I'm checking my Rick Steve's book and I don't see this covered or if it is, I am missing it.. But know that time slots need to be reserved and they sell out fast. But I cannot reserve ahead in advance--anyone know on what dates they open ticket sales.
Sigh. I'd forgotten how difficult it was to deal with the government web sites for Italian sites.
That is covered in the current RS Italy guidebook on page 840. The book states that those sites have "mandatory advance ticketing", which is accessible at Coopculturre.it. (select English and click on "ticketing"). The book also states that same-day tickets may be available but I suspect those will be difficult to get.
If you're unable to book in advance, you may be out-of-luck!
When I booked, it was 30-days in advance. I couldn't book earlier. Could that be the issue?
yes, you have to wait 30 days prior to order. i am in the same boat trying to get tickets for April 26.
Coop culture was easy to navigate, and I appreciated that the tickets are name-specific so bots can't eat up all the tickets. I booked mine so that I could visit the Forum 23hrs before our timed entry to the Colosseum. I understand why people do the Forum afterwards (the exit is at the Forum's entrance), but for us, I wanted one site per day. There's only so much crumbling stone and brick you can look at in one day (even with the RS audio tour). I think next time I'll opt for a guided tour. Some of the ones we were around sounded excellent!
am i truly missing something here??? i've been on the site (coopculture.it) the last three days at 6pm EST (midnight in rome) to buy tickets for April 27th.
NOTHING has changed on the calendars for both of these:
TICKET COLOSSEUM, ROMAN FORUM, PALATINE_24H
and
FULL EXPERIENCE TICKET WITH ACCESS TO THE ARENA OF THE COLOSSEUM
almost all of April is red except for the 2nd,7th and 25th. 26th - 30th is grey.
is it really not 30 days before in order to buy tickets? funny thing is they have tons of tickets for tomorrow with the regular TICKET COLOSSEUM, ROMAN FORUM, PALATINE_24H route.
are they just not on sale yet?
thanks
This from the coopculture website:
"The release for sale of tickets for entrances and services to the Colosseum Archaeological Park is automatic, gradual and progressive, on an hourly basis with respect to the time of the single time slot, according to the following methods:
- the monthly release is activated 720 hours (24h x 30d) before each single time slot.
- the weekly release is activated 168 hours (24h x 7d) before each single time slot.
- the daily release is activated 12 hours before each single time slot.
For the Full Experience Underground and Arena ticket there are monthly and weekly releases."
It's my understand that the tickets release by time slot so, for example, tickets for a 10:00 AM time slot would release at 10:00 AM ROME TIME for a date 30 days from today. As stated above, there are also ticket releases for corresponding time slots 7 days before, and daily for tickets that don't include the underground and arena. In any case, it can mean being up in the middle of the night to snag them when they become available.
A frequent responder over on Trip Advisor's Rome forum - who stays dialed into the ever-changing, always confusing ins-and-outs of Coopculture Colosseum tickets - just posted a helpful, very complete booking 'bible' that I'll share the link to:
I was right about the 30-day/7-day advance time-slot ticket releases but the linked thread contains a lot of additional info that promises to be helpful for answering all sorts of questions.
Well done, Donna, and hope it's OK to share your hard work!! :O)
I quickly realized that trying to get an underground access ticket would require way more time & strategizing than I could muster, but yikes, even trying to get a ticket to go inside the Colosseum was a wearying process--I'm staying nearby and had almost convinced myself it would be okay if all I did was see it from the outside a couple of times a day! I work, and cannot get on Italian sites so must disable wi-fi on my phone and then try to navigate the site that way, and hesitating for 30 seconds had me lose a ticket, and I am not up in the middle of the night for further strategies from home, so I am happy to report I just managed to purchase a 2 day ticket that includes the arena and also the Forum and Palentine, for Friday April 28. Only later in the day slots were available so I convinced myself 5:45 is fine...
