Colosseum Underground and Dungeons Walking Tour

Rome, Italy

3 hours (approx.)
Group discounts
Offered in: English

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Overview

Discover the secrets of days gone by with an underground and dungeon tour at the Colosseum plus the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. You'll be one of the few lucky people to go beyond restricted areas, which are normally closed off. From cage cells where animals were kept, through the tunnels gladiators used to await their fate in battle, and down onto an ancient elevator platform—take a step back in time as this once thriving arena comes alive before your eyes.

Get special restricted access to the Colosseum's underground and dungeons
See the ruins of the ancient palaces and the palatial royal homes
Walk through the Roman Forum and the Basilica of Maxentius
Explore the beautifully maintained Farnese gardens of the Palatine Hill

What's Included

Entry to the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill
Expert Certified Guide
Headsets for groups when appropriate
Access to the Arena Floor and Underground Areas
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 Drink
Gratuities
Transport to/from meeting point.

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting point

Via dei SS. Quattro, 81, 00184 Roma RM, Italy
Our office will confirm the meeting point for your tour when our tickets are confirmed with the Colosseo Admin prior to the tour date. Please DO NOT go to the Colosseum - the meeting point will be at one of our OFFICE locations.

End point

Piazza del Colosseo
P.za del Colosseo, 00184 Roma RM, Italy

Itinerary

Colosseum

1 hour 30 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

Palatine Hill

45 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

Roman Forum

45 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Not wheelchair accessible
Stroller accessible
Near public transportation

Most travelers can participate
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.
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 15 travelers

Supplied by

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

Gallery picture 1 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 2 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 3 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 4 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 5 (from a traveler's review)

Reviews

4.3

based on 23 reviews

Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor

We perform checks on reviews

Amazing tour provided by an EXCELLENT guide.

Tom_A, Aug 2024

Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable, friendly, funny, and clearly cares about his guests as well as the locations he's giving tours in. They had to refund us the "underground" part of the tour because they couldn't secure those tickets. That was disappointing, but the tour was still amazing.

Response from Host, Aug 2024

Ciao Tom! We are glad to hear that you enjoyed your Colosseum tour with us! Enjoy Rome and safe travels

Excellent, informative, and entertaining tour

Mariah_B, Jun 2024

Learned a lot. Radu was a Great guide, provided lots of interesting and entertaining historical facts about Palatine Hill, the Roman forum, and the Colosseum. Seeing the Colosseum without a tour guide would just have been a 15 minute trip looking at an impressive building, but Radu brought everything to life!

Response from Host, Jun 2024

Thank you for your kind words Mariah! We are so happy to hear that you enjoyed the tour with Radu, he is an amazing guide. Safe travels!

Highly recommend this tour w

Sheila_D, Apr 2024

Demetrio was fantastic. The tour was fantastic. Exceeded my expectations .We were disappointed to miss the underground but the communication and option to correct the issue was too notch.

Response from Host, Apr 2024

Dear Sheila, thank you for the kind words and we are happy to hear that you enjoyed your tour with Dimitri!

Wonderful tour

Sharon_P, Oct 2023

What a great tour. Not only did we get into the basement area of the colosseum, we saw the palaces and forum area. Angela did a great job of bringing the entire area life so that it all made sense. She was very easy to understand, enthusiastic about the stories and a joy to be around.

Response from Host, Oct 2023

Thank you so much Sharon! We are so happy you had an outstanding tour with Angela. Have a wonderful remainder of your holiday in Rome.

Did not see much of the...

Miriam_G, Oct 2023

Did not see much of the forum in 2 hrs spend to much time standing and talking did not see the palatine hill as well would have been better to do this on my own. Only seen a portion of the colluseum.

Response from Host, Oct 2023

Hi Miriam, thank you for your review. We are very sorry that you did not feel as though you had enough time for the forum and palatine hill in your tour. We do our best to get to all 3 sites in the short 2.5-3 hour tour time. Our guides each have their own knowledge and insights to impart on their tours, and do their best to choose the best route for the group dynamic in order to impart their vast knowledge of the area. We will be sure to tell them to continue to make the most of all 3 areas in the limited time they have on tour. We hope you enjoy the rest of your time in Rome.

Disappointed

Kelly_B, Oct 2023

Booked way in advance for what I wanted to see and one week before my tour they cancelled the underground. Missed Palatine Hill which was included due to getting to the coliseum tour portion.

Response from Host, Oct 2023

Ciao Kelly. Like we explained when you first booked, regarding the tickets for the Underground, the Colosseum only inform us of ticket allocation and entrance times a few days, or a week maximum, before the tour start date. This is why we contacted you a week before the tour start time. If you would like more information on how the Colosseum are managing their tickets currently, you're welcome to find any news article about them being under investigation by the Italian government for their ticketing practices. We apologise you missed the Palatine Hill aspect of the tour, again, this was down to the entrance time given to us by the colosseum for the tour we managed to move your booking to. If our group miss their entrance time then no one gets in.

Very Disappointed

Carolyn_B, Sep 2023

Very disappointed. Booked through Viator who booked through Roman Vacations who booked through Show Me Italy. We booked 6 months in advance. A month prior we were contacted by Roman to say they couldn’t get the “underground” portion from the Colosseum. A month later they let us know they got them back. The day before our tour we got a reminder email from “Roman” about the tour with the meeting point and a link to get there. We walked the 20 mins only to find out that they had changed the meeting point and had “supposedly” texted us about it. Now we were late and had to practically run another 20 mins to the other meeting point. We arrived at “Shoe Me Italy “ tours who I guess Roman had booked through. Luckily they left 15 mins late so we made it. One person in our party walked with a cane after a surgery and this extra 40 mins of rushing were not good. As such he had to sit out a lot of the tour. Our first guide for the Forum was great however the second guide for the Colosseum was an archeologist. She was Italian and did speak English however she spoke so fast it was very hard to understand what she was saying with her accent. Also the headsets kept cutting it so we missed a lot. We had taken this underground Colosseum before and had a much better experience and better details.

Response from Host, Sep 2023

Hi Carolyn, I am so sorry to hear you didn't enjoy your tour of the Colosseum Underground. I just wanted to take the time to let you know we have read your review and hope to improve in the future. We hated that the initial reservation request with the Colosseum could not be confirmed with our monthly request, this happens more than we like due to the structure of confirming these very high demand reservations. That said, we didn't want to give up on it and we called in a favor with our wonderful friends and partners at Show Me Italy. We often work with them for these underground requests because 2 heads are always better than 1 when it comes to the Colosseum. They were able to get you into their weekly reservation and we were overjoyed to be able to offer you the tour you originally booked. It is unfortunate that you didn't receive the message changing the meeting point but we are happy you made it to the tour regardless of this. I am sorry to hear it put any undue stress on the member of your party with the cane. In regards to the tour itself and the guides, we try whenever we can to get you to experience tours with the very best guides. In this case you had a forum/ palatine expert as well as an official Colosseum archeologist who is a native to Italy and loves giving tours at Italy's top archeological tourist site. All of these guys are fluent in English and do their best to give the best tours possible. I hope that you enjoy the rest of your visit in Rome.

Excellent exploration of history and archeology

Anonymous, Jul 2023

Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable. and the tour was well-organized. I highly recommend seeing the underground area when visiting the Colosseum.

Response from Host, Jul 2023

Thank you for your review! Glad you enjoyed the tour!

Paid lots for No Tickets

Meylin_G, Jun 2023

This tour was canceled and no one notified us. We were walking to meeting point and I called to verify exact location. That’s when I was informed. We were on a cruise and got off ship before we needed to and paid for a private driver, to make sure we wouldn’t be late. Left our bags at our hotel and rushed to the colosseum. It was QUITE DISAPPOINTING! Note: when you pay this company, they don’t actually have the tickets. They still have to buy them. So they have your money. Then it takes about a week to get it back after you ASK for it. Will see how long it really takes. Luckily, we were able to jump in with a tour guide and get inside. But it wasn’t what we were looking forward to and a huge disappointment because this was supposed to be the exclamation point at the end of our trip with our son.

Response from Host, Jun 2023

Hi Meylin, we are very sorry that you were not notified about the Underground reservation not being confirmed. That was our mistake and we apologize deeply for it. However, you will absolutely get your full refund, it has already been initiated on our end. As for us taking your money without tickets, unfortunately this is due to the format of the ticket reservation system in place with the official Colosseum site. You were notified upon booking that the time if not confirmed. We cannot request a reservation to the Underground without the specific names for the tickets, which means we must offer the product in order to even put in the request. Then, with the demand so high and the supply so low, only a fraction of the reservations are fulfilled by the Colosseum availability. Sometimes we do not know this until a day or two before the tour. That said, we as an agency do not wish to continue operating in this way for our customers, so as of May 24th, we have closed all availability for the Underground product and we are not accepting any future bookings until the Colosseum changes the way the are operating with regard to the Underground ticketing system. We are deeply sorry for the inconvenience to you and your family.

Even though i had booked months ago this tour was cancelled . Tour operators got me a place in the colosseum arena tour

Jillian_L, May 2023

Guide was very knowledgeable however guiide didn’t take this group through the forum ruins and explain this area which was very disappointing

Response from Host, May 2023

Hello Jillian, we are happy to hear that you enjoyed your Colosseum Arena tour, we were also very disappointed with the Colosseum's last minute change to our underground reservation. Hope you enjoyed the rest of your time in Rome.

Much better than I imagined!

Phillip_S, May 2023

Lorenzo the guide and Luca the archeologist were excellent teachers full of excitement, passion, and a wealth of knowledge. We felt as though we had a front row seat to a master class in Roman history. I didn't care about the Coliseum before, but I do now!