How to Book the Colosseum Underground
Book the Colosseum underground: official tickets open 30 days ahead at ticketing.colosseo.it. ID rules, arrival time, winter hours and closures.
To book the Colosseum underground yourself, buy the Full Experience Underground and Arena ticket at ticketing.colosseo.it, the only official online ticket office since 1 April 2024. Tickets go on sale 30 days before the visit date, cost €24 (or €32 with the park’s educational tour), and sell quickly, so log in early on the day your date opens.
The standard ticket for the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine (€18) does not include the arena or the underground. If you want to go below the arena, you need the Full Experience Underground and Arena ticket or a guided tour that explicitly includes the underground.
If the official dates are gone, a guided tour is the other way in. The rest of this page covers the rules that catch people out: named tickets, the 30-minute arrival rule, bag limits and what happens when weather closes the underground.
Check Availability
Booking the official ticket at ticketing.colosseo.it
The park sells tickets online only through ticketing.colosseo.it, live since 1 April 2024 (colosseo.it). Other websites selling “official” tickets are resellers.
The underground ticket goes on sale 30 days before each visit date (colosseo.it). The park does not publish a release hour, so log in early in the morning, Rome time, on the day your date opens and refresh from there. Book as early in winter as in summer: underground groups are small all year, and quieter months do not mean easy tickets.
What the €24 ticket gets you:
- One timed entry to the Colosseum, including the arena, the underground, levels 1 and 2 and the Colosseum Museum.
- One entry to the Roman Forum, the Palatine and the SUPER sites on the day before, the same day or the day after, so the ticket covers two consecutive days.
- Up to 90 minutes inside the Colosseum (75 minutes on the standard 24-hour ticket).
The €32 version adds the park’s educational tour. Underground access itself is “based on availability”, which matters if the weather turns (see below).
Each ticket is issued in the visitor’s name. Bring an original ID that matches the name on the ticket; if it does not match, you will not get in and you will not be refunded (colosseo.it). Under-18s enter free but still need a booked ticket, and EU citizens aged 18 to 24 pay €2.
Purchase limits apply to individuals: up to 8 tickets per online transaction, up to 8 underground tickets per day per buyer, and up to 3 successful purchase sessions per day.
When official tickets are gone: booking a guided tour
Tour operators hold their own underground slots, so a guided tour is often the way in once the official calendar is empty. The price includes the ticket plus a guide; it is never €24. Before you book, check three things.
First, that the underground is explicitly included in the option you choose. Many listings sell “Arena or Underground” options under one title. Pick the underground option and read its inclusions.
Second, the group size. The park lets licensed guides take at most 6 clients plus the guide into the underground (colosseo.it), so the underground part is always small even when the rest of the tour has a larger group.
Third, the cancellation policy and what the operator does if the underground is closed on the day.
The Colosseum Underground All Access Tour with Ancient Rome has several underground options, including a group of up to 7, from $129 per person, and is rated 4.5/5 from 1,620+ reviews. The full breakdown shows what each option includes. For a guaranteed underground in every option, our comparison of guided underground tours sets the alternatives side by side, and which tour is right for you helps you choose.
A note on resellers: on 8 April 2025, Italy’s competition authority (AGCM) fined CoopCulture, the former ticketing concessionaire, €7 million, and fined six tour operators, bringing the total to almost €20 million (AGCM). Italian press reported the individual amounts, and the companies disputed the ruling and announced appeals.
Arrival, lateness and security
Underground ticket holders must arrive 30 minutes before the time on their ticket, and lateness is not tolerated: there is no grace period. If you miss your Colosseum slot, the ticket still works for one Forum and Palatine entry if you have not used it yet, but there is no refund and no new Colosseum time.
Everyone goes through metal-detector security at the entrance. The rules (colosseo.it) include:
- Hand luggage up to 30 × 40 × 15 cm. There is no cloakroom or luggage storage, so leave large bags at your hotel.
- Banned items include knives and multitools, glass bottles, selfie sticks, trekking poles, umbrellas wider than 1 m, aerosol cans, speakers and suitcases. Drones and professional camera gear need written permission.
- Closed shoes suitable for uneven ground are required.
- No eating inside the Colosseum, and no costumes or masks.
“Skip-the-line” on a listing means you have a timed ticket booked in advance and do not queue at the ticket office. It does not let you skip security, which everyone passes through.
Opening hours, free days and closures
From 25 October 2026 to 28 February 2027 the Colosseum opens 8:30–16:30, with last admission at 15:30. Hours in other seasons:
| Period | Hours | Last entry |
|---|---|---|
| 1 March to the last Saturday of March | 8:30–17:30 | 16:30 |
| Last Sunday of March to 30 September | 8:30–19:15 | 18:15 |
| 1 October to the last Saturday of October | 8:30–18:30 | 17:30 |
| Last Sunday of October to 28 February | 8:30–16:30 | 15:30 |
The site is closed on 25 December and 1 January. The last underground slot changes with the season, so check the booking calendar for your date.
Entry is free on the first Sunday of every month and on 25 April, 2 June and 4 November, with tickets handed out at the ticket office on a first-come basis. On free Sundays the underground, the arena, the upper levels and the panoramic lift are closed (colosseo.it), so do not plan an underground visit on those days.
Weather can close the underground. On 12 February 2026 heavy rain closed the underground and the arena, and Full Experience holders were refunded the difference to a base ticket. On 8 October 2026 rain closed the underground from 08:30 to 10:30, and the guided part was refunded automatically. As a general rule, the park refunds tickets only when the site is forcibly closed; it does not refund or change dates for buyer error.
Getting to the Colosseum
Take Metro B to Colosseo, or Metro C to Colosseo–Fori Imperiali, which opened on 16 December 2025 and connects with Line B. Tram 3 stops nearby, as do buses 51, 75, 81, 85, 87 and 118 (colosseo.it). If you would rather walk in the morning, our where to stay near the Colosseum page lists nearby areas.
About the live data in our hero
The “Colosseum today” strip on our homepage shows five facts worked out from the park’s published rules plus a weather forecast. It never says whether tickets or tours are available: no public feed has that information, so check the official calendar or a tour’s own date picker.
- On sale today: today’s date plus 30 days, following the official rule that underground tickets go on sale 30 days ahead. It shows the furthest date that should be on sale, not whether slots remain.
- Open today: the opening and last-entry times from the park’s seasonal table above, or “closed” on 25 December and 1 January.
- No underground: the next day the underground is not open, which is the next free first Sunday, 25 April, 2 June or 4 November, or a full closure on 25 December or 1 January. Unplanned weather closures cannot be predicted and are not shown.
- Sunset: calculated for the Colosseum’s position, in Rome time.
- Rome now: temperature and rain from a forecast snapshot. Data from MET Norway, under the CC BY 4.0 licence. The “About this data” link shows when the snapshot was taken.
Frequently asked questions
How far in advance should I book the Colosseum underground?
Official tickets go on sale 30 days before the visit date, with no published release hour. Book on the day your date opens, in winter as well as summer.
Do Colosseum underground tickets sell out?
Yes, often. Underground groups are small and slots are limited. If the official calendar is empty, a guided tour that explicitly includes the underground is the usual alternative.
Do underground tickets include the Roman Forum?
Yes. The Full Experience Underground and Arena ticket includes one entry to the Roman Forum and Palatine on the day before, the same day or the day after your Colosseum visit, valid over two consecutive days.
Is skip-the-line included?
A timed ticket booked in advance lets you skip the ticket-office queue. Nobody skips security, so allow for it and arrive 30 minutes before your slot.
What happens if the underground closes?
When heavy rain closed it on 12 February 2026, Full Experience holders were refunded the difference to a base ticket. If you booked a tour, the operator’s own policy applies, so check it before you pay.
Is the underground open on the first Sunday of the month?
No. Entry is free on first Sundays, but the underground, arena and upper levels are closed. The park’s notice covers first Sundays; expect the same on 25 April, 2 June and 4 November.
Can I change the name on my ticket?
For visits from 9 May 2026, once only, by midnight on the 7th day before the visit, and only for an obvious typo, a ticket type wrongly assigned in the same transaction, or serious documented reasons.
What happens if you are late for your slot?
Lateness is not tolerated. You lose the Colosseum entry, but the ticket still works for one Forum and Palatine entry if you have not used it. There is no refund.
Not sure the underground is for you? Read is the Colosseum underground worth it, or see what you see in the underground before you book.
See How the Colosseum Worked, Not Just What It Looked Like
Underground places go fast, and guided groups below the arena are capped at six guests per guide. Check dates on our top pick, a small-group tour of the underground, arena, Forum and Palatine.
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