Tips on Visiting the Colosseum in Rome

The Colosseum was one of two activities that we chose to do in Rome. Turns out we chose correctly. You can see the evidence of the rise and fall of civilizations just by looking at the exterior wall. The structure’s survival is really amazing, and maybe somewhat uplifting given our tendency to destroy beautiful things.

We really enjoyed our visit to the Colosseum, but that was partly due to the circumstances. It wasn’t crowed. It wasn’t hot. And we weren’t in a hurry. Here’s how to create similarly favorable circumstances:

1. Schedule your visit on a down day. There are a lot of stairs at the Colosseum. In fact, there are a lot of very narrow stairs. Narrow, like they were made for children’s feet. And for some reason, they seem to slope downwards. Possibly there wasn’t enough entertainment in the gladiator ring, they also needed the spectacle of people falling down stone steps? I don’t know. But I digress. You will be tired after your visit, so maybe don’t schedule a trip to the Vatican the same day. We opted for a nap and then an opera.
2. Go first thing in the morning. It will be cooler and less crowded. I know this one is obvious, but it can be challenging to get yourself out there at 8:30 am when your body is telling you that it’s actually 1:30 am. But it’s worth it! Decide to sleep for a couple more hours, and it will be hotter (unless you are there in the Winter) and more crowded. I saw the lines when we left at 10:30. And they limit admission to 3,000 people in there at a time, so that can also cause delays.
3. Get you tickets ahead of time. Nobody likes standing in more lines. I got our tickets from Coop Culture. The have several options. We did the audio tour. It was decent. The only thing I didn’t like was that the audio tour is on a smart phone that they hand you, and there are no headphones. It can get kind of distracting trying to listen to your audio device while a bunch of people around you are doing the same thing. It’s one of those that you type in the number displayed in an area and it plays that part of the tour. So it’s self-guided.
4. Check out Palatine Hill. It’s included in your ticket (at least if you do the option above), and it’s cool. More crazy old stuff and great views of Rome.

The exterior wall has changed significantly over time.

Palatine Hill

View from Palatine Hill