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EXPLAINED: How to get tickets for Rome’s Colosseum under new rules

If you’re heading to Italy's biggest tourist attraction, you won’t want to leave home without checking how to buy tickets under an updated system that comes in from Wednesday, October 18th.

Published: 18 October 2023 15:31 CEST
Updated: 21 October 2023 08:23 CEST
EXPLAINED: How to get tickets for Rome's Colosseum under new rules
Visitors and staff at the Colosseum Archaeological Park, which is introducing named tickets from Wednesday to combat touts. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP)

Changes intended to make official tickets for Rome’s Colosseum easier to purchase will come into effect from Wednesday, after Italy’s culture ministry announced the first details of the new system on Monday.

READ ALSO: Rome’s Colosseum introduces named tickets to combat touts

Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri hailed the move as a “positive innovation that we’ve been asking for for some time.”

The changes will “help reduce the phenomenon of ticket scalping, queue-jumping and mass purchases of tickets which manipulate the price,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

If you’re planning to visit any time soon, here’s how you get a ticket.

What’s changing?

The main change is that tickets to the Colosseum are now named. That means you’ll need to show ID with your ticket when you arrive, and you won’t be able to visit without identification that matches your named ticket.

It should also now be easier to get hold of tickets both online and in person, after months of complaints from visitors that tickets were frequently sold out.

Official online ticket sales will now be through the official website only, at www.colosseo.it. They will no longer be sold via the Società Cooperativa Culture (CoopCulture) website, which was previously the official online vendor.

READ ALSO: Italy investigates inflated prices for Colosseum tickets

For in-person sales, a new ticket office has been opened near the Colosseum at Largo della Salara Vecchia in addition to the existing one at Piazza del Colosseo, the culture ministry said.

The number of physical tickets available at ticket offices has been doubled to keep up with demand. 

Individual visitors can also purchase tickets by phone from the official call centre or through the ParcoColosseo app,

Visitors to Rome’s ancient Colosseum have complained of difficulties in getting tickets via official channels throughout 2023. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP)

It’s currently unclear what the best option is for those looking to book group tour tickets, with methods for tour operators to be announced in the next few days, according to the Colosseum’s website.

Cinzia Renzi, President of tour operators’ association Assoviaggi, said that the ticketing system will be difficult for travel agencies to manage, as half of tourism in Rome is organised tourism. 

At present you may need to contact the Colosseum’s management via the official website if you want to book a group tour.

What identification will I need?

Suitable ID to be shown with your ticket on arrival includes:

  • Passport
  • Identity card
  • Driving licence 

Why has this rule been implemented?

The culture ministry said it was bringing in the rules to prevent resellers using automated software to buy up the tickets online and sell them at higher prices elsewhere.

The change comes after Italy’s competition watchdog launched an investigation in July into Società Cooperativa Culture (CoopCulture), as well as the websites Tiqets, Musement, Viator and GetYourGuide, following complaints from visitors who found official tickets were frequently unavailable to purchase.

How much do tickets cost?

A regular 24-hour ticket is currently priced at €16 and allows access to the first and second floors of the Colosseum plus the Roman Forum and Palatine. The reduced fare for the same tickets is €2. Visitors are advised to come 10 minutes before their time slot begins.

Entrance is free on the first Sunday of every month.

What are the opening hours for the rest of the year?

Until October 28th, the opening hours are from 9am – 6.30pm daily with the last entrance being at 5.30pm.

From the October 29th until December 31st, regular opening hours are from 9am – 4.30pm.

The culture ministry confirmed on Monday that special ‘Luna sul Colosseo‘ evening guided tours of the underground rooms would also continue between 6pm and 10pm Tuesday to Saturday until December 31st.

The Colosseum is Italy’s most popular landmark, with a record 2.2 million tourists visiting this summer.

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ROME

Vatican updates guidelines on miracles to avoid ‘confusion among the faithful’

The Vatican updated its rules for supernatural events on Friday, such as visions of Christ or the Virgin Mary, including the acknowledgement that overactive imaginations and outright "lying" risked harming the faithful.

Published: 17 May 2024 16:59 CEST
Vatican updates guidelines on miracles to avoid 'confusion among the faithful'

The new norms, published by the Holy See’s powerful Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and approved by Pope Francis, allow for a more “prudent” interpretation of events that generally avoids declaring them outright a supernatural event.

“In certain circumstances not everything is black or white,” Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, who leads the dicastery, said at a press conference.

“Sometimes a possible divine reaction mixes with… human thoughts and fantasies,” Fernandez added.

The history of the Catholic Church is filled with episodes of strange or unexplained phenomena involving religious statues or other objects, whether in Italy or beyond.

The new guidelines come two months after the Church said that a series of widely reported miracles attributed to a statuette of the Virgin Mary – including making a pizza grow in size – were false.

The rules, which represent the first update since 1978, provide more guidance to bishops who until now have been left relatively free to determine the authenticity of such visions on a case-by-case basis.

Underscoring the complexity of the issue, only six cases of such alleged supernatural events have been “officially resolved” by the Vatican since 1950, with one taking “seventy excruciating years”, the document said.

“Today, we have come to the conviction that such complicated situations, which create confusion among the faithful, should always be avoided,” wrote Fernandez in the document.

Argentinian cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez speaks to the press on February 12, 2024. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP)

The new rules call for more collaboration between the individual dioceses and the Vatican regarding such events. Bishops’ final decisions will be submitted to the dicastery for approval.

That is crucial because “sometimes the discernment may also deal with problems, such as delicts (civil offences), manipulation, damage to the unity of the Church, undue financial gain, and serious doctrinal errors that could cause scandals and undermine the credibility of the Church,” said the document.

They include believers “misled by an event attributed to a divine initiative but is merely the product of someone’s imagination” or those who have an “inclination toward lying”.

In the absence of problems, dioceses will be able to declare a “Nihil Obstat”, indicating there is nothing in the phenomenon contrary to faith and morals.

That falls short of an official declaration of its supernatural authenticity, which is generally to be avoided under the new rules unless the pope authorises it.

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