Small Group Colosseum Arena Floor Roman Forum and Palatine Hill

Rome, Italy

From $87.25

Select Date and Travelers

-You will not receive a refund if you cancel.

2 hours 30 minutes
Offered in: English

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Overview

For visitors with a packed itinerary, this 1-hour Colosseum tour is a popular and convenient choice. Enjoy priority access with a pre-reserved skip-the-line admission ticket, which allows you to breeze past notoriously long entrance queues that can be up to hours long. Once inside, your guide provides a wealth of little-known fact and anecdotes about the gory games that once took place in the Colosseum's arena.

Discover the best of the Colosseum on an express tour
Avoid long queues with a skip-the-line admission ticket
Learn about the history of the ancient Roman monument
Perfect for visitors who are short on time in the Eternal City

What's Included

Professional Licensed tour guide
Headsets
Entrance Fees

Food and drinks
Gratuities

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting point

Santi Cosma e Damiano
Via dei Fori Imperiali, 1, 00186 Roma RM, Italy
Meet in front of the Basilica San Cosma and Damiano. Look for tour greeters in red Show Me Italy jackets/shirts. They will be waiting next to the large red pillar just in front of the church on the Via dei Fori Imperiali.

End point

Piazza del Colosseo, 00184 Roma RM, Italy

What To Expect

Colosseum

1 hour • Admission Ticket Included

Roman Forum

45 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

Palatine Hill

45 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Not wheelchair accessible
Stroller accessible
Service animals allowed
Near public transportation
Most travelers can participate
The names provided at the time of the booking cannot be changed.
Please provide the full names of all travelers when booking. Failure to present a voucher with all travelers' full names at the ticket office prior to entry may result in denied entry to the Colosseum and Roman Forum.

The meeting time is subject to change. In this case, you will be contacted in advance via email
Tours will run rain or shine (unless the monument is closed by the officials for safety reasons)
There are mandatory security checks at all entry points to the sites. The wait time for the security check can be considerable during peak times/seasons and has nothing to do with the ticket line
Toilets are limited, use the toilet before arriving for the tour. (Breaks made when possible)
No weapons (pocket knives), glass bottles or large backpacks
Refunds will not be provided for no-shows or late arrivals. If you are late to the meeting point, you will not be able to join your tour.
Each traveler must present a valid passport or ID document that matches the name provided at the time of booking for successful entry to the Colosseum and Roman Forum.
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 25 travelers

Cancellation Policy

This experience is non-refundable and cannot be changed for any reason. If you cancel or ask for an amendment, the amount you paid will not be refunded.

Traveler Photos

Reviews

4.5

170 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travelers.

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Showing 1-10 of 170 reviews

Great Roman experience

Jamie_S, Mar 2024

Our guide Humi was amazing. Her knowledge, enthusiasm and creativity was amazing. Hands down the best guide we have ever had. The tour was well worth it and so much better than waiting in the lines to enter the attractions

Gladiator entrance - an awesome experience

Janice_B, Oct 2023

Our guide, Barbara, led our group of 20 through the Forum, Palantine Hill with a clear explanation of its history and significance. Best was entering the colosseum through the gladiator entrance Our group of seven felt this was a highlight of our time in Rome.

Lorenzo

Carole_K, Sep 2023

Lorenzo was FABULOUS!! So much information! A perfect day!! Liked the small group experience we could easily locate our guide also.

Total dissatisfaction

Margaret_M, Sep 2023

On September 20, 2023 myself and seven (6) fellow high school classmates were to visit the “Colosseum” in Rome, Italy as part of a prepaid tour. Traveling from Detroit, Michigan, for the group of seventy-five (75) aged people it was to be one of the highlights of our European experience. Following is a detailed explanation of what happened on that morning. 9:00 a.m. Arrangements were made with the Best Western front desk to have a taxi for six (6)) members of our group. Another member left earlier to find the tour meeting location for the taxi driver. 9:45 a.m. After several failed attempts to get a taxi we were advised to begin walking the one(1) trip to the Colosseum. Needless to say it was a challenging walk. 10:22 a.m. We were in contact with the member who was standing with the tour guide relaying instructions on how to get to the meeting location. 10:31 a.m. We made visible contact with our advance group member as the scheduled tour group departed. 10:33. No option to catch up with tour group. No alternative but to accept admission denial. After checking with other tour representatives, we could have purchased a tour at double the price and leaving in 2/3 hours. We chose to tour the “Forum” instead and accepted the outcome. As we discussed the day’s events at dinner it was a combination of incidents that contributed to results. We could have left earlier. We could have waited and bought another tour at scalpers prices. We could have gone to the 2 hour wait line for general admission. We did not. As I stated earlier, we are seventy five (75). At our age, one excursion per day is the limit, especially if walking an average of 5 miles/day. The Forum tour provided the day’s challenge. Additionally, this trip was planned months ago with specific details and destinations. The purpose of this letter is to request a refund of $700 for the unused tour on September 20,2023. We accept responsibility for being late, but two (2) minutes late? There wqwere no company resources available to help secure another tour, only scalpers. We have traveled to other cities and any tour that I have scheduled will not leave until everyone is accounted for.

Grey tour!

Elizabeth_L, Sep 2023

Magda was great, it was very informative tour! Check in with the group was pretty easy and everything went as expected!

Incredible to see such history and learn the details as you tour the areas .

Jennifer_J, Sep 2023

Our guide was very informative and enthusiastic. Defiantly worth the money as you learn so much valuable content as you tour each area . Simply incredible experience

Great tour but crowds build quickly

AMY_R, Sep 2023

Easy to find meeting place but a bit hectic to start with as there are several groups being organised at once and your given a coloured sticker and told a direction to go wait in. The tour itself was good and our guide was great about making sure we kept to the shade when we stopped and making sure we had opportunities to take photos and bathroom/water breaks - plus he had a book he would bring out to show and explain to us the things he was talk about which was helpful. Our guide gave us lots of great historical info and was happy to answer questions and explain things as a local. The ending at the coliseum itself felt a bit sudden - thought the tour would continue up the stairs - but I feel that might be due to crowds and he was great about giving us recommendations of places to eat nearby and best times to visit attractions to avoid this, plus things to look out for around the coliseum if we wanted to continue looking around. Palatine Hill was one of my favourite parts of the tour and the Coliseum felt like the weakest - the crowds were just too much and it was hard for even the guide to work around other guided groups to try and explain things.

Great tour! Would definitely recommend!

Hannah_R, Aug 2023

Great tour! It was really amazing to see everything and hear about it as told through the lens of a Roman local. I appreciate the views of our guide Rosa, she was extremely knowledgeable and seemed to enjoy her job and stayed enthusiastic and engaged. It kept me engaged the entire time. I traveled with my family of four and we were all into it the whole time despite the heat :) she did a good job always thinking of the group and looking for shady spots too. She seemed to know so much about the various structures and history within the forum, the one thing there kind of surprised me was that she did not speak at all on the Arch of Titus— while I understand the history on it she did just go right past it without even mentioning it and I was shocked!!! So I included pictures here on my review for others to enjoy. I wish she’d spent time discussing it because of its importance to historical events and significance.

Spectacular Look into the Past

Abbie_D, Aug 2023

Our tour guide, Benjamin, was fun and informative. He packed the tour with interesting stories and anecdotes. It’s a spectacular place to see and definitely worth a skip the line tour because the line was atrocious.

Great walking tour

David_S, Aug 2023

Very knowledgeable tour guide. Very active tour, covers everything you want to see. Be ready to walk

Excellent service

lisah_n, Jul 2023

The attentive and enthusiastic from the tour guide. The tour guide is very caring and paid extra attention on us as we are travelling with young kids.

Detailed description of Colosseum

Eddie_A, Jul 2023

Wonderful experience with detailed descriptions of all different aspects of the colosseum. The tour guide did his best to keep us in the shade to avoid the heat when possible.

Take a tour

Dayona_D, Jul 2023

Our tour guide Scott was awesome. His knowledge of the places we saw was great, but his knowledge of the history of the Rome made the tour exceptional. I would highly recommend.

Worthwhile tour

Keri_S, Jul 2023

Given the large number of people at these sites and there heat on the day of our visit, our guide did a nice job of accommodating our group’s needs and providing information regarding what we were seeing. Very helpful to have information as you go!

Day walking as gladiator!

William_S, Jul 2023

Great day at Colosseum and Roman Forum! Take the morning tour- it will still be crowded but not quite as hot. The tour guide was awesome- very knowledgeable and full of tidbits about history of ancient Rome. Lots of walking and fighting the mass of people but worth it to see such a fascinating place.

Our guide was excellent! Great tour!

Karen_D, Jul 2023

Humi (I think that was her name) was excellent! Full of interesting historical information! She showed us pictures of what the Colosseum used to look like. Took us to the best pictorial spots and found shade as it was extremely hot. We had a small group which was nice. She was entertaining and answered all of our questions. We learned a lot about the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Forum that day. I would highly recommend this tour!

Amazing experience….

Opalyn_S, Jul 2023

Our tour person, Silvia, is very knowledgeable, accommodating and super nice. She makes sure to give us water and bathroom brakes and always ensuring that she has everybody before we move to the next stop. We started at Roman Forum then Pallatine hill and then Colosseum. We were 15min late at our meeting point but thank God our tour got moved 30min longer (eventhough I didnt get notification about it, it worked on our favor). Highly recommend this tour especially our tour person.

Fantastic Tour

Karin_U, Jun 2023

We loved this tour! Great guide. Very interesting. Would recommend to anyone. Best tour we did in Rome.

A comprehensive tour but disorganized

Luis_M, May 2023

Despite the torrential rain, our guide gave us a comprehensive tour of the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. He was very knowledgable as well. However, the tour operator and the guide were quite disorganized. We lost a lot of time waiting for late-comers to arrive. The guide was expecting 2 late-comers but 4 arrived and that led to further delays to sort out the entry passes. A large number of participants in the tour were inconvenienced due to this and it was raining as well. We ended the tour on time which meant that the guide skipped explaining some monuments because of the long delays at the start

Very enjoyable and informative

Vedia_J, May 2023

Our guide was incredible. Knowledgeable, friendly and responsive. I had been looking forward most to the colosseum, but was surprised at how much I also enjoyed the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. He really made the history come alive.

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