# Colosseum: what the €18 ticket actually covers > One €18 ticket covers 5 areas for 24 hours, with 75 minutes inside the amphitheater. It was Italy's most visited site in 2024, with 14,733,395 people. URL: https://myitalia.it/attractions/colosseo Last updated: 2026-09-02 The €18 Colosseum ticket covers 5 areas for 24 hours, with a 75-minute limit on the time you spend inside the amphitheater itself (2026). ## 14,733,395 people came in 2024 The archaeological park recorded 14,733,395 visitors in 2024, first among Italy's state cultural sites, and took €101,902,884.50 gross at the gate. Every rule below exists because of that number. The named ticket, the fixed slot and the 75-minute cap are crowd engineering for a building that takes more people in a year than most countries take in tourists. ## The 5 areas on one ticket €18 buys the first level of the amphitheater, the second level with its panoramic terraces, the Colosseum Museum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine (2026). Prices are in euros. EU citizens aged 18 to 25 pay €2. With the Roma Pass the entry costs €11.50. The Forum and the Palatine are the parts people underestimate and then skip. They are large, largely unshaded, and they belong to the ticket you already bought. ## 75 minutes under the arches, 24 hours for the rest Inside the amphitheater the stay is capped at 75 minutes, while the ticket itself stays valid 24 hours from first entry. Read those two numbers together and the ticket becomes a two-part visit. Amphitheater in the late afternoon, Forum and Palatine at 9 am the next morning, on the same €18, before the heat and before the coach groups. That split is the single most useful thing the 24-hour rule allows, and almost nobody uses it. ## Opening at 8:30 am, and the winter cut The Colosseum opens at 8:30 am and the Forum and Palatine at 9 am (08:30 and 09:00 on Italian signs). From October 25, 2026 to February 28, 2027 last entry is 3:30 pm and closing is 4:30 pm. From October 1 to 24, 2026 last entry is 5:30 pm and closing 6:30 pm. The site shuts on December 25 and January 1. Winter afternoons are short here in a way that catches people out: at 3:30 pm in December the last visitor is already going in. ## 4 fixed free dates, plus the first Sunday Entry costs nothing on the first Sunday of every month and on April 25, June 2 and November 4. Free days are the fullest days of the month. The official page does not say whether a timed slot is still required on those dates, and no assumption is made here either way. Our page on [free museum days](/plan/free-museum-days) covers how the national scheme works. ## Where the ticket rules live Tickets are sold with your name on them and with a compulsory entry slot, and the online release opens 30 days before the visit date. The full mechanics of that release, including the hour that nobody publishes and the school group exception, are set out on [how the Colosseum ticket release works](/plan/colosseum-ticket-release). ## The prices we will not print 3 prices on this page are verified: €18, €2 and €11.50. The park also sells higher-priced Full Experience routes with the arena floor and the Domus Aurea, and those figures were not confirmed on a primary source, so they are absent. Both sources behind the ticket rules belong to the same body, the Parco archeologico del Colosseo. That is the operator's own voice, which is the right one for a price, and it is still one voice rather than two. ## FAQ ### What does the standard Colosseum ticket include? 5 areas on one €18 ticket: the first level of the amphitheater, the second level with its terraces, the Colosseum Museum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine. It stays valid 24 hours, so the Forum can wait until the next morning. ### How long can you stay inside the Colosseum? 75 minutes inside the amphitheater itself. The 24-hour validity of the €18 ticket applies to the wider site, where the Forum and the Palatine carry no equivalent cap. The limit bites only under the arches. ### How many people visit the Colosseum each year? 14,733,395 in 2024, which put the archaeological park first among Italy's state cultural sites and produced €101,902,884.50 in gross takings. That is the crowd every timed slot and every 75-minute cap exists to move. ### When is the Colosseum free? On the first Sunday of every month and on April 25, June 2 and November 4. Those are the 4 fixed dates plus the monthly one. Whether a timed slot is still needed on a free day is not stated on the official page. ### What time does the Colosseum close in winter? From October 25, 2026 to February 28, 2027 last entry is 3:30 pm and the gates close at 4:30 pm. From October 1 to 24, 2026 last entry is 5:30 pm with closing at 6:30 pm. It shuts on December 25 and January 1. ## Sources | Fact | Source | Confidence | Valid until | |---|---|---|---| | Parco archeologico del Colosseo ha registrato 14.733.395 visitatori nel 2024 (1 posto tra i luoghi della cultura statali italiani) | [Ministero della Cultura - Ufficio di Statistica](https://statistica.cultura.gov.it/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/MUSEI_TAVOLA8_2024-1.pdf); [Ministero della Cultura](https://cultura.gov.it/comunicato/27590) | medium | 2027-06-30 | | Il biglietto intero di Parco archeologico del Colosseo costa 18,00 euro (2026): Colosseo, Foro Romano e Palatino; biglietto valido 24 ore | [Parco archeologico del Colosseo](https://colosseo.it/biglietti/colosseo-foro-romano-palatino/) | medium | 2027-06-30 | | Al Parco archeologico del Colosseo il biglietto e' nominativo e con fascia oraria di ingresso obbligatoria: le vendite online si aprono 30 giorni prima della data di visita e con il biglietto ordinario 24h la permanenza all'interno dell'anfiteatro e' limitata a 75 minuti (2026). | [Parco archeologico del Colosseo](https://colosseo.it/orari-e-biglietti/); [doc 2](https://colosseo.it/biglietti/colosseo-foro-romano-palatino/) | medium | 2027-06-30 | | Il Parco archeologico del Colosseo apre alle 8:30 (Foro Romano e Palatino alle 9:00) e chiude il 25 dicembre e il 1 gennaio; nel semestre invernale, dal 25 ottobre 2026 al 28 febbraio 2027, l'ultimo ingresso e' alle 15:30 con chiusura alle 16:30. L'ingresso e' gratuito la prima domenica di ogni mese e il 25 aprile, il 2 giugno e il 4 novembre. | [Parco archeologico del Colosseo](https://colosseo.it/orari-e-biglietti/) | medium | 2027-03-31 | ## Image https://media.myitalia.it/media/poi.colosseo.1600.jpg Author: Paolo Costa Baldi. License: CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0). Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colosseo_di_Roma_panoramic.jpg ## Other languages - it: https://myitalia.it/it/attrazioni/colosseo.md - es: https://myitalia.it/es/atracciones/colosseo.md - fr: https://myitalia.it/fr/attractions/colosseo.md - de: https://myitalia.it/de/sehenswuerdigkeiten/colosseo.md