Ancient Rome, with a guide.
Colosseum arena floor + Forum + Palatine at 10:00 · San Clemente · trattoria
The one part of Rome you do not do alone. The guided tour with arena-floor access is booked for 10:00, then a slow afternoon and a proper Roman dinner.
Carry your passport the tour operator checks photo ID against the names on both bookings, and the Colosseum itself is a security checkpoint.
Download before you leave the hotel the GetYourGuide app on both phones, signed in to John's account, with both tour vouchers opened so they cache offline, John and Le Andra, both on the 10:00 tour. Do this at the hotel before you leave; the tickets exist nowhere else. Details under Apps to download.
Optional, before the day starts. A 1-hour gym session or a run (nearest option is on the Rome page), and an afternoon nap block is built into the schedule below, take it on the long days.
Three minutes before you leave, to see it before you see it, What the Colosseum actually looked like, a reconstruction
01Morning
02Afternoon
03Evening
The table
Tickets and bookings
| Item | When | Est. | Link | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colosseum arena floor + Forum + Palatine, guided tour (Ivo Tours) inbox, search “Colosseum tour” Both on the 10:00 tour. The old 9:30 seat was swapped when a second 10:00 spot reopened; its $83 refund went to a GetYourGuide credit that covered most of the new seat. Meeting point Via delle Terme di Tito 93, be there 15 min early with passports. | BOOKED · 17 Oct · both 10:00 | $133 + $134 | open | booked |
| San Clemente, lower levels (×2) | 15:00 | ~$10 | open | to book |
Before you leave the door
You're on the arena-floor guided tour, the right call. Be at the meeting point 15 minutes early, the slot can be released if you're late. Headsets are included; stay close to the guide, the Colosseum echoes and the group is large.
JulianEvery restaurant with a view of the Colosseum or on the tourist stretch of Via Cavour. And the “gladiators” posing for photos, they charge €10+ and get aggressive.
JulianGuided slot sold out, the self-guided “Full Experience” ticket (Arena + undergrounds) from coopculture.it, plus a €25 audio-tour app for the Forum.
House pickYou're both in the 10:00 group. It finishes around 12:30, head straight back to Monti for lunch rather than eating by the exit.
House pickLook for it on the walk
- The Colosseum's south side is sheared off, earthquakes in 847 and 1349, then centuries of Romans quarrying its travertine for St Peter's and half the palaces in the city. It was a quarry before it was a monument.
- In the Forum, the round Temple of Vesta held a fire that was never allowed to go out, tended by the Vestal Virgins, the only free women in Rome with real power. Their house is the one with the courtyard of headless statues.
- On the Arch of Titus (top of the Forum), a carved panel shows Roman soldiers carrying the menorah looted from the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD. For centuries Rome's Jews would not walk under it.
The things you'd wish you knew
The “Arena” you'll walk on is a modern reconstruction of the wooden floor. Under it, the hypogeum, two levels of tunnels, cages and 28 lifts that hauled animals and gladiators up through trapdoors. The word “arena” is Latin for sand, spread to soak up blood.
Julian tried the audio-only version, lost signal a third of the way through, and “genuinely didn't know what else I could do besides walk in a circle.” The guided ticket with arena-floor access is the one to have, and it's the one that's booked.
If time, or if a deal lands
| Option | Added | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Capitoline Museums | +$32 | the she-wolf, Marcus Aurelius, a terrace over the Forum |
What today runs
Estimates. Swap in the real figure as you go.
| Colosseum arena-floor guided tour, John 10:00 | $133 |
| Colosseum arena-floor guided tour, Le Andra 10:00 | $134 |
| San Clemente, lower levels (×2) | $10 |
| Breakfast, bar, standing | $8 |
| Lunch, Monti | $40 |
| Aperitivo, Monti | $20 |
| Dinner, La Carbonara / Broccoletti | $66 |
| Gelato | $8 |
| Today, Rome | $419 |
Flights and the places to stay are on the costs page, not counted here.
How it went
Written after the day: what you did, what you loved, what you'd skip, the photographs, a voice note or two. It fills in here and in the album.