Colosseum tickets

The only option I've found is to book a tour. Occasionally you'll see a single full experience ticket pop up, but likely not on your day and who wants a single ticket anyway? I've seen regular entrance tickets show up in multiples, but not likely the day you want.

There are many discussions of this topic

Here’s from last 2 months
https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&date_range=6m&filter=Travel+Forum&query=Colosseum+&utf8=✓

Look for posts by Kathy

I tried for several days in a row for early June tickets. Multiple devices, all logged in and refreshed constantly from 2 a.m. EST until about 3:30 a.m. when the only change I saw in the June calendar was the switch over to red indicating the tickets were all sold out. In all of that time, on each day, I never saw any tickets become available on the June dates. it wasn't a matter of not being able to get them in the cart fast enough - they literally never appeared.

On the third day, I saw 8 tickets appear in the RomaPass section of the website on a date we will be in Rome. I held my breath, got them in the cart and was able to make the purchase. Couldn't care less about the Roma pass, but at least we didn't have to drop $125+ each on a tour. Not knocking a tour at all, but we just wanted tickets to see it on our own. I was persistent because we really wanted full experience tickets, but they were never an option.

If you're just trying to get a ticket at this point I think that RomaPass section is the most likely to have availability.

I can't prove it, but after watching this for several days I'm thinking the tickets are being sold to local tour guides who have sold tours and can provide the names for their clients. If there are a handful left over, those might hit the system. Chalk it up to reinvigorating the local economy. Common sense tells you there has to be a way for these professionals to obtain the tickets for their clients with enough regularity to stay in business.

I also saw a bunch of tickets go on sale for same-day entry. It took about 30 minutes for those to sell through. I realize it says that they'll be released on the hour by time slot, 30 days ahead - but that's not what's happening. If it were, they would not be entirely sold out for the day by 10:30.

Good luck!

Thanks all for the sobering advice. At least I’m not alone. I wonder if the steeves book should be updated to suggest that 3rd party vendors may be the only way to go during peak season and recommend doing that months ahead instead of waiting for the published release dates

We've been trying to get Colosseum tickets also. The web site is horribly designed. And even if you try to get the tickets the instant they pop up, your chance of finding a date colored green (indicating availability) is pretty low. And if you do, and try to buy tickets when you reach the checkout it will say the tickets are gone. My impression is that bots are harvesting up most of the tickets--and they can do this so fast that everything is gone before you have a chance to click.

I don't remember this level of difficulty with Colosseum tickets pre-pandemic. People who wanted tickets including the underground were stressed about getting those, but I think it wasn't a problem to get regular tickets if you knew what day they went on sale and acted promptly. The Colosseum folks are notorious for changing their ticketing procedures, so we may be seeing the impact of multiple factors:

• A substantial increase in visitors to Rome. (The Vatican Museum tickets have become a lot tougher, too.)

• A possible change in the technical side of the ticketing website that somehow helps the bots.

• A change in business plan for the local tour companies, from primarily selling tours to the folks who want them to offering tours and also buying up as many entry tickets as they can grab and holding them for ransom.

If it were, they would not be entirely sold out for the day by 10:30.

Why? There are 1,000 people like you for each ticket that goes on sale. I hope the others are less prone to conspiracy theories, but in the end you and the other 999 all want that ticket.

With all due respect, it's not a conspiracy theory to note that tickets purportedly sold in waves by the time of entry 30 days in advance could not be sold out entirely on a date at 10:30 local time where there are several hours in the day yet to come.

Nor does it require a tin foil hat to note that people whose livelihoods depend upon guiding groups through the Colosseum must have some reliable way to access tickets - there's no way they're online duking it out with the rest of us for individual tickets.

It is what it is - but if your heart is set on getting inside I hope you're willing to pony up for a tour or that you get lucky.

Happy travels to all!

I agree that it does look like fishy things are happening. Releases are being made at unscheduled times. And it does look like bots are scooping up many. Whether the irregularities are due to lack of competence or corruption, I can't say.

I'm on the site right now, and watching time slots disappear BEFORE their official release times.

Kbj, the tickets are sold at the minute not in waves. If there is one ticket and 1,000 people from all over the world trying to get it first, that ticket will disappear in a couple of seconds. It doesn't seem rocket science to me. Agencies maybe use bots, but who knows it for sure?

Rome's Independent guides Association agrees with the Bot theory, but For now I remain on Ockham's side: The demand is 1,000 times the supply in 2023.

The only things that changed since Covid is that there are less tickets, many more tourist and that all the booths by the main entrance have been closed till early May. The site has been the only option for months. As acraven wrote above, getting tickets online wasn't such a problem before Covid.

I have a lot of experience fighting for time release reservations. Even when there is a competent, honest system put in place, it's always challenging and there is never any guaranty of success. But there are things going on here that indicate to me that things are "off."

The timing of the releases are not in accordance with what the official schedule is--there are deviations of up to 4-5 seconds in each direction. This may not sound like a lot but it is actually very significant. First, at this level of competitiveness, fractions of seconds make a difference, and even two seconds is the difference between having a chance and no chance at all. Second, this cannot happen by accident. These are automated systems that should be happening to the nanosecond--it is impossible for me to envision deviations of this nature occurring without being planned and programed. It's actually a lot more work to do do this then to just have the releases go out on time.

I spent a lot of time doing trial runs several days in advance of when we wanted to actually get tickets, so I'd maximize my chances of getting the tickets for when we need them. That's how I've noticed these things. And the the way the site operates is interesting in other ways. Even if you are there right on time and are able to get tickets into your online cart, they aren't really in the cart! Most of the time, the site then gives you four CAPTCHA tests: Like click on all the images of bridges, now do it again. Ok, now click on all the images of traffic lights, and now do it again. You complete these as fast as you can, and then you get a message saying that the tickets you put into your basket are no longer available. This has happened over and over and over again.

HOWEVER, a few times there is no CAPTCHA tests and it goes right to check-out. These are the ONLY times when I've been able to get to checkout with tickets. If I get CAPCHA tests, 100% of the time, the tickets will disappear during the time I'm taking the test. But like I said, not everyone is getting a CAPCHA test all the time, and it's not clear who is being routed into the "slow lane" for this and what criteria is being used to do this. It is very easy to set up a system like this that would prioritize users that have a certain profile (i.e. bots owned by people paying kickbacks). I can't prove this is happening, but it sure looks suspicious.

Also, supposedly, children qualify for free tickets. But if you get to check-out on the web site there are no options to put these free tickets into the cart. Rather a separate link is provided for that. Which is hilarious because even if the link worked, it would still make getting these tickets completely impossible to get given the timing of how the tickets are being distributed. And what is even more hilarious is the link doesn't work at all and just spits you out on the home page! So I quickly learned to just disregard it. If you have kid and are trying to buy tickets, just fill your cart with full-price adult tickets for everyone! Otherwise you won't have a chance! (There is a cart option for "reduced" E.U. young adults, but that is for E.U. residents/citizens only.)

I know it's bad form for foreign tourists to be critical of aspects of the country they are visiting. But the stuff I'm seeing on https://www.coopculture.it -- if I were to see these kind of shenanigans on a U.S. government site like recreation.gov I'd be calling for an investigation by regulators and/or the Justice Department. Something is really rotten here. Of course, it's hard to tease out how much of what I'm seeing is due to possible corruption, and how much is due to mere incompetence. Like I said some of what we're seeing doesn't have any good innocent explanations, but other things could just be incompetence.

Last night I tried to buy the tickets for real. The practice runs on previous nights came in really handy, but it was not enough. At one point I did succeed on getting tickets into the cart and get to check-out. A 15-minute timer started. (Supposedly, you have 15 minutes to buy the tickets before they get released for others.) But I didn't trust that at all and so wanted to finish the transaction without delay. But after I put in my name, address, etc. the web site gave an error message and the tickets were gone. So the night ended up being a total failure for me.

But it's a funny thing--despite the difficulties the public is having getting tickets, the tour groups and the scalpers still have plenty. Most of the people who can't get tickets directly from the web site online will still be able to get tickets, albeit at a higher price. People are profiting on this.

So I'm not really worried--I'm sure we'll be able to get in. It will just cost a lot more. You can go ahead and call me cynical, or say that this is a "sour grapes" post--but somehow I think that what was intended the whole time. This Colosseum is real cash cow, and I guess we'll be doing our part in supporting the local economy there.

I do regret the 10-12 hours or so I invested in this...

But it's a funny thing--despite the difficulties the public is having
getting tickets, the tour groups and the scalpers still have plenty.
Most of the people who can't get tickets directly from the web site
online will still be able to get tickets, albeit at a higher price.
People are profiting on this.

Even private companies are having trouble getting hands on these tickets. As Dario said, this is the #1 tourist attraction in all of Italy, and thousands of people are competing for limited tickets available for each time slot from time zones all over the world. Some of us have been monitoring the Coopculture site throughout YEARS of confusing ticketing changes so It is what it is.

Whatever racket it appears to be, complaints on the RS forum site is not going to change the reality: These tickets are just really hard to get due to the uptick in tourism. That even the 3rd parties sometimes can't get them?

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/trip-cancelled-help-colosseum-underground-roman-forum-palatine-hill

On a brighter note, if you are willing to get up early enough to stand in line for them, you can now purchase tickets near the arena; this website tends only to work during the hours the Colosseum is open:

https://parcocolosseo.it/en/2023/05/ticket-office-opening-colosseum-square/

Someone on another thread mentioned that, "About 10 years ago we showed up with no tickets and there were these guides walking around trying to scoop up about 10 tourists to form a group and we joined with them and they took us right in." That was long before advance, timed-entry reservations became mandatory so I sure wouldn't rely on that method now!!!

This is all productive. I believe what those of us that are having problems getting tickets want is an acknowledgment that it is more difficult to get tickets now than ever before. It has not been productive for us to outline the current (and perhaps novel) issues we are having with Colosseum ticketing to simply have us directed to a link by an "expert" with 15,000 posts on the forum. This is not normal. That's all we are saying.

bhubbardii, definitely no "expert" here. Just someone who, in an effort to be helpful, has been keeping an eye on the ever-changing processes for getting tickets to this attraction for many years. At one point the ticket-release schedules were changing as frequently as my socks! 🙄

The link to info about the very new on-site ticketing office was offered up as an additional method for honfleur25 (this is their thread) to acquire these difficult-to-get tickets. The other link was just to illustrate that even professionals have trouble getting them so it can be a frustrating situation for everyone, not just the folks posting here.

No easy answers here. I appreciate all these posts. Our 30 day window is June 17. We will try then to get their coop tickets. But likely after that will look at more expensive tours. Just hard for 11 of us.

My apologies Kathy. That was not directed towards you. You have actually tried to be a part of the solution and I appreciate all your help.

You're welcome, and I understand the frustration. Ticketing for this darn pile of rock has become a real PITA but like concert tickets for a certain willowy blond, there are only so many of those to go around and EVERYONE wants them.

I read that trying to book anything BUT a full experience ticket that includes the underground or even general-entry tickets can sometimes work. Some of the tickets which may not be first to disappear are:

Audioguide of the Colosseum with ticket Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine, Imperial Forum_h24

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

https://www.coopculture.it/en/products/full-experience-ticket-with-access-to-the-arena-of-the-colosseum/

Or Coopculture tours in Italian. Still, with high season in full swing, what was true a month or two ago might be different now.

LOL. You are correct. I was able to get four tickets today for the colosseum for 21 June. The key for me was to be persistent, attempt to secure tickets at all times of the day, and to get into the "rock pile" as best I could. I settled for regular tickets. I have seen enough YouTube videos on the underground to have the perspective from underneath.

You did just fine and yes, you can see down into parts of the underground not covered by that partial arena floor so don't worry about experiencing FOMO. Well done landing tickets! :O)

Congratulations! That's a real score. It's hard enough even seeing green on the calendar, let alone clicking on it in time to see the cart. But then even when I fill my cart, I get an error message. Their ecommerce software is very poorly written.

I see it as a "win" if I can just get the cart to come up. And I expect others are having a harder time than I am.
The way they have this set up really disadvantages people who not "quick on draw" due to age, lack of dexterity, vision, or for other reasons.

I was able to buy Full Experience Underground Guided Tour today, 5/25, at 5:30 am CA time. However, the tour is in Spanish. I am bilingual. I also speak some Italian, not very good, I was considering buying those tickets also. I noticed Italian and Spanish tickets were available for both regular and full experience more frequently (they lasted longer in the website). I think there are French tours also, I did not check those, since I speak no French. No English tours were available for any guided experience. So, for any Spanish/Italian/French speakers or learners, maybe just buy those tickets? The night tour in Italian still had many tickets available the last time I checked.

These tickets were so frustrating to buy! I just wanted regular tickets with the arena experience. They were impossible to buy. I was up from midnight to 2:30 am CA time trying to buy tickets, ANY tickets by 2:30 am. At one point, I was almost able to buy Arena Full Experience tickets, but by the time I had to pay, the website informed me they were no longer available. Frustrating! I was refreshing every five minutes or so. My husband also tried calling at midnight CA/ 9am Rome time. They answered one time, told us to call back in 10 minutes. We called back like 10 times after that initial call and every single time they hung up.

I gave up at 2:30 am, went to sleep. Woke up at around 5:30 am CA to try again, saw the Spanish tour tickets available (they had not been released yet at 2:30 am, when I went to sleep) and, as quickly as I could, bought them. No hesitating. At 5:30 am CA, I also saw a bunch of regular experience with audio-guide available. Not sure how long those last.

Anyways, Good Luck to all of you trying to score these tickets. Maybe try another language tour. You will need lots of patience and coffee! I hope all this trouble is worth it. I love Italy! This is my first time having so much trouble getting tickets.

Also this video helped me a lot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvr5UDCKysI

Our family has one Spanish, one French one German speaker. Another thread I saw poster got theirs in Italian. So we have been considerationing that. But by June 17 everyone will be doing this. May have to settle with Japanese. Oh dear….not so fluent in that….

Our other option is sending someone out to run from our Hotel Smeraldo early morning to find that ticket office site….The Amazing Race!

Just keep this in mind: at 11:35 PM [23:35] PDT on May 26 I'm seeing approx. 50 tix available at various times for the regular 24 hr Colosseum ticket for 5/27. Within five minutes that dropped to approximately 12 tix available.

I recently bought CoopCulture Roman Colosseum tickets successfully. It was a stressful challenge to say the least. I found their ticket buying process to be very confusing and so I called their ticket office in Italy. What I learned was very important to my success in getting tickets, and so I am sharing it with you.

• Tickets go on sale at 9am Rome Time (3am ET), 30 days in advance
• Calendar dates in Gray are not yet active (i.e. greater than 30 days out)
• Calendar dates in Pink are active, but sold out (sort of - keep reading)
• Calendar dates in Green are active and available

If you log in at 3am ET and go to the "Check Availability" for the Roman Colosseum ticket you want - it will likely show up in PINK (sold out). Don't Fret - there are still tickets but you are going to have to work to get them.

The REAL key is understanding the following fact: - Tickets are released in small groups every 5 minutes

Lessons/Steps I found successful in getting tickets:

• You have to be ready to get the tickets the second they become available every 5 minutes (9:00, 9:05, 9:10, etc)
• Understand you are competing against computers (resellers) trying to buy up the tickets, so you have to be quick

• Be diligent - stay positive

• Step 1: From the "Check Availability" calendar for the ticket type you want - keep hitting refresh over and over every 5 minutes. You have to refresh your screen over and over or you will never see the green date. I start this process at 2 min before and continue for 1 minute after each 5 min window. Ex. for 9:10am window I would start refresh at 9:08 and stop at 9:11, then I would start again at 9:13 for the next window.

• Step 2: Once you see the GREEN date, click it immediately (you have seconds to complete the next 2-3 steps)

• Step 3: Select the number of tickets you want. Note: There will be several options (Full Price Adult is at the top, followed by Students, EU Residents, etc). If you want to win the speed game, I recommend just paying full price at the top.

• Step 4: It will ask you to confirm "I am not a robot" by checking a box. Every once in awhile it may give you a CAPTCHA image as part of the robot test. I only got this 1 out of 10 tries.

• Step 5: When you successfully get past step 4 - you can breathe. The Tickets are now in your online shopping cart. You will have 15 minutes (on countdown clock) to complete the purchase of your tickets. Checkout was in Italian, but it is pretty straight forward and easy to figure out. Once completed, you will get a confirmation screen, then a purchase confirmation email, and then the tickets arrive by email shortly after (my wait time was about 10 minutes).

Added advice:

• Get someone to help you on another device, it improves your odds.
  
• Recognize it will take you several tries at the 5 minute windows (it took me 50 minutes, 10 chances) before I got through. If you miss the window and never see green, don't worry, you have another shot at the next ticket window release in 5 min.
• Don't get distracted when you see the GREEN Date, you are on the clock and have seconds to grab the tickets. Stay focused!
• A phone call to Italy won't allow you to buy tickets. They have to follow the same process as above, they can't just sell you tickets because you called (which was disappointing)
• Stay positive and good luck!

I’ll just add that I was one who started this stream, and I found everybody’s advice helpful and I also successfully got tickets using the system as just delineated above, although I was lucky sooner and was willing to have an Italian language tour. Hope that works for my wife and son.! I’m working hard on the Italian lessons!

Well, we broke down today and went with Roman Guy Tours. Reading replies on how difficult to get (our 11) tickets would be, it just made sense to pay more. We also got a 9:45 am time which is preferable. Hopeful this tour can get the tickets needed. Good luck to all!

I have also been looking for Colosseum tickets. Is the 4th floor open for tours, or under construction? I see things stating both ways.

From outside ticket vendors, on occasion I can find a tour that goes on the arena floor. Is that how most work, that only special tours go on the arena floor/underground or do all the tours go there?

Thank you very much!

I have also been looking for Colosseum tickets. Is the 4th floor open
for tours, or under construction? I see things stating both ways.

The upper tiers (Belvedere/Panoramic) have been closed for some time and are not yet open again for tours.

https://www.coopculture.it/en/article/notice-for-colosseum-archaeological-park/

From outside ticket vendors, on occasion I can find a tour that goes
on the arena floor. Is that how most work, that only special tours go
on the arena floor/underground or do all the tours go there?

Only tours which specifically state that they include the arena and/or underground visit those areas. There are many tours which do not include either.

Coopculture has a tour which includes the 2 lower tiers of the Colosseum, one that includes the arena, one for the arena + underground with staff accompaniment for the underground (no narration), and one that includes the arena and underground with guided narration for both. All are difficult tickets to obtain during high and shoulder seasons.

https://www.coopculture.it/en/tickets/index.html

Tickets for an underground tour purchased through an outside vendor is no guarantee that their tours will be able to access the underground. Example:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/colosseum-forum-palatine-hill-tour-canceled-6-days-out-by-the-roman-guy-tours-any-options

We here on this forum are not the only ones who noticed that the way tickets are being distributed seems to possibly be crooked.

A formal investigation into this is now underway.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/italys-antitrust-investigates-inflated-prices-colosseum-tickets-2023-07-18/

I went on an private tour of the colosseum today because it was the only way to get underground tickets. If I understood my guide correctly, registered tour guides can get advance access to buy these, which would explain why it's nearly impossible to buy even at the moment they supposedly open. The rampant abuse of these tickets from tours lead to the requirement of needing a passport/ID. My guide was lovely, but it does seem like there's some issues here that could probavly be mitigated by setting aside a certain number of tickets for individual purchase only.

We’re there in July. We decided to hire a tour company for our family of 11. We had 5 kids win our group…ages 6-12. What we never knew was they check kids ages randomly at the gate. We did not have their passports or form of ID with us. Just us adults. Our tour guide told us she would try to move us through. We all held our breath saying a prayer….all made it through. But sure was stressful! So FYI. Whew!

See this regarding upcoming ticketing changes:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/more-changes-coming-for-colosseum-palatine-forum-tickets

Yes, there are tickets "set aside" for individuals only: those which can be purchased at the two on-site ticketing offices. Yes, adults and children should have their passports with them when sightseeing in case of an age and/or identity check. And yes, they are currently limiting the amount of tickets independent guides can purchase, and I'm guessing those to be further limited with the Feb. change of concessionaire. 🙂

https://colosseo.it/en/opening-times-and-tickets/
https://colosseo.it/sito/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Biglietteria_Ticket-Office_Colosseum-scaled.jpg

The panoramic level is open again on an extremely limited basis, and only through a guide.
https://www.coopculture.it/en/products/early-morning-colosseo/