Walk the Arena Floor: The Colosseum via the Gladiator’s Gate
Recommended by 90% of travelers
Rome, Italy
- 2 hours 30 minutes (approx.)
- Offered in: English
Explore our promoted experiences
Overview
Not everyone who visits the Colosseum visits the arena floor—the heart of ancient gladiatorial battles. On this guided tour, which includes admission tickets, see areas of this arena that are restricted to visitors. Move to the Roman Forum, where you’ll see the remains of Rome’s millennia-old temples and official buildings, before concluding with panoramic views at Palatine Hill.
- Choose from multiple tour timings to fit your schedule
- Learn about daily life in ancient Rome from your guide
- See highlights of the sprawling Roman Forum ruins
- Experience three iconic ancient sites in just a few hours
What's Included
- Licensed English-speaking tour guide
- Entrance at the Colosseum (valued at €18 per person) and reservation fee (valued at €2 per person)
- Please note: Colosseum fees as above. The remaining cost of the experience covers other services.
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
- Gratuities
Meeting and Pickup
Meeting point
- Arch of ConstantineP.za del Colosseo, 00184 Roma RM, Italy
Meet 15 minutes before, at the Arch of Constantine. There will be a representative holding an ItaliaTours sign. No refunds will be given for late arrivals or failure to show. An official form of ID will be required to enter the Colosseum.
End point
- Roman Forum00186 Rome, Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, Italy
Tour concludes in the Roman Forum archaeological area.
Itinerary
1
Colosseum
45 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
2
Roman Forum
55 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Near public transportation
- Infant seats available
- Most travelers can participate
- The ground in the Roman Forum is composed of large stone or dirt pathways that can be difficult to navigate with strollers or wheelchairs. Contact us to determine the best way to visit Ancient Rome with small children or guests confined to wheelchairs
- Due to the route covered and/or transportation used, it is not possible to participate in this tour using a wheelchair, scooter, or other aid. Please contact us to inquire about customized tour options for guests with mobility challenges
- Wear comfortable shoes for walking, a hat, sunblock and water during summer months
- Only small bags or purses are allowed in the Colosseum. No large bags or weapons allowed, and there is no cloakroom available
- 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.
- Please note: This description is provided as a general example. Actual experiences may vary slightly depending on the season, local conditions, and other factors beyond our control
- Please note that essential travel documents and final itinerary details might be delivered electronically closer to the activity date.
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 20 travelers
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Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 3 days in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Reviews
4.6
based on 148 reviews
Lesa_S, Apr 2026
Nadya was a fabulous guide. She was passionate about her work and extremely informative. Friends had taken similar tours and were disappointed so my expectations were low. Happy to say we had a fantastic experience and would highly recommend Nadya hands down.
Ashli_B, Apr 2026
We were silly and didn't give ourselves enough of a buffer to travel from our AirBnB and find our guide before the start of the tour. However! We were able to get an immediate response from the company through WhatsApp and meet up with our guide inside the Colosseum and he went out of his way to catch us up and we felt like we didn't miss much at all. They were very accommodating and helpful in getting us where we needed to go and making sure we were able to still make the most of our tour. The meeting point is a large and busy landmark, so do be sure to arrive plenty early as the instructions suggest. We had a great time!
Mark_T, Apr 2026
An excellent tour, great to have combined it with the Roman Forum, even better if we could also have done below the Arena floor.
Jon_R, Mar 2026
Great English speaking guide, very informative and small group size. Went at a good pace with plenty of opportunity for breaks if needed
Stacey_V, Oct 2025
We had an amazing tour of the Colosseum arena floor, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill with Parla! She was so knowledgeable, engaging, and friendly — we learned so much and truly enjoyed every minute. It was incredible to experience the Colosseum from the ground level. Highly recommend this tour to anyone visiting Rome!
Lorri_N, Jul 2025
Clara our guide was amazing! So knowledgeable and she made it fun! My teenagers even loved it! The Colosseum was a site to see!
Kristin_V, Apr 2025
Wonderful experience, after just arriving in Rome to be swept into the care of Maria our fabulous tour guide, who gave us an engaging and personalized tour of the Coliseum and Forum area. Perfect way to kick off our sightseeing.
Julie_D, Mar 2025
Paola was an amazing guide - tons of great knowledge and made the entire tour fun for the whole family!! Definitely recommend for the small group size and ability to skip the lines!
Sherry_A, Jun 2024
We really enjoyed our tour of both the Colosseum and Forum. The guide was very knowledgeable and personable. It was a great experience and we would definitely recommend it!!
Rudy_K, Jun 2024
I very much enjoyed the tour. Nadia our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and made every effort to give us as much information as possible. I would highly recommend her to anybody wanting to experience the coliseum and the forum.
April_J, Jun 2024
Our guide was FANTASTIC best guide we had in all of Rome. If you are going to do a tour of the Colosseum choose this one she was so knowledgeable and funny. And she was soooo easy to understand and hear which is way more than I can day of other tours!
Russell_E, Jun 2024
We had a very knowledgeable tour guide which really enhanced the whole experience. The history and background is so difficult to sum up in such a short excursion but our guide really made everything so clear and brought it to life for us.
Sahiti_K, Aug 2023
do it on your own and save the money such a waste, there's information everywhere that explains things to you.
Response from Host, Oct 2023
Dear Sahiti,
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback about your recent tour with us. We are sorry to hear that you were disappointed with your experience. Although we do offer several options for self guided tours, including those with audio guides, we hope that you will consider booking with us again in the future.
Wishing you the best.
Jodi B, Aug 2019
When in Rome Tour lead by our guide Aurora was the best tour booked in our three days in Rome. The day of our tour was exceptionally hot but that didn’t stop our guide Aurora in making it historically accurate in detail through its history and somehow found all the shady spots for a rest throughout. Her love of history and architecture was clearly present so it was a joy to spend the three hours with her and this historically significant sight.
Response from Host, Aug 2019
Hi Jodi,
Thank you for booking with us, we really appreciate your comments about Aurora and our Colosseum & Gladiator Gate tour.
We hope you return to Rome again in the not-too-distant future.
When In Rome Tours
Nick A, Aug 2019
I have two young sons and our guide Aurora was entertaining and highly
informative over our long visit. Thanks!
Roy_G, Jul 2019
our tour guide was born in Rome and lived in Rome all of her life. while 2h is not enough time to cover the Roman Forum and Colosseum history, she did an incredible job and left knowing more than when I started. The lines were extremely long and it was so nice to bypass it and go right into the colosseum!
Joshua_P, Jun 2019
Great tour led by Robert from Ireland. Very knowledgeable and perfect amount of detail in the Forum. Nice way to cover the important parts and keep the kids attention. Colosseum interesting as well and skipping line was worth it.
Irina_H, Jun 2019
The guide was lovely. The tour, however, is not what you are buying. The bait and switch is clearly a standard operation for them because they even go as far as including this switch in their legal language. There is no gladiator gate access with them. They will claim it wasn't available that day and refund you 5 euros. Meanwhile you will be watching all the other tourists having complete and total access to the arena floor and the gladiator gate. What you will get is the very basic access to the general public areas of the colosseum. The 5 euro refund is an insult. They lied to us, wasted our time, and gave us back 5 euros. In the meantime, we never got the chance to see areas of the colosseum we dreamed of seeing and there is no more time left on our trip to book with someone else. And like salt added to the wound they lie right to your face claiming there was no access this day while you are watching other groups walk out onto the arena below you. Huge disappointment with this tour. They should be ashamed of this. Save yourself 25 euros and get a different basic tour with anyone else, because this is what this tour is, general basic public access tour with skip the line, and absolutely nothing else.
Response from Host, Jun 2019
Dear Eerinka,
We are very sorry that your Colosseum tour didn't measure up to your expectations. While part of what you said is true, in that our tour did not obtain access to the gladiator gate and arena floor, I do feel it important to point out a few details.
Over the past few months, tickets which were once widely available for tour operators are suddenly and mysteriously "sold out" within seconds of the opening of sales. It has led to a problematic situation with many of the tour operators of Rome, leading to a class action suit demanding fairer distribution of tour operator access tickets.
We do wish to assure you that we did not achieve 5 star status with more than 3500 reviews by trying to deceive or scam our clients. We are working round the clock to correct the errors in this tour so that no future clients will feel they did not get what they paid for. Our tour descriptions have already been updated to reflect this.
The difference between the standard skip the line entrance and the arena floor entrance is that of exactly 2 Euro per ticket. For this reason, we felt that 5 Euro per person compensation would be fair. We are sorry if you do not agree.
Jane_C, Jun 2019
I took my 16 year old son and we had the best part of our trip to Rome as the Guide was so knowledgeable. Her passion, expertise and ability to look after us all when the weather was so hot was superb. THANK YOU 😊
Carolyn_B, May 2019
Our guide Eleanor was excellent. She was knowledgeable, interesting and interested. She even brought along a booklet to show us pictures of the way certain parts of the Colosseum looked in it’s hey day. Eleanor graciously took our photograph and then encouraged us to kiss for the next one. Of course that is the photograph we treasure! Two thumbs up!!
Alexis_L, Mar 2019
We had Frank “the Irish guy” and he was wonderful! He made the tour interesting for all ages and kept a good pace. Highly recommended!
ANA MARIA M, Oct 2017
One of the better tour guides on our tours. New her history and was enthusiastic. Smelled horribly. Needs to use deodorant in the hot weather.
jabry5, Oct 2017
Great way to see two of Rome's highlights without having to commit to an all-day tour. Our tour guide was one of our favorites on our entire European trip. Highly recommend.
Megan M, Oct 2017
Excellent tour and enthusiastic guide. Highly recommended
Sharon_L, Sep 2017
Having visited the Coliseum on my own in the past, this tour was far more enjoyable with our knowledgeable guide. I also enjoyed the forum with our guide. He was also informative about useful tips about getting around Rome and places to go.
Hershko, Aug 2017
We had Julian as our tour guide. I will agree that it was one of the hottest days for a tour that was were expos outside. I thought the tour was adequate. A good overview of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.
David C, Aug 2017
Our guide was friendly and knowledgeable about the Colosseum. However, I am only giving the tour 3 stars, because the Roman Forum portion of the tour was very brief and more limited in information. Information was shared near the entry to the forum, and just inside the entry, but that was it. Our guide then told us that was the end of the tour and that we could continue to explore on our own. The tour only physically encompassed a fraction of the acreage of the forum, such that we had to speculate on most of what we were seeing. And a word of warning for anyone who can't hold it for a long time the tour was almost 4 hours long, and there are evidently no public restrooms along the route. When I asked our guide 3 hours into the tour if there would be an opportunity for a restroom break, she seemed surprised and a little annoyed and said, it's only a 4-hour tour, so we don't plan for that, why? Is it an emergency? It was said with a smile, but came across a little condescending. We eventually found a small public restroom on our own inside the forum after the tour ended.
dede.ramsey, Jul 2017
We took a small group tour in our tour guide was outstanding. She was knowledgeable and had a deep knowledge of the Roman history.
Ameeta M, Jun 2017
The tour was amazing. it was a small group in the afternoon and our guide sorry I forgot her name was amazing. She was so knowledgeable and all in all an excellent tour. highly recommend it.
Patrice_P, May 2017
This was the best way to view the Colosseum and the Roman Forum! I have visited before and had to contend with the really long lines and not enough historical information. We were in a small group with no wait time for entry. The guide was a historian and knew his subject well. Every one of our questions was answered thoroughly. It was a much better experience this time and we learned a lot.
I would definitely book a Viator tour the next time I travel.
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