Rome, Colosseum visit

[l4inchers]

Afternoon,

After a bit of help and advice with the above please?

I'm taking my wife and daughter to Rome, on the 26/05 for 5 nights.

The trip has been booked for over a year and I did try and look at booking a visit to the Colosseum at the time of booking. No joy as the site didn't go that far in advance.
Now it does cover May (official site) it only seems to have bookings available up till today, for following month ( so up till today, but then greyed out not bookable for say the 19th of May)
However, every time I go onto the site and this has happened each day, it is sold out!

Am I searching wrongly? or is it just that at 9-10 am it is too late to try and book?

What other ways is there to get tickets into the Colosseum?
Of all the things planned, this is what the wife and daughter are most excited about!

Failure to get them in, may lead to me falling on Maximus's sword...

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks, in advance.

Lainch

[leyorkie]

Recent article explaining that the guided tour companies block buy and add a premium to the ticket, the gist of it was that you have to get on line quickly otherwise you have to take their tickets

https://www.wantedinrome.com/news/colosseum-ticket...

[ClaphamGT3]

leyorkie said:

Recent article explaining that the guided tour companies block buy and add a premium to the ticket, the gist of it was that you have to get on line quickly otherwise you have to take their tickets

https://www.wantedinrome.com/news/colosseum-ticket...

This was our experience last October half term. Just book through one of the tour companies and get on with your life - its not that expensive, even with their mark-up.

[l4inchers]

leyorkie said:

Recent article explaining that the guided tour companies block buy and add a premium to the ticket, the gist of it was that you have to get on line quickly otherwise you have to take their tickets

https://www.wantedinrome.com/news/colosseum-ticket...

Thanks for this, an interesting read.

I clean forgot that southern european nations might be like this! Offers you can't refuse and all

[l4inchers]

ClaphamGT3 said:

This was our experience last October half term. Just book through one of the tour companies and get on with your life - its not that expensive, even with their mark-up.

Thanks, Can you recommend a particular company, given the legitimacy of some of the companies involved in re-sale.

I was looking at doing the full experience.

Thanks

Lainch

[Alex Z]

If you get a Roma pass it includes admission to a whole bunch of other sites, but allows you to book your entry time to the colosseum.

[Turn7]

Alex Z said:

If you get a Roma pass it includes admission to a whole bunch of other sites, but allows you to book your entry time to the colosseum.

Just what I was going to suggest...

Worked really well for us, plus you get free bus(train?) travel included....

We really enjoyed Rome, its incredible to see things like the Coliseum that astounded me as a child.

And the Forum alone is worth the trip.

Love the place.

[Martin4356111]

Was in Rome in Feb and two weeks ago. Both times the queues for the Colosseum were unbelievably long.

We just had a look from the outside but would have liked to go inside.

[l4inchers]

Thanks for all the advice, I will look into the Roma pass too

[Mojooo]

I used Citywonders multiple times when in Italy and can recommend them

For the Colosseum there was a massive line of people queuing up and we went past all them. I did the one with the tour also covering Palatine Hill.

I also sued them for the Vatican - it was crazy how many people were milling around outside 9think a big football match) -again we got taken straight inside.

The benefit with a tour guide as well is they can give you the history and take you to all the good spots.

I went circa 2017.

[l4inchers]

Thanks for all the advice, I will look into the Roma pass too

[Antony Moxey]

When we went we had (I think) an Omni Pass. Gives you preferred access to two or three major attractions and also has a free hop on hop off bus service too. Took us straight to the front of a half mile queue to the Vatican and straight to the front of the Coliseum queue too. I reckon it saved us probably eight to ten hours queueing, so worth it for that alone. It was was before Covid that we went so I couldn’t tell you if it’s still operating today.

[Alex Z]

Antony Moxey said:

When we went we had (I think) an Omni Pass. Gives you preferred access to two or three major attractions and also has a free hop on hop off bus service too. Took us straight to the front of a half mile queue to the Vatican and straight to the front of the Coliseum queue too. I reckon it saved us probably eight to ten hours queueing, so worth it for that alone. It was was before Covid that we went so I couldn’t tell you if it’s still operating today.

Looks like it’s a Roma Pass with the Vatican added on.

https://www.romevaticancard.com/omniacards/omnia-c...

[Pugster]

Check GetYourGuide for individual tickets they have all sorts from full on guided tours to just entry tickets.

We thought the Roma pass wouldn’t work out financially. Yes you get the bus but the traffic in Rome is horrendous. It’s quicker to walk 🙂

It’s an amazing city enjoy

[bigmowley]

Personally unless you are a practicing RC I would avoid the Vatican like the plague.
Ridiculous number of people, herded around like sheep going to slaughter, absolutely no time or space to admire anything. Oh and millions of tables stacked high with plastic Jesus statuettes. Just a complete cash cow for the RC church. Horrid place.
Rome on the other hand is absolutely ace.

[Antony Moxey]

bigmowley said:

Personally unless you are a practicing RC I would avoid the Vatican like the plague.
Ridiculous number of people, herded around like sheep going to slaughter, absolutely no time or space to admire anything. Oh and millions of tables stacked high with plastic Jesus statuettes. Just a complete cash cow for the RC church. Horrid place.
Rome on the other hand is absolutely ace.

I loved the Vatican museum. We saw what we wanted and took as long as we wanted. I don’t think I’ve ever bought anything from a gift shop.

[Griffith4ever]

bigmowley said:

Personally unless you are a practicing RC I would avoid the Vatican like the plague.
Ridiculous number of people, herded around like sheep going to slaughter, absolutely no time or space to admire anything. Oh and millions of tables stacked high with plastic Jesus statuettes. Just a complete cash cow for the RC church. Horrid place.
Rome on the other hand is absolutely ace.

Same for us. Rammed, crushed,rushed. Awful.

[Mojooo]

Disagree - thought the Vatican was amazing - the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel are absolutely some of the best things in the world.

[Griffith4ever]

Mojooo said:

Disagree - thought the Vatican was amazing - the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel are absolutely some of the best things in the world.

I assume you went through when it was not too busy? we went through the sistine chapel and it was so rammed that we got swept along with the flow of people. It was frightening-level rammed. Like being at Glasto when the main stage is changing acts. We barely got to glance at the ceiling before we were jostled out the other side.

[K77 CTR]

Tickets are released 30 days before the date and at the time of the ticket, remembering the time difference. I went on before the day I wanted just to see what the process was like. You have to be quick as tour guides and bots are also trying to buy the tickets. I've done a night tour and a day tour and would recommend both but the night was amazing as hardly anyone in there whereas the day is heaving.

The 30 day process is why they are greyed out because they've not been released.