Colosseum Arena Floor, Roman Forum & Palatine Hill Guided Tour
Rome, Italy
- 2 hours 30 minutes (approx.)
- Offered in: English
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Overview
Many travelers head to the Colosseum, but few are lucky enough to stand in the same spot where gladiators once fought. With this self-guided, special-access experience, walk on the Arena Floor while an audio guide gives you insight into the history of the amphitheater. Round out the experience by joining a live guide to explore the nearby Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.
- See the Colosseum from a unique perspective on the Arena Floor
- Audio guide provides context you'd otherwise miss out on
- Explore at your own pace, then join a live guide at two more locations
- Prebooking your visit guarantees your access to the popular attraction
What's Included
- Professional Licensed Tour Guide for Roman Forum and Palatine Hill (if option selected)
- Colosseum Entrance with Audio Guide
- Entrance Fees
- Colosseum entrance ticket with arena access (valued at €24 per person)
- Colosseum reservation fee (valued at €2 per person)
- Please note: Colosseum fees as above. The remaining cost of the experience covers other services.
- Food and drinks
- Gratuities
Meeting and Pickup
Meeting point
- Basilica of Saints Cosmas and DamianVia 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 ColosseoP.za del Colosseo, 00184 Roma RM, Italy
Itinerary
1
Roman Forum
45 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
2
Palatine Hill
45 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
3
Colosseum
1 hour • 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.
- The itinerary may vary, the tour may start at either the Colosseum or the Roman Forum.
- Audio Guide Option (if selected): Please ensure each traveler brings their own device and headphones.
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 25 travelers
Supplied by
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 3 days in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Reviews
3.9
based on 546 reviews
Sort by: Most insightful
Our guide told us our tickets were a misprint and told us to just go to the line , no guide no info so we wen to the collessum and don’t even get to see palatine hill or the forum , what a mess
It says Roman Forum and Palantine Hill will be guided tour and after booking, they said its not guided and just audio tour. So be aware from this tour company
The sites the amazing. Absolutely stunning. The guide about 30 minutes late and their added information added some value but lacked depth of conversation and inclusion. She didn’t allow for any stops for water on a hot day.
Response from Host, Sep 2026
Thank you for your feedback. I’m delighted to hear you found the sites absolutely stunning. I’m very sorry, however, that the guide’s late arrival and the lack of water stops affected your experience, and that the conversation didn’t feel as engaging or inclusive as it should have. We truly appreciate your honesty and will share your comments with the team to help us improve.
We had a really good experience on this tour. Our guide was excellent, spoke very good English, and covered interesting and relevant topics without belaboring the points. The tour was informative, engaging, and the length was perfect.
We were disappointed that the underground portion of the tour was cancelled, as we had been looking forward to seeing it. That said, the rest of the experience was very well done and we thoroughly enjoyed the tour. I would definitely recommend it.
Response from Host, Aug 2026
Thank you for your detailed feedback! We’re delighted you enjoyed the tour and appreciated our guide’s knowledge and engaging approach. We’re sorry the underground portion was cancelled and understand your disappointment. We truly appreciate your recommendation and hope to welcome you again!
They literally scammed me, I was under the impression that it was a GUIDED tour but it was a self guided tour, and the guy I approached wasn’t very friendly about that news either, like it was my fault you guys falsely advertised? Other than that I did NOT use the audio guide cause it required me to download this weird link. The forum is lovely and so is the Colosseum, I recommend going to an ACTUAL guided tour with a seperate company.
Long, slow and boring
Guide moved like a sloth and had very unpleasant body odor. It was difficult to be around her.
I took my 13 year old and originally paid for skip the line tour with guide. My tour was amended less than 24 hours prior to start for self guided walk and audio with my own headset. We didn’t have any way to use the audio as we didn’t have self provided headsets and we were lost most of the tour and had to wait in line. I could have paid substantially less and bought tickets at the entrance for the same experience.
We have used Viator for many of our travel tours. This has been the worst! ZERO stars. Went to meeting point only to have a manager have to set us up as we signed up for self guide. Then were told to download the guide. Extremely hard to follow. Would have been great to have directions on where to start. If you paused it started over. All 3 of us ending up NOT using app. We surely missed so much information about the history, the times , etc. what a disaster and disappointment. Who do I contact for a refund!
I enjoyed this. The meeting details are accurate and a huge thank you to the young man who helped me get tickets in WhatsApp. I don’t use them at app often so I wasn’t familiar
Response from Host, Aug 2026
Thank you for your lovely feedback! We’re so glad you had a positive experience and found our support helpful. We truly appreciate your kind words and hope to welcome you again soon!
It was a fabulous experience!! They will let you in right at your time and up to 15 minutes before your scheduled time but not before. Because the line was long we took the opportunity to go to the Roman Forum and Pallanyine Hill first thing the next morning since you can go the day before or the day after your Coluseum booking.
Response from Host, Aug 2026
Thank you so much for your wonderful feedback! We’re delighted to hear that you had a fabulous experience and appreciate you sharing it with us. We hope to welcome you again on your next visit to Rome!
Was a great experienced at the colosseum in Roma I recommended to anyone want to live a unforgivers experienced, the only downside was the heat try to avoid summer is very very hot, but was good.
Response from Host, Aug 2026
Thank you so much for your wonderful feedback! We’re thrilled to hear you had a great experience at the Colosseum and truly appreciate your recommendation. We hope to welcome you again for another unforgettable experience in Rome!
The local tour operators like 'Show me Italy' buy up all of the official tickets then slap additional fees on top of them, meaning you have no choice to but to buy from them at the higher price. The tour operator adds absolutely no extra value, other than wasting your time by saying we have to meet them down the road, line up up for for ages until we could speak to them, only to then say we have to go line up at the Colosseum and we're on our own, which made us late to getting in. Take note that if you do not have an in-person Guided tour, then just go straight to the Colosseum, don't waste your time meeting them first as its pointless.
Anyway, we got to see the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and the Roman forum which is what we came for and it was all very interesting, so we can tick that off the bucket list now.
Response from Host, Aug 2026
Thank you so much for your review! We’re delighted to hear that you enjoyed visiting the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and Roman Forum and that the experience helped you check these incredible landmarks off your bucket list. We’re glad you found it all so interesting and hope you’ll leave Rome with many wonderful memories!
Great self guided tour, amazing landmark to visit. Very hot in this weather but fascinating to learn about the history.
Response from Host, Aug 2026
Great self-guided tour and an amazing landmark to visit! It was very hot in this weather, but the experience was fascinating. I really enjoyed learning about the history and exploring the site at my own pace.
Just note, they will send you tickets a day before which is nice so we don’t need to meet up. However the audio guide hardly worked and was glitched all the time there. We gave up. The time on the ticket for us was 2:15 min after the time we booked. The operator said we needed to go to the other sites first.. which we didn’t want to do. We were pretty organized and really needed the early arrival time. They were not flexible so it put a damper on the whole thing
Response from Host, Aug 2026
Thank you for sharing your feedback. We’re sorry to hear that your experience did not fully meet your expectations. We truly appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts, and we’ll keep your feedback in mind as we continue working to improve our service. We hope to have the opportunity to welcome you again in the future.
Our first Colloseum tour booked through Viator was cancelled, which put us in a panic but we trusted the customer service representative helping us to find a new comparable option. The day of the tour we had to walk a decent distance away from the Colloseum entrance to find the tour “guide” who was not easily identifiable among all the other groups. The “guide” only gave us the tickets electronically as well as a link to the audio (no headphones). We did not realize our tickets would need to be scanned multiple times throughout the tour and they would not load again after the Colloseum for the Roman Floor and Palatibe Hill (after waiting a significant time in the heat). The “guide” would not respond to my messages so we were unable to finish 2/3 of our tour we paid for. Also, Viator’s reply to my complaint and refund request was clearly automated (received the same response twice) stating that after “thorough” review the operator would not honor the refund request. We will never use Viator again.
My name was misspelled on my ticket, and they refused to reissue it or provide a refund because of their time-based ticket policy. I asked them to resend the ticket with the correct name, but Viator outsources ticketing to a third party, which made the process even more frustrating.
In the end, I had to purchase a separate general admission ticket just to get in. Customer support was unfriendly and unhelpful. They didn’t answer my calls until my fifth attempt, and no one responded through the app’s chat feature. As a result, I had to wait in line a second time. Overall, it was a very disappointing customer service experience.
The 3rd party company that Viator used changed the entrance time I reserved to the colosseum without notification. This was not acceptable and we were not to enter and tour the colosseum. Not recommended to use Viator again. Use the direct colosseum website to get your tour tickets.
This was a great tour. We got to see the Roman form, Palestine Hill, and the Colosseum. I would highly recommend this tour.
Response from Host, Aug 2026
This was a great tour. We got to see the Roman form, Palestine Hill, and the Colosseum. I would highly recommend this tour.
Scammed again by another tour group on Viator stating there was a guide and no guide provided. Be very careful with what you’re buying and read the fine print below the fine print.
They gave me a ticket for two hours after my booking. Instead of offering any apology or refund, they told me I could go ahead and visit the hill and the forum first. This completely ruined my experience. I had booked these tickets specifically so I could have an early start at The Colosseum and then take my time at the hill and the forum as those are larger areas to cover, what I was most interested in, and had no entrance or exit time. I ended up going to the hill and forum first so I didn’t waste the time I had allocated for this experience, but between figuring out the issue with my tickets, waiting in the long line, and needing to leave in time for my designated I only had about an hour in the forum and couldn’t make my way to hill.
The information in the guide is fine, but the colosseum guide does not follow the actual one way path you are required to take, so you have to be on your phone a lot to make sure you are listening to the right thing. The forum guide has not been updated with certain paths closed, so you cannot follow the path it tells you to take. The maps and pictures are not very helpful in navigation. (Which probably also didn’t help my time crunch in there). The information for each feature is in a strange order. A lot of times the direction to the feature comes after the information for it. Which again makes navigation more confusing.
You’re much better off booking yourself.
I purchased an english guided tour at 10am. What I got was a regular ticket at 12:15pm with no guide. I waited in the hot sun with my kids. It was painful. How dare you give me a false time and false service. Where was my guide I purchased!?!?!!!
Somewhat misleading on ticket. We were signed up for a self guided audio tour for 12pm and when we checked to find out where we would enter…found out that entry for the forum and palentine hill began at 12pm…but couldn’t get into the colosseum until 2pm! It was really hot, so forum (though very interesting and amazing) was almost unbearable in the heat! The colosseum, however, was a CAN’T MISS attraction!!
Response from Host, Aug 2026
Thank you for sharing your feedback! We’re glad to hear that you enjoyed the experience and especially loved the Colosseum. We truly appreciate your comments and hope to welcome you again for another memorable visit to Rome!
We liked the tour very much. It was a very interesting place to visit. Two things I would say; too crowded, and there weren't enough places to get a refreshment. It was a very hot day and not really any cooling-down areas.
Response from Host, Aug 2026
It’s wonderful to know that you enjoyed your visit and found the tour interesting! Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us. Your feedback is greatly appreciated, and we’d be delighted to have you with us again on your next trip to Rome.
Our tour guide was Magda. She was a great guide, caring that we had water and shade. She was so well informed and easy to listen, and did not rush us. We enjoyed all her history knowledge. She deserves a raise.
A literal volcano eruption canceled our flight to Rome, and this company still wouldn’t refund us. Not only that, but they lied and sent us an email saying they couldn’t come in with us because the Italian government had banned guides coming in. A simple Google search revealed that that wasn’t true, and that it was only unauthorized tour companies that aren’t allowed in. Turns out they are NOT on the list of accredited companies to conduct tours. Do NOT book with them.
The Collesseum is fantastic, BUT...
I thought I'd booked a 09:00 entrance, turns out my entrance was at 11:00 as the audio takes you round the forum first, WELL, that's if you get the audio!
The digital tickets say that you don't need any further tickets, but you have to go find a 3rd party ticket office who just tells you to wait under a tree so they can email Viator to validate your tickets.
We then waited over an hour to gain access to the audio guide. When I finally got the email for the guide, the link opened a link for "Rebecca". Now, I'm sure she's lovely, but Rebecca had used her link on May 31st, and as it's a single use link, this did nothing for me! So, I contacted Viator and waited a further 30 mins to finally get the audio link for my group, however, nobody I shared it to could download as there was no WiFi. Having access to the audio earlier would have meant my kids and parents could have downloaded it, but no, we still haven't listened to it, waste of time, should have just got tickets on the day, such a faff.
I'd booked 9am as it gets so hot, however, we ended up in there at the hottest time of day after sitting around doing nothing for a few hours waiting for the audio and feeling a bit lost.
Still haven't seen the forum as we were all too hot and fed up by the time we managed to access the collesseum.
Save your money, buy tickets from the site, this was a total pain in my backside!
Our tour time was changed and when we got there, it was one guy trying to check in 50 people. He nor anyone else had a clue what was going on. They ended up sending us to look at the coliseum on our own with now guide. Told us to come back to that point after we were done. When we got back they put us with a random groups and guide(she did a splendid job) afterwards that group got to go to the coliseum with an actual guide and we were told we were done. It was a little disappointing. We had also booked hop on/off bus in London but waited 45 minutes and bus never came so we switched to a different company.
Basically, this is just a huge overcharge for you to be able to access the Colosseum. Unfortunately, I don’t know of another way to gain entrance into the Colosseum. The tickets open 30 days prior and they’re sold out within minutes. There was absolutely no tour included with this. The ticket link came via WhatsApp. So if you’re not familiar with that app, you should get it. Additionally, it was not easy to figure out where any audio guide was. So we downloaded the free audio guide in the Colosseum once we got in. There were no instructions on how to get a guided tour to the Forum or the Palatine Hill. We basically waited around to meet a guide who told us that we could just go to the Colosseum and we were on our own.
This tour says it comes with arena floor access, but the tickets I was provided did not come with this access. I specifically booked this tour over others because of this access, and my kids were really excited about it. They were heartbroken when we found out that we showed up and found out we were given the incorrect tickets. But that wasn’t the worst part. I called twice, messaged via the Viator app and the WhatsApp communication, and sent an email. None of these forms of communication have been met with an answer. I feel that this was a complete bait and switch and I want to make sure others are aware so they don’t suffer any disappointment.
I didn't receive my tickets electronically. I had to wait over 45 minutes for the staff to print them manually so we missed our start time. We had to speak with the manager to let us in since it was well past our start time.
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Colosseum Arena Floor, Roman Forum & Palatine Hill Guided Tour
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