The Colosseum

Two thousand years on, the Colosseum still does exactly what it was built to do: hold a crowd’s attention. Book the arena-floor entry and you walk in at gladiator level through the gate they used, with the hypogeum’s lift shafts and cages exposed below you.

• The arena floor, the reconstructed stage over the underground works, entered from the gladiators’ gate.
• The hypogeum, the tunnels, winches and trapdoors that ran the shows.
• The upper tiers, the full sweep of the amphitheatre and the Forum beyond.
• The Arch of Constantine, right outside, and free.

Book the combo ticket online well ahead, take the first slot of the morning, and enter the Forum from the quieter Via di San Gregorio side later. Guided arena-floor slots also bypass the main security queue.

Colosseo metro station faces the gate. The same ticket covers the Roman Forum and Palatine next door; do them in one loop before the afternoon heat.