Buying Colosseum tickets in advance online is the best way to visit, saving you hours of lining up. When you buy a ticket before your visit, you will be able to breeze past the very long line for the Colosseum ticket office, and will only have a short wait at the door while you go through security.
Unfortunately though, Colosseum tickets are in very high demand and vistors experience significant problems getting hold of these skip-the-line tickets. So here’s our advice on how to get them. Because the one thing you don’t want to do on your visit to Rome is miss the city’s most enduring and awe-inspiring monument.
The Colosseum ticket drought of 2023
For safety reasons the Colosseum may only host a fixed number of visitors at any one time. This leads to a scarcity of tickets during high season.
To control this demand, the official Colosseum ticket site releases tickets every day, thirty days in advance. If you are on the official site at the right time and date, you may be able to get the ticket you want; however most people remain disappointed. Below we have a number of solutions.
How Colosseum tickets are released on the official website:
1. Tickets are issued exactly 30 days in advance, to the hour (Italian time). During this hour, there are four blocks of tickets issued: top of the hour, 15 minutes afterwards, 30 minutes, and 45 minutes.
E.g. for tickets available from 11 am on August 25th,, tickets will become available at Coopculture at 11 am (Rome time, which for example would be 5 am EST) on July 26th in the following blocks:
- 11 am
- 11.15 am
- 11.30 am
- 11.45 am
An hour later, tickets will be available for noon on the 25th August, etc. This happens every single day, always for tickets 30 days hence.
2. The same thing happens exactly 7 days before the visit time, with a smaller number of tickets.
3. And again 24 hours before the visit time, with an even smaller number of tickets available.
To help you avoid disappointment, we have an exclusive source for a ticket reseller, as well as other methods to try if you’re having problems with availability, to ensure you enjoy Rome’s spectacular amphitheater. Here’s what to do to find tickets if other options are failing you:
Remember, your Colosseum ticket also gives you access to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. You will need to choose a time and date for your entrance into the Colosseum, but you can enter the Forum and Palatine Hill complex at any time within 24 hours of your Colosseum visit, or any time up to 24 hours before your scheduled Colosseum tour.
Colosseum tickets option 1
Try to buy a standard skip-the-line ticket here:
Colosseum tickets option 2
If that is sold out, then try this exclusive last-minute ticket type:
Option 3
If you’re still having problems, then try a guided tour, which will include your ticket. This has the advantage of also bringing you to the immensely interesting forum too.
Option 4
If that is sold out, then try an exclusive guided tour with Arena visit and Forum, ticket included:
Option 5
Or try a guided tour of the Colosseum including Underground, Arena, and Forum:
Option 6
Have a look at every single option that’s available for the Colosseum:
Option 7
Visit the Forum but not the Colosseum.
You can walk all round the Colosseum and even see in at some points, without a ticket. A visit there takes less than an hour: it is dwarfed by the next-door Roman Forum, which is about half a mile long and a quarter mile wide and absolutely full of ancient marvels including temples, palaces, and the Palatine Hill. If you draw a blank on the Colosseum you can still buy a special ticket just for the Forum, a visit that will take at least two hours.
Option 8
Just turn up at the Colosseum ticket office and see if they have any tickets! This will likely require waiting in line for a long time and you may end up disappointed, but if all other options are exhausted, this may be your only option
Option 9 – the last resort
Actually engage with those annoying people who hang around outside the Metro station trying to sell you tours, and ask them what they’ve got. Some may have skip-the-lines tickets or tours that they can sell you to get you in to the monument – for a premium.
