In Rome, the Colosseum, the Vatican Museums and the Pantheon each need a ticket with a fixed time slot: €18 for the Colosseum, €25 for the Vatican Museums with online booking, €7 for the Pantheon. As of 6 October 2026, official Colosseum tickets carry a name, go on sale 30 days ahead and can be renamed only once. Arrive more than 15 minutes after your slot and you lose the Colosseum entry, with no refund. Below: what you buy yourself from the museums, when a guided visit is worth its price, and what costs nothing in Rome.
The essentials before you book (as of 6 October 2026)
These are the figures to know before you book:
- €18 for the 24-hour ticket covering the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine; with arena or underground (Full Experience, valid two days), €24.
- €25 for the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel when you book online (€20 plus €5).
- €7 for the Pantheon since 1 July 2026, up from €5.
- 30 days before the visit, sales of Colosseum tickets open; the name can be changed only once, before midnight on the seventh day before the visit.
- 15 minutes before and after the booked time are allowed at the Colosseum; after that, the Colosseum entry is lost.
- €2 to enter the basin of the Trevi Fountain since 2 February 2026; the square stays free.
All figures come from the operators’ own pages, read on 6 October 2026. Prices move: read them as a dated reading, not an offer. To pick where to sleep, see where to stay in Rome.
Colosseum, Forum and Palatine: tickets, prices and rules
The Colosseum Archaeological Park sells its tickets through a single official portal, ticketing.colosseo.it (read on 6 October 2026):
| Ticket | Price | What is included | Validity and duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 hours Colosseum, Forum, Palatine | €18 (€2 for EU citizens aged 18 to 25) | Colosseum (1st and 2nd tiers), Roman Forum, Palatine | 24 hours from first entry; 75 minutes at most inside the Colosseum |
| Only Arena | €18 | 20 minutes on the arena floor only, plus Forum and Palatine | 24 hours |
| Full Experience (arena, underground or attic) | €24 | Colosseum with arena, underground or attic, plus Forum, Palatine and SUPER sites | two consecutive days; 90 minutes at most inside the Colosseum |
The time slot. You enter the Colosseum at the booked time, from 15 minutes before to 15 minutes after. Later than that, the ticket no longer works for the Colosseum but stays valid for one entry to the Forum and Palatine (visitor regulations, art. 7). A mistake in date or time is neither refunded nor exchanged (art. 1).
Name and ID. Every ticket carries a name; at the entrance the original ID is required, otherwise you do not get in and nothing is refunded (art. 3). For visits from 9 May 2026, the name can be changed only once, before midnight on the seventh day before the visit, through a form.
Arena and underground. On the arena floor you stay 20 minutes. The underground is open only to guided groups of 25 people at most, one group every 15 minutes: buy as soon as sales open, 30 days ahead.
Opening hours. Until 24 October 2026 the Colosseum is open from 8:30 to 18:30 (last entry 17:30); from 25 October to the end of February 2027 it closes at 16:30 (last entry 15:30).
Bags. Hand luggage of 30 × 40 × 15 cm at most, no cloakroom. For what a whole stay costs, see the budget for 10 days in Italy.
Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St Peter’s Basilica
The Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel are a single ticket, valid according to the museum only on the day it is issued. Official prices, read on 6 October 2026:
- €20 without and €25 with online booking on the official site tickets.museivaticani.va (€20 plus €5); reduced €10 or €15; free for children under 7.
- Hours: Monday to Saturday 8:00 to 20:00, last entry 18:00; visitors must leave the halls 30 minutes before closing.
- Closed on Sundays, except the last Sunday of the month: 9:00 to 14:00, last entry 12:30, free entry (25 October and 29 November 2026). Other closures in 2026: 1 November, 8, 25 and 26 December.
- Not refundable: “Tickets cannot be refunded”, the museum writes.
Clothing and bags. Sleeveless or low-cut clothing, shorts above the knee, miniskirts and hats are not allowed; backpacks and tripods go to the free cloakroom. In the Sistine Chapel photos are banned and silence is requested.
With a guide. To have the works explained, book a guided visit rather than the plain ticket: browse guided visits in Italy on GetYourGuide. Choose Rome on the Italy page and check whether museum entry is included in the price.
St Peter’s Basilica. The basilica has its own site (basilicasanpietro.va); the dome is open from 7:00 to 18:00 until 25 October 2026. Whether plain entry is free does not appear in the parts we could read: check it there.
Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and Borghese Gallery
Three sights with rules of their own, which changed in 2026 or are strict.
Pantheon. Entry has cost €7 since 1 July 2026 (€5 before); €2 for EU citizens aged 18 to 25; free for under-18s, Rome residents and everyone on the first Sunday of the month. Open 9:00 to 19:00, last individual entry 18:30; sales stop an hour before Mass. Tickets are sold on the Musei italiani site, its app or on site; the slot you choose must be respected.
Trevi Fountain. Since 2 February 2026, access to the basin has cost €2, until 22:00, from 9:00 on Tuesday to Thursday, Saturday and Sunday but only from 11:30 on Monday and Friday (from 14:00 on some Mondays between October and December), first Sunday included; free for residents of Rome and its metropolitan area, young children and people with disabilities. The square around the basin stays free. The rule runs until 31 December 2027, according to the city.
Borghese Gallery. A €2 booking is compulsory for every ticket; entry €16 (last slot €11), €2 for ages 18 to 25. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 180 people per slot, a visit of about two hours; tickets through gebart.it.
What is free in Rome, and what only looks free
- Colosseum, Forum, Palatine: free on the first Sunday of the month (1 November and 6 December 2026) and on 25 April, 2 June and 4 November; always free under 18 (free ticket to book online). Sunday tickets cannot be booked: they are collected on site at the ticket offices, in order of arrival, and are valid only on the day of collection.
- Vatican Museums: the last Sunday of the month, 9:00 to 14:00 (25 October and 29 November 2026).
- Pantheon: the first Sunday of the month.
- Not quite free: the Trevi basin (€2, even on the first Sunday) and the Borghese Gallery (the €2 booking is always compulsory).
At the Colosseum, free means no time slot to book, so you queue in order of arrival (a deduction from the rules, not a measured wait).
When a GetYourGuide tour is worth it, and when the official ticket is enough
The official ticket gets you in. A booked tour also explains what you are looking at and can offer free cancellation: the Colosseum neither refunds nor exchanges, and the Vatican Museums do not refund.
| Offer | What the description says | Free cancellation up to | “From” price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colosseum Main Tiers, Forum & Palatine Guided Tour | Guided tour, small group of at most 20 guests, “reserve now & pay later” | 24 hours before | $72 |
| Guided Tour of Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palatine Hill | Guided tour of the Colosseum, Forum and Palatine | 3 days before | $55 |
| Colosseum, Forum & Palatine Hill Entry & Audio Guide | Entry with audio guide, access through a separate entrance | 3 days before | $37 |
| Colosseum Arena Floor, Palatine & Forum Guided Tour | Guided tour including the arena floor, skip-the-line access | 24 hours before | $70 |
| Roman Forum & Colosseum Options with Digital Guide | Entry with digital guide, several options | 4 days before | $32 |
These prices come from a web search, in US dollars; GetYourGuide’s own pages were blocked for our requests. An offer’s page shows the final price in your currency for your date: rely on that figure, not on our table. Every tour in Rome: browse tours and tickets in Italy on GetYourGuide, then choose Rome and your date.
When a guided tour makes sense. It is worth it if you want the ruins explained, want the arena or the underground and found no official ticket, or want the flexibility of cancellation. For a plain entry, compare with the official price of €18 or €24.
Can GetYourGuide be trusted? On Trustpilot the company stands at 3.9 out of 5 on 6 October 2026 (over 56,000 reviews, 68% five-star, 19% one-star) and has replied to 97% of negative reviews. Guides and easy booking are praised; cancellations, last-minute changes and unclear meeting points are criticised.
And the 2025 fine? On 8 April 2025 the Italian competition authority (AGCM) imposed fines of almost 20 million euros in total on CoopCulture, the official ticket seller until 2024, and on six tour operators, GetYourGuide Deutschland GmbH among them. According to the AGCM, the operators used bots to snap up face-value tickets, and CoopCulture held back quotas for costlier packages. So book a tour for the guide, not only for the entry.
The traps: resale, fake guides and time slots
- Fake websites. The Vatican Museums warn about sites with similar domain names that can charge far more. The official ones are tickets.museivaticani.va and, for the Colosseum, ticketing.colosseo.it.
- Resale. The Colosseum’s regulations forbid the resale of access tickets by parties the park has not authorised; a ticket bought in the street can also fail the name and ID check at the entrance.
- Fake guides. Guiding in the park is reserved for professional guides, who are checked at the entrance, and recruiting participants inside the park is banned: whoever approaches you outside the entrance is not the way to a ticket.
- Time slot and ID. More than 15 minutes late means no Colosseum and no refund; if the name on the ticket does not match your ID, you do not get in.
Before you pay: the checklist
Each point can be read on the offer page or in the confirmation:
- Does the Colosseum ticket show a date, a time and the name of each person?
- What is the official price of the same ticket (€18, €24, €25 or €7), and what are you paying on top?
- Is it a guided tour with a guide, language and group size stated, or only an entry?
- Until when is cancellation free (from 24 hours to 4 days according to the search results, depending on the offer)?
- Are the meeting point and start time clear? Poorly explained meeting points are among the criticisms on Trustpilot.
- Does everyone have their original ID, and does the bag fit within 30 × 40 × 15 cm?
If these lines check out, you can open the offers for Rome on GetYourGuide and enter your date and group size; the offer page shows the final price before payment. To carry on after Rome, see the one-week Tuscany itinerary and the Amalfi Coast without a car.
Top-rated activities in Italy, bookable online:
