrances you show the ticket with an identity document, kept visible.
• One change, and only for a reason. For visits from 9 May 2026 the name can be changed once, by midnight on the seventh day before the visit, and only for an obvious clerical error, a mix-up of ticket types within the same booking, or a serious documented reason. Changes go through the park’s name-change form.
• So buy a ticket in your own name. A ticket booked in someone else’s name, or passed on, may not get you in.

When it sells out

• Check again 30 days out. Each date goes on sale 30 days before, so a date that shows nothing may simply not be on sale yet.
• Check the guided tours. Operators hold group tickets on their own calendar, separate from the park’s.
• The Forum and Palatine without the Colosseum: the Forum Pass SUPER, €18.
• The first Sunday of the month is free, as are 25 April, 2 June and 4 November. Free tickets cannot be booked: collect them at the ticket offices on the day. The Only Arena and Full Experience tickets still have to be booked.

On the day

• Getting there: metro line B to Colosseo, or line C to Colosseo-Fori Imperiali; buses 51, 75, 81, 85, 87 and 118 stop by the park (colosseo.it, 30 September 2026). The Colosseum’s entrance is in Piazza del Colosseo, the Forum’s at Largo della Salara Vecchia 5/6 and Via del Tulliano, and the Palatine’s at Via di San Gregorio 30.
• Shoes: the paths are rocky and uneven, with ancient steps that are not always level. The park advises against high heels and flip-flops, and asks you to hold children by the hand.
• Clothing: dress suitably for the site. Masks, period costumes and fancy dress are not allowed.
• Water and rest: the park has about 10 drinking fountains and 70 benches, and vending machines on the Via Nova, at the Horti Farnesiani and in the Stadium of the Domus Augustana.
• The slot: entry to the Colosseum is only at the time booked, so arrive 15 minutes early, with the ID that matches the ticket.

Opening hours

The Colosseum opens at 8:30 and the Forum and Palatine at 9:00.

Closed on 25 December 2026 and 1 January 2027. Arrive at the Colosseum 15 minutes before your slot; for help with a same-day admission the park’s call centre is +39 06 21115843.

For the other sights that need a slot, and which day each closes, see what to book before you go in Rome; the other ticket that sells out is the Vatican Museums. The 3-day Rome itinerary puts both into a first visit, and Rome in one or two days picks the sights for a shorter stay.

Common questions

How far in advance do Colosseum tickets go on sale?

30 days before the date of the visit, with a compulsory time slot for the Colosseum. The official seller is ticketing.colosseo.it.

How much is a Colosseum ticket?

€18 for the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine ticket, valid 24 hours with up to 75 minutes inside the Colosseum. The Full Experience Underground and Arena ticket is €24, or €32 with the park's own educational tour, valid two days with up to 90 minutes inside. EU citizens aged 18 to 25 pay €2.

Are Colosseum tickets in your name?

Yes. Every ticket carries the holder's name, and you keep ID visible with the ticket at the entrance. For visits from 9 May 2026 the name can be changed only once, by midnight on the seventh day before the visit, and only for a clerical error, a ticket-type mix-up within the same booking, or a serious documented reason.

Is the Colosseum underground tour worth it?

The underground and the arena floor come with the official Full Experience ticket, €24, or €32 with the park's educational tour, subject to availability. A guided underground tour on GetYourGuide was from £170.56 on 30 September 2026. Book the Full Experience the day it goes on sale, 30 days ahead.