How To Buy Colosseum Tickets (Even When It's Sold Out!)
Trying to find Colosseum entry tickets, or confused about the best type to go for?
Our guide has everything you need to know.
An icon of Rome and the Romans, the Colosseum is an unmissable entry on every first-timer’s itinerary in the Italian capital.
Which is why certain tickets can be so difficult to find.
Over in our main guide to visiting the Colosseum, we’ve shared everything you need to know on the history, the architecture, and the gladiatorial battles, as well as lots of practical tips to help you have the best experience possible.
But, in this short guide, we want to focus on actually helping you get inside the damn thing in the first place!
In May 2024, major changes were made to the Colosseum’s ticket type, distribution platforms, and visitor access. The rationale behind this was to increase availability, reduce bulk buying by tour companies, and counter scalping, but it has also caused some confusion and problems for regular visitors.
Much of this revolves around the monthly release window, which means it’s no longer possible to buy your ticket months in advance of your Rome trip.
For our own Rome trip, we learned firsthand of the pros + cons of the new system and resigned ourselves to standard tickets for a crowded mid-afternoon entry being the only option available for our dates.
Thankfully, after much refreshing and revisiting the official website, we eventually worked out a way to secure ourselves tickets for the coveted Arena floor at the first time slot of the day for those very same dates!
So, if you’re in the process of looking for your Colosseum tickets well before you arrive or have just found out they’re all sold out for your dates, do not despair: we’ll help you find a way.
In this fuss-free post, we’ll explain the various new ticket packages (and best one to go for), the staggered release schedule, the reason why buying months in advance isn’t possible and you need to set a calendar reminder 31+ days before you visit Rome, plus other tricks we used to get the tickets we wanted.
We’ll also share essential tips on last-minute alternatives and advice on queuing for tickets on the day.
This is our guide to buying Colosseum tickets (even when it’s sold out).
The Essentials
When / Tickets released one month in advance of visit dates
Access / Variety of ticket types available, offering different levels of access to areas of the Colosseum + exhibits
Cap / The three best ‘full access’ tickets are subject to a limit on numbers, and frequently sell out
Cost / €18 to €24 for adults, €2 concessions
Book / All visitors must book a 15-minute time slot to enter the Colosseum, with early morning the best to avoid crowds
Know / Tickets include access to the nearby Roman Forum & Palatine Hill
Tip / Set a calendar reminder to increase your chances of finding best tickets when they’re released
Buy / Only available direct via the new official Parco Archeologico del Colosseo website
Alt / If tickets are sold out, join a highly-rated small-group tour like this one or this one
Queue / You can still queue + buy limited number of tickets on the day, but there are downsides
How To Buy Tickets For The Colosseum in Rome
Book Them Online in Advance
Two quick points that may seem obvious, but are worth underlining.
Number one: we are constantly surprised by how many travellers still just show up to many of the world’s most popular attractions and assume they’ll be able to get a ticket at short notice.
In the modern world of overtourism and cheap flights, that approach just doesn’t work anymore.
For the Colosseum in Rome, you should always try to buy your ticket in advance online - especially if you are visiting from March to October. They will provide you with a fixed and guaranteed entry time, thereby removing stress, the need to queue for more than 10 minutes, and opening up the rest of the day to meaningfully enjoy more of Rome.
It also significantly increases your chances of gaining entry to the arena floor (where battles took place), as well as the limited access underground (where gladiators and animals were held) and the exclusive attic level (the highest point in the building).
Whilst it is still possible to buy tickets on the day for the Colosseum entry, they are not guaranteed, limited in number, and require joining a queue for anything from twenty minutes to two hours.
So, once your Rome dates are fixed, it makes sense to get things booked in and buy your tickets on the new official Parco Archeologico del Colosseo website.
However, as we’ll explain later in the post, being too prepared can actually cause more issues as the new system means most ticket types are only available to purchase one week or month in advance.
You Don’t Need Tickets To See The Colosseum
Number two: you only require tickets to go inside the Colosseum.
Whilst we absolutely encourage most travellers to do that, if all else fails, you can still show up and walk within the Piazza del Colosseo (Google Maps) to admire the exterior and take photos from several of best viewpoints.
However, you do require tickets to access the rest of the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo, which encompasses the nearby Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and The Imperial Fora. Entry to these is included in almost every type of ticket available for the Colosseum, and most travellers combine all the sites together in a single morning or afternoon.
Plan // Want to really bring the amphitheatre and ruins to life? Consider joining a guided tour inside the Colosseum and through the Roman Forum. You can find a bunch of highly-rated private and small-group options available here on GetYourGuide, and several excellent special-access experiences by Walks of Italy.
There Are Nine Types of Colosseum Ticket!
Instead of just a single, ordinary ticket to enter the Colosseum and the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo site, there are now NINE!
That’s truly a bewildering number, and introduced an unnecessary and unhelpful extra layer of confusion and ‘FOMO’; it also doesn’t help that their names are quite rubbish and there’s currently no single ‘access all areas’ super ticket.
Each is priced from €18-24 for adults and, when we were trying to find the best tickets, we begrudgingly became quite familiar with them.
All but one of the main ticket types includes a single entry to the first and second levels inside the Colosseum, with the main differences being the other areas you can access, their duration, release dates, and the maximum numbers available per day.
Each includes entry to the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and The Imperial Fora, and all are ‘priority’ or ‘skip-the-line’ tickets as they require a booked time slot for entering the Colosseum (8.30am - 6pm). Note that you will still have to join a queue for your specific time slot at the main entrance and mandatory security checks, which can take longer at busy periods.
To save you time, we’ve summarised the five best Colosseum ticket types below.
FULL EXPERIENCE - UNDERGROUND LEVELS AND ARENA | €24 | This is the best ticket, offering access to both the Arena floor and the underground, as well as levels one and two. It lasts for two consecutive days and includes a guided tour of the underground section. However, it is only available in limited numbers and usually sold out in peak season.
FULL EXPERIENCE WITH ENTRY TO THE ARENA | €24 | This is the ticket we bought, which includes the Arena floor and levels one and two. It often has better availability than the above, and also lasts for two days if you wish to spread your time across the complex.
FULL EXPERIENCE WITH ENTRY TO THE ATTIC | €24 | The third of the ‘full experience’ tickets, it is the only one which allows access to the third level and the ‘attic’ - the highest point for panoramic views inside. It’s often sold out in advance as only 8 people are permitted in the group. Note that the ‘arena’ and the ‘underground’ are not included.
The 24H COLOSSEUM TICKET | €18 | This is the cheapest entry ticket, and the one which always has best availability on the official website. However, it only allows access to levels one and two. For Roma Pass holders, it’s just €11.50.
24H ONLY ARENA | €18 | This is a brand new ticket and always has good availability, but offers limited access. Whilst stepping out on the arena floor is something we highly recommend, as this ticket does not include access to levels one and two of the Colosseum, it should only be a last resort.
If your priority is seeing as much of the Colosseum as possible, and avoiding the worst of the crowds, then you should absolutely try to secure Option 1 or 2; there is no ‘super’ ticket which will give you access to the underground, the arena floor, and the attic.
However, if you simply want to guarantee getting inside the building, then you shouldn’t view the 24H tickets as a poor alternative.
Personally, going on to the arena floor was more important to us than accessing the underground or attic, which is why we went with Option 2 instead of 3 (Option 1 was always sold out).
Know Where To Buy Them
For lots of major attractions in Italy, there are a variety of websites that try to mislead travellers into thinking they’re the ‘official’ one. They are often very convincing in name and look, and will show up high in your search results, but they’re almost always set up to sell you a more expensive ticket option.
There are at least four of these for the Colosseum so, for the avoidance of doubt, since May 2024 the only official website is the Italian government’s Parco Archeologico del Colosseo website
The section to check availability and buy your tickets in English is available here.
Note that all tickets bought via the official website are non-refundable.
You will see listings on many third-party websites - several of which we use and recommend - offering Colosseum tickets months in advance. However, these are virtually always a company selling a digital audioguide with the basic €18 ticket included (like this one), and so you’re cheaper and better off just buying the ticket directly. However, these resellers do have a time and place if you’re looking last-minute or for non-flexible times though.
Plan // We visited independently, but know that many travellers will definitely prefer to have the essential context, insight, and stories that bring the history of ancient Rome’s emperors and gladiators to life.
We’ve shared a selection of highly-rated small-group Colosseum & Roman Forum tours below, all of which include your skip-the-line entry ticket and experienced guides. Several also offer early morning time slots, free cancellation, and special access to avoid the crowds and give you a more memorable experience:
· Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Roman Forum Guided Tour
· Small-Group Tour of Colosseum Arena Floor & Ancient Rome (max. 6 people)
· Gladiator’s Gate: Special Access Colosseum Tour with Arena Floor
It Pays To Delay: Know When To Buy Them
Usually, for big tourist attractions like this, it doesn’t just make a lot of sense to buy your tickets as far in advance as possible: it’s a necessity.
That is absolutely the case for Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’ in Milan, where tickets are only released four times a year, sell out months in advance, and are like gold dust.
The same goes for seeing Michelangelo’s David at the Galleria dell’Accademia
Thankfully, the Colosseum was built to hold around 50,000 blood thirsty Romans, so offers quite a lot more room than a gallery or museum. Also, the new ticketing system only makes certain tickets available online just one month before the visit date.
This means that, despite being one of the most popular places in Rome, it is much easier to secure a ticket than similarly famous sights in Italy.
As we were quite late in finalising our dates + routes on this early summer trip to Italy, the first search for Colosseum tickets only took place two weeks before our arrival in Rome. Our dates fell on a weekend, so demand was high and the ’24-hour Colosseum only’ ticket was the only type available.
Here at Along Dusty Roads, we say that we make the mistakes so you don’t have to; but sometimes we also find the solutions so that you don’t have to! Andrew did a lot of trial and error searches over a few days with the dates and ticket types, and established four things on the new system:
‘not available online’ does not mean that the tickets are sold out or won’t eventually be released for sale on the website
the staggered monthly release of the ‘full access’ tickets can work to your advantage
the ‘underground + arena’ and the ‘attic’ tickets consistently sell out
you can still get an excellent ‘full' access’ ticket less than a week before your dates
With the new ticketing system, the ‘full access’ and other tickets are only made available online one month before visit dates.
So, if you’re going to Rome on September 16th, you can only buy those tickets on the official website from August 16th.
Planning to visit on June 2nd? Those tickets will only go on sale on May 2nd!
That’s why those amongst you who are particularly prepared, and perhaps arrived on this post after seeing that no tickets are available for your dates, shouldn’t panic just yet: the reason you can’t buy Colosseum tickets months online in advance is not because they’re already sold out, it’s because they’re not for sale yet.
So, you’re now well ahead of the game and, if your trip to Rome is over a month away and you use our travel hack, you are going to have a great chance of securing the best tickets and time slot.
Travel Tip // Like many museums and galleries in Italy, the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo offers free visits to all on the first Sunday of each month. You won’t find any tickets for sale online on those dates as they’re only available on a first-come-first-served basis at the ticket office. If your visit coincides, please do just bear in mind that the attic, the arena, the underground and several sites with the Roman Forum & Palatine Hill are not accessible on the free Sunday tickets - find out more here.
Set Reminders + The Weekly Release Exception
As Colosseum tickets are now only made available online one month before visit dates, this means you require patience, planning, luck, and taking a bit of a risk.
If you know your dates for Rome, and they’re over a month away, the best approach is to set several calendar reminders for their midnight release. For example, if you want to visit on July 20th with a ‘full experience’ ticket, with the new system they will only be available online from June 20th. For September 4th, it’s August 4th and so on and so on.
So, set those reminders, have the website ready to go, and bish bash bosh.
Remember, the website operates on the Italian timezone, and you will face competition from many others: the best tickets and time slots can and do sell out within hours of release - especially for families and groups looking to buy 2+ tickets and enter together.
If you have fixed visit dates and miss that window, it’s very unlikely on spring-summer visits that you’ll be able access the underground or arena without joining one of these tours or setting the alarm early and being amongst the first in the ticket office queue on the day (more on this later).
However, from our copious amounts of refreshing and researching for our own visit and this article, we noticed quite a quirk whereby the ‘FULL EXPERIENCE with Arena entry’ ticket is actually only available for purchase from one week before the visit date - and sometimes has same-day availability!
Once we realised this, and that ‘not available online’ does not mean they won’t be made available online in future, we were 100% certain we’d be able to set a reminder and get one of our preferred tickets bought just a week before our visit!
We should add that there is usually decent last-minute availability for the ‘24H Arena Only’ ticket, but that offers the least access of all types.
Travel Tip // If organised and with months until you visit, we’d recommend trying to get the ‘FULL EXPERIENCE - underground levels and arena’ as those tickets sell out fast and almost impossible to find closer to your visit dates in peak season.
People do talk very highly of the Colosseum 'Full Experience Attic' option, especially because so few people are permitted up there, but we’d prioritise going on to the arena floor.
Colosseum Tickets Sold Out?
If there is no remaining availability for the dates or times of your preferred ticket type, and you have your heart set on accessing the arena floor, the underground, or the attic, then you have two options:
Queue up on the day, and cross your fingers
Join a tour which offers guaranteed access
There are many generic Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill tours available, usually quite indistinguishable from one another and involving a very large group. We’d suggest prioritising tours with a maximum group size and excellent reviews from other travellers like you.
To help, we’ve done some of the hard work and pared everything down to five popular and highly-rated Colosseum tours to consider.
· The Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Roman Forum Guided Tour
· Gladiator’s Gate: Special Access Colosseum Tour with Arena Floor
· Small-Group Tour of Colosseum Arena Floor & Ancient Rome (max. 6 people)
· A Private VIP Tour of Roman Colosseum Top Floor
· Colosseum Underground Guided Tour in Small Groups
Most of the above can be booked months in advance and some offer free cancellation up to 3 or 7 days before, so may offer a convenient Plan B to lock in before the official website window opens. A good guide will also make all the difference in the Roman Forum & Palatine Hill - the epicentre of power and political life in Ancient Rome - which is a bit difficult to appreciate on your own.
As with the official tickets, bear in mind that there is no ‘all-inclusive’ or access-all-areas Colosseum tour available at present.
Travel Tip // One of the new measures to prevent organised block ticket reselling is the requirement for every visitor to provide their name when purchasing tickets and bring ID for verification checks at the entrance. We always have a photo of our passports on our phones, so just arrived with that, but nobody asked to see ID.
You Can Still Buy Tickets At The Colosseum!
If you’ve followed all of the above steps and haven’t found tickets or space on good small-group tour - or you really are leaving this until the very last minute - there is still hope!
Unlike The Last Supper in Milan, it is still possible to buy tickets for the Colosseum on the day. They are sold from two ticket offices in Rome, and available on a first-come-first-served basis based on remaining availability.
It is possible to buy most ticket types on the day in person (excluding the Attic option), subject to what’s left and the remaining time slots with availability: you may have no option but to take whatever type of ticket is left though.
The most likely tickets are the 24H COLOSSEUM TICKET and the 24H ARENA ONLY.
Given how popular the Colosseum and Rome are, the likelihood of long wait times in the sun, limited quotas, and the potential for disappointment, we only recommend buying on the day as a last resort. Further, if you’re a family or large group, chances are low that you’ll secure tickets on the day for all of you at the same entry time slot.
However, if you’re flexible or don’t mind the risk, queuing on the day offers the chance to get the official tickets at the right price. And, if your luck is in, you may even be able to land one of those full access tickets too.
We made enquires to staff outside the ticket office after our visit, and they told us that you can buy all types of tickets on the day BUT the €24 ones are often not available. Our advice, if you are buying on the day, is to not expect to be able to secure them, but cross your fingers and spend the extra €6 if the chance is offered.
They also said the queue can take up to two hours in peak season.
There are two Colosseum ticket offices - one right opposite the main entrance (here on Google Maps) and another a 10-minute walk away on Largo della Salara Vecchia (here on Google Maps).
Both open from 8.30am-6pm, and accept cash and card.
Based on what we saw and heard, if you plan on buying tickets for the Colosseum in person, these are our tips to increase your chances and reduce the wait time:
· Get up early and queue up in the morning. Not only will it greatly improve your chances and give you a better selection of convenient time slots, but the queue is going to be a lot shorter. When we were there, it was three times longer at 11am vs. 8am.
· If you go queue in the morning, it also allows you to enjoy the soft light on the Colosseum and take a bunch of photos before the huge crowds arrive.
· Lastly, from about 10am on sunny days, the sun shines right on to the line at the main ticket office, with no shade and potential wait times of two hours. In the Italian summer, this would not be a sensible or fun way to spend your time (and the same goes for the queue at the Vatican Museums)
· Tickets on the day are still subject to the 15-minute entry slots for the Colosseum. If you are only able to secure tickets for a time slot several hours later, you are able to visit the nearby Roman Forum & Palatine Hill first, then enter the Colosseum after them at your slot.
· As it’s not as well-known or obvious, you may be better heading to the ticket office on Largo della Salara Vecchia first (Google Maps), especially if you’re arriving later in the day. However, in the event that you get tickets for the upcoming time slot, do note that it’s a 10-minute walk from that ticket office to the entrance.
· Bring ID with you.
If you do queue and have more tips and insights to share, please do let us know in the comments!
