Colosseum wait time

That was my experience a couple of weeks ago, confirmed by a guide I know. The wait is for security screening, and also because they restrict the number of people on site to 3000 at a time. If you set up a guided tour, you can get in faster. You can pre-arrange with a private guide or a company like Walks of Italy, or you can sign on with one of the freelancers who prowl the crowd. For the latter, expect to pay 18-25 Euros/person on top of the ticket price. It helps to have purchased tickets online because at least you do not have to stand in that line.

I was there in early March and there wasn't much of a wait to get into the colosseum, maybe 10 minutes.

I've heard reports of long lines and of short lines. I really think it depends on the day and time. Unless you have a tour scheduled you can always try again if the line is really long. If you have a tour I would get there at least an hour before the tour starts, maybe even more than that.

Donna

I went to the Colosseum last July with tickets purchased on-line through the official website and still had to wait about 45 minutes. There was a long line of people who had pre-purchased tickets and the people that didn't purchase tickets were able to walk right in, it was very strange! However, I thought our tour of the Colosseum was worth every second!

With the Roman Forum, I was able to walk right in with our pre-purchased tickets. The line to purchase tickets there was very short. We arrive at the Roman Forum and Colosseum around 9:30 AM.

I thought with Roma Pass you skip long lines??

The romapass allows you to bypass the ticket lines which can be very long. Nothing allows you to bypass the security check point. This is where the back up is occurring. Just get there early if you have a tour scheduled.

Donna