2026: Colosseum tickets’ mess

If you are planning a trip to Rome, especially if this is your first trip, you are probably looking for a Colosseum reservation. And you might have read it is quite difficult. It’s true and well explained in this article by Wanted in Rome.

“Slow loading times, availability that vanishes within seconds of appearing, shopping carts that freeze at the critical moment, and the pervasive suspicion that you are competing not only against other visitors but against automated bots designed to sweep up tickets the instant they appear.”

All true.

So, now coming back to us. We do not want to support in any way the “secondary ticketing” which is in fact the cause for this situation. So we discourage you to book on all the alternative platforms (i.e. Get your guide, Viator, Musement….) selling tickets which are not the official website > https://ticketing.colosseo.it/en/

Main things to know:

1. tickets get on sale 30 days ahead (at the same time you need them for, consider the time zone of Italy i.e. UTC +2. So, if you need them at 9.00 a.m., you have to connect at 9.00 a.m. Rome time 30 days ahead). Anyone selling Colosseum tickets with more advance is in fact selling something they do not have yet.
2. forget special sectors like underground or attic in high season, they are snapped away immediately by big companies. We (the union of tour guides) are asking authorities to investigate, but in the meantime it’s like this.
3. Take into consideration an afternoon tour: tickets are slightly easier to find and from US or Canada you do not need to wake up in the night to book them. For a summer tour, a good compromise is a tour starting at 3,30 p.m. at the Colosseum ending at the forum at around 6 p.m. when it’s not too hot. Or, even better , a Colosseum visit at around 5 p.m. and an early tour of the forum at 9.00 a.m. the following morning (same ticket is still valid)
4. for morning tours, if standard tickets sell out immediately or you get blocked, a “legal” alternative is the Roma Pass slots. You still reserve tickets on the official webpage, but then you have to buy the Roma Pass on this website: this means you pay 38 euros instead of 18 euros, but you get some discounts and public transportation included for 2 full days. These tickets are much easier to find available, even after few days of the sales opening, and you do not have to wake up in the night!

A little extra explanation: why do we recommend spending more money with Roma Pass and not with third parties? Because the Roma Pass slots are still “official” tickets and have never been cancelled, while these other operators are often changing times, even dates of your reservations and some times they end up cancelling your tickets last minute, with no respect for your plans. They refund your tickets, but at a stage it’s very hard for you to find another ticket. We have seen this happen many times and therefore we do not recommend using them.

And final explanation: the reason why we cannot issue the tickets for you is that the booking activity would conflict with our core activity i.e. providing tours on a daily basis. If we have to be in front of the screen at the right time to secure the perfect slot for you, we cannot be out touring. If you need that level of service, you  need a travel agent, while we are a team of tour guides.

PS you can also tour Forum and Palatine with just an external view of the Colosseum, it’s still a great tour and so much easier to plan (tickets always available up to the day before, they are called Forum pass )