Colloseum sold out for May?

I understand there will be openings 7 days prior to the date you are interested in. I’m not sure why there’s such an interest in the Coliseum bc it’s not all that fun to visit. There’s only a few signs telling visitors what they’re staring into. Not much to see inside except a large hole. It’s more interesting from the outside.

OP, you might want to check out this site, which discusses the various ways to get tickets or book tours : https://untolditaly.com/how-to-buy-tickets-for-the-colosseum-rome/

Berry, I beg to differ. Like any historic site, the Collosseum can be very interesting if you do your research, and have a guidebook, audio guide or tour guide. I've often found that a little effort on my part to start with results in much greater enjoyment in the end. I spent quite some time inside, with just a guidebook, and thought it fascinating. YMMV, obviously.

I agree that the outside architecture of the Colosseum is very interesting, but in my opinion the inside is at least as interesting. If you are on your own it probably does look like not much more that "a large hole". But being accompanied by an informative guide or guidebook can make all the difference. You could walk past what doesn't look like much when in reality it is an enjoyable and memorable site but you had no idea what it was. We have visited the Colosseum on more than one occasion and have learned something new on each visit. Our last visit was especially fun as it was a bit different being a night tour that took us to the lower level. There we were shown the intricacies of its behind the scenes of the performances. It was a different view and we were able to see how the Romans were ahead of their times.

This (link below) is a great post about Colosseum tickets on the TripAdvisor forum. It should answer your ticketing question plus some others you might not even have thought of yet! It also saves typing our fingers bloody; this forum sees a LOT of questions about the thing! 😬 My thanks to Donna for the time and energy it took to put this "How to" guide together.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g187791-i22-k14333625-Colosseum_booking_information-Rome_Lazio.html

If you still cannot land tickets, then consider a private tour, although even some outside companies who promise tours which include the underground cannot get those. Honestly, I wouldn't scrap seeing the inside if you can't land coopculture tours which get you into the underground. You can see down into the uncovered part from many areas above, and seeing MOST of the structure is far better than nothing at all. In a pinch, try booking one of the lesser purchased tickets like this one:

https://www.coopculture.it/en/products/audiovideoguide-of-the-colosseum-with-ticket-colosseum-roman-forum-palatine_h24/

I see tickets are still available for May 10; I'd jump on them quickly!

May 10 is currently sold out for this other one (although more tickets should be released 7 days before then) but someone else using this thread and having the same issue with tickets might be able to land them right now for a different, still-open date:

https://www.coopculture.it/en/products/audioguide-of-the-colosseum-with-ticket-colosseum-roman-forum-palatine-imperial-forum_h24/

The Colosseum is the #1 tourist attraction in Italy, and you'll be competing with many thousands of other tourists for tickets. If coopculture has ANYTHING at all still available that suits your dates and budget, pull the trigger. Now. Yes, the inside is absolutely worth seeing, even if you can't get tickets for ALL of the inside parts available to tourists, and my guess is that you might always feel like you'd missed something if you skipped it entirely.

Note of interest: the design of Roman arenas, like the Colosseum, was so efficient for managing the in-and-out of thousands of spectators that it's still used for modern arenas.

I find it odd that people on this forum are pointing you to other sights when Rick’s guide has suggestions. We couldn’t get tix without booking a tour so we went with Rome Walks, and got 10 percent off with the Rick Steves code. The number of tours offered is mind boggling, but after a few hours of searching what I found was that Viator tours (a Trip Advisor subsidiary) were way more expensive than similar tours we found on Tiqets.com. Rome Walks turned out to be a pretty good deal with Rick’s discount and I felt better knowing it was recommended by him, plus the reviews were very good. We enjoyed it. It was a small group—I think there were ten of us, whereas other tour groups we saw (and there were many) had a lot of people. We were given earphones so we could hear our guide easily over the crowds. And at the end of your tour they give you a promo code for 20 percent off any of their other Walks tours, in any country.

Hi madlori,
No one suggested booking a tour through the Viator website. In fact, most of us discourage booking anything through their site. Using the TA forum post that I'd linked for information is a different deal. The individual who created it has been a good authority on the Colosseum for years, and sometimes posts on the RS forum as well.

I think the company you did your tours with was "Walks of Italy" (also identifies as just "Walks") and not "Rome Walks". Yes, they are a reliable, often-recommended resource for small-group tours, although they do cost more than Coopculture's own tours of the Colosseum. "The Roman Guy" is a good resource as well as some others but Coopculture is the official ticketing website for that attraction, so not odd to link the website at all, and their prices are low enough to be very attractive when needing tickets for larger families/groups or traveling on a tight budget. Not everyone can swing an independent company's tour prices.

I recently booked tickets for my student group for May 9 and had to go with the “audiovideo guide” option because the other options were sold out. Try more than one of the types of tickets.

Hi what does the below means?

There is also another release 7 days in advance following the same release schedule. Be sure to be online at Rome time in order to book.

Also i would like to ask, if i a, viewing the Colloseum from the outside, how to i but tickets for Roman Forum and Palatine hill?

Tickets release is by time slot 7 days in advance. So if you want a 10:00 time slot on a particular date, you need to be online at 10:00 ROME TIME 7 days before that date and ready to pull the trigger when tickets become available. They will sell out so fast that you may not be able to get them; then try for the next slot.

You can only purchase Forum/Palatine tickets online. There is no ticket booth at the site.

https://www.coopculture.it/en/products/forum-pass-super-ticket-with-access-to-the-roman-forum-palatine-and-imperial-forum/

Buying tickets to the Colosseum (May 14) has been by far the most challenging part of our upcoming trip. I legit set my alarm to get up before 1:00 am my timezone to try to get early morning tickets 30 days in advance of when we wanted to go Rome time. Ended up getting tickets later in the day. But I'm still going to tell anyone who will listen, or anyone who is a captive audience, what I did to get them. LOL Can't wait!

I'm amazed at how differently people see the same thing. The Colosseum is certainly more than just a "big hole."

That would like saying that the Acropolis in Athens is just a big hill, or that the Roman Forum is just a bunch of ruined buildings. And of course, Monet's paintings are just a bunch of oil slathered on a piece of cloth.

I have to wonder why someone who looks at antiquity through that lens would even bother to leave home.

There are great sites to be seen all over the world; the Colosseum certainly counts as one of a handful that are like nothing else. The history of the building alone makes it worth a visit, and walking around its circumference is a memorable experience for most.

I also disagree with the post that said that most people discourage booking through Viator; I've done it numerous times, and in every case had a great excursion. In Rome we used toursByLocals.com, 2 days with a guide named Marisa, who was incredible. We also did a food tour one night, which was also a lot of fun; the 3rd guide was from Viator, and he was excellent.

You might check for tours with thetourguy.com. I had the underground tour booked 6 months ago and today I learned that they couldn't get tickets for it. Only a week away, no big deal. Anyway, they got me into the underground tour on the same day (May 8). They also have at least one other Coliseum tour available, but I don't know what dates they have.

Yes, theTourGuy.com is a great site; we used them twice in Rome, and had great results both times.