Colosseum sold out: what to do when there are no tickets left

The options at a glance

The prices and dates in this table come from the Tiqets feed, refreshed while you browse. "Next date" is the first day on which the option still has places.

1. Book a guided tour with the ticket included

This is the answer that works most often, by far. Agencies reserve their allocations with the archaeological park as soon as they open and sell them with a guide: when the official ticket office has nothing left, those places still exist. Entry to all three sites is included, there is nothing else to buy, and you go in through the groups' entrance.

Two other tours exist if this one is full on your date: a small-group tour with arena floor access, in English, French or Spanish (from €138, refundable up to 72 hours before), and a guided walking tour of the three sites, in English (from €89). On some days only a much more expensive premium slot is left: the dates quoted here are the first at the normal price, and the calendar shows the real price of each day before you click.

Wanted the underground? Tiqets does not sell it, but GetYourGuide offers an exclusive underground or arena tour with the Forum (from €143, in English, 6 people) and a Colosseum and Forum tour with an underground option (from €99). Details in our guide to the arena floor and the underground.

2. Take the ticket with the Mamertine Prison

The plain skip-the-line ticket is the most requested, so the first to go. The Colosseum + Mamertine Prison ticket gives exactly the same access — timed entry to the Colosseum, tiers 1 and 2, then the Forum and Palatine — but it comes from a different allocation, reserved by the prison's operator, and it often has places left when the standard ticket has none. The Mamertine Prison, where tradition places the imprisonment of St Peter and St Paul, takes twenty minutes at the foot of the Capitoline, ten minutes' walk from the Colosseum.

3. Go in through the arena

The archaeological park sells a little-known ticket, the "24h Only Arena": twenty minutes on the arena floor, without the tiers, then the Forum and Palatine. Its allocation is separate from the standard ticket's, and places are often left. On Tiqets it is sold together with the Mamertine Prison and an audio guide: the express arena + Mamertine option (from €32, next date: 24 Sept). You will not climb into the tiers, but you will stand where the gladiators fought, which the standard ticket does not allow.

More complete, the arena + SUPER sites ticket (from €52) adds the SUPER sites of the Forum and Palatine — House of Augustus, Domus Tiberiana, Santa Maria Antiqua, Curia — and a 3D video on ancient Rome shown before the visit. Again, the arena floor without the tiers. Both options, and what you see from the arena, are detailed in our guide to the arena floor and the underground.

4. Choose a pass or a combo

Passes and combined tickets have their own calendar, separate from the standard ticket's: they sometimes have dates when the single entry has none left. The Rome Tourist Card (from €100) combines the Colosseum with its time slot, the Vatican Museums or Castel Sant'Angelo, and a third visit of your choice, all on your phone. The Colosseum + Vatican Museums ticket (from €70.50) does the same in a single ticket, with the 3D video to start. Rarely the cheapest option if you only planned to visit the Colosseum, but often the right one if the Vatican was on the programme anyway.

5. Watch for official re-releases

The official "24h Colosseum, Forum, Palatine" ticket costs €18 plus a €2 online fee, and remains the cheapest option. Each date goes on sale thirty days ahead, at 9 am Rome time, on ticketing.colosseo.it; in season the day's slots go within hours, the arena and underground within minutes. When everything has gone, places come back: cancelled tickets are put back on sale, most often around midnight, and part of the "underground and arena" slots is released seven days before the date. Check the ticket office several times, including the day before and on the morning itself.

We are an independent site and do not sell these official tickets. We mention them because, when any are left, they are the cheapest option. Prices, reductions and fees: see our Colosseum ticket prices page.

6. Use the Roma Pass

The Roma Pass (48 or 72 hours of public transport, one or two entries of your choice) covers the Colosseum, but not without a reservation: the slot is booked afterwards on the official ticket office, with a €2 fee, from an allocation reserved for pass holders. Book as soon as you buy the pass — the body that runs it recommends ten days' notice, twenty in high season. That allocation is sometimes still open when ordinary sales have closed, but there is no guarantee.

7. As a last resort, the Forum and Palatine without the Colosseum

The Forum Pass SUPER (€18 on the official ticket office) gives access to the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, the Imperial Forums and the SUPER sites — House of Augustus, Domus Tiberiana, Santa Maria Antiqua, Curia Iulia — without the Colosseum. It rarely sells out. You will not see the inside of the amphitheatre, but the view from the Farnese Gardens on the Palatine takes in the whole Forum with the Colosseum behind; and the outside of the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine and Via dei Fori Imperiali are free to walk, day and night.

Why the Colosseum sells out so fast

The archaeological park caps the number of visitors inside the monument at any one time, and entry is by time slot, in small numbers. Tickets only go on sale thirty days ahead: every morning at 9 am, a single date opens, for more than seven million visitors a year. Two rules add to the surprise:

• Tickets are named. Every visitor shows the passport or ID card matching the name on the ticket, children included. Since May 2026 the name on an official ticket can only be changed once, no later than seven days before the visit, and only for specific reasons: resale between individuals no longer exists.
• Your stay is limited. A standard ticket gives 1 h 15 inside the Colosseum, an arena ticket 1 h 30; after that, you are asked to leave. This is what lets the monument fit so many slots into a day.

How the time slot works, which entrance to use and the order in which to visit the three sites are detailed in our guide to the arena floor and the underground.

Frequently asked questions