Domus Aurea and underground Colosseum

The underground takes you from the bottom to the top. I had not been before but found it amazing and with the access to the areas that are not visited by normal tourist it was well worth it. Seeing up close the area that the animals and people were kept in was amazing and the story about coming up in the elevator. Then going to the upper stratus of the Colosseum. I don't think you will be disappointed.

Making sure you know the date when the purchase window opens up and stay up go get the ticket in the middle of the night. A challenge but worth it (I suggest 2 laptops and a phone). Took over 2 hours to finally get the tickets.

I took the Domus Aurea tour last year, the guides were archeologists and art restorers, I don't know if other guides are permitted. The guide was fantastic! Tour was included in the ticket price, since there are many restricted areas under restoration.

I agree with larlock. The underground Coliseum tour was filled with information and understanding about how it all operated that you don't get from a top side tour. I highly recommend it. Our guide provided with the ticket was very informative.

For Domus Aurea you can only go on the official tour and they provide the guide. Ours was excellent! The tours are offered only on Saturdays and Sundays, with a choice of several times each day for tours in English.

http://www.coopculture.it/en/ticket.cfm?office=Domus%20Aurea%20Project&id=0&evento=268

Any reviews on the CoopCulture underground Colosseum tour, recommended in the RS Pocket Rome book? Only 9 Euro plus the cost of the ticket, we can't book March until February 20.

Lola, I thought all the bookings for Domus Aurea had to go through Coop Culture? Who runs the tickitaly website? I am always concerned about legitimacy of websites. Hoping that this one is "real" and we could go ahead and book for April - that would be fabulous.

Julie---you are correct. Thanks for catching that!

I changed the link to Coopculture. They are apparently not selling tickets for June yet.

Dang! I was getting my hopes up. Looks like they only book about a month in advance? Going to need to set a reminder on my calendar to check periodically.

Julie,
Coopculture changed how it opens up the tickets which could be a great thing for future travelers. When I got my tickets they would open it up for three months at a time and it was painfully slow to get into the website. Hopefully one month at time will be better. In any case I would suggest you be at the ready at 9 am Rome time to purchase the tickets for your month. Walks of Italy does a tour that does combine with the underground tour and then branches back off with their own guide when complete (the guide stays with the underground tour and just stays to the rear). So if you are worried and want to advance pre-book you could do that but it is pricey and it includes Paletine Hill and the Forum.

The Domus Aurea is different from anything else in Rome, it's a working archaeological site that can be visited only when/if archaeologists have free time and want to volunteer to take tourists around.

You can't be sure they'll open bookings one month in advance in the future, specially since in October they started working on 2 new rooms that have been buried for almost 2,000 years.

Thanks for all of the great info!

As others have stated, you can only take the tour of the Domus Aurea with one of their guides. We were actually there with a private guide who we had reserved for the day and I had previously told her I'd like to visit the Domus Aurea. She took us there first thing in the morning and asked if she could guide us through as she is a licensed guide but they said "no". They did accommodate us though and allowed us to join the next tour. It was well worth it; I highly suggest the tour. I believe the first Sunday of each month is free but again, you do need to make a reservation. One last thing to note....definitely take a warm jacket for the Domus Aurea tour. We were there in early September so it was obviously very hot but it was really cold once inside the Domus Aurea and I wished I'd brought a jacket as did several others on our tour. Enjoy!

The 9 euros official underground tour is very good. The information is top notch and the price is great. It doesn't include a tour of the forum or palatine hill which is why the price is low.

donna

Lola - thanks for the link. I'll be there next month. It looks like the Domus Aurea tours are only on weekends, that means Saturday for me, Sunday's reserved for the Appian Way.

Chani and OP, you may want a selfie of your "hard hat"!

Hard hat and shower cap, actually. Waiting for Domus Aurea

Yes, they give you a disposable hair over to wear under the hard hat, so you won't catch cooties from someone else's head.

Be sure and take a jacket---it is cool in there.

The Domus Aurea was amazing! I highly recommend it! Just be aware that it is a working archaeological site. There were a couple very disappointed people on our tour who thought it would be in better shape. It is dark and drippy, but so incredible! It was hard to believe that these frescoes were just buried and left behind.

I think people who are disappointed in something like the Domus Aurea haven't done any research on it, just something to cross off a list.