Best Roman Forum Tickets
Choose standard Colosseum entry with the Forum and Palatine Hill. Then add either the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel or Castel Sant’Angelo, plus either St Peter’s Basilica or the Pantheon and two more attractions. An app is included.
Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palatine Hill entry
Walk through the Colosseum at a timed slot, then follow ancient Rome’s main street through the Forum and look down over it from the Palatine. One ticket covers all three sites across two days, with an audio-guide app for context.
Roman Forum & Palatine Hill only
Start high among the imperial palaces, descend into the Forum and watch the multimedia video. This ticket covers the Forum and Palatine Hill without Colosseum entry.
Highlights
Tickets & Prices
Five ticket options cover the main ways to visit:
For a first visit, take the standard combined ticket. One purchase covers the Colosseum, Forum and Palatine, and the included audio-guide app gives the ruins some much-needed context. Set your Colosseum time when you book, then divide the three sites between two days if you want a slower visit.
Tickets are sold mainly online, and walk-up availability at the box office is limited. The Colosseum kiosk has the longest queue. Under-18s enter free year-round, and EU citizens aged 18 to 25 qualify for reduced entry.
For a wider Rome itinerary, compare the Rome Tourist Card. You can also explore standard Colosseum entry, arena-floor tickets and Colosseum underground tours.
Guided tours & audio guides
Much of the Forum survives as foundations, fragments and isolated columns. A guide turns that broad field of stone into the main street, temples, law courts and political stage of ancient Rome.
Book a guided walk of the Forum and Palatine on this link.
Plan Your Visit
| Attraction | Opening Time | Closing Time |
|---|---|---|
| Colosseum | 8:30 | 19:15 (late Mar–Sep) 18:30 (1–25 Oct) 16:30 (winter) |
| Roman Forum & Palatine Hill | 9:00 | 19:15 (late Mar–Sep) 18:30 (1–25 Oct) 16:30 (winter) |
- Last entry is one hour before closing.
- Closed 25 December and 1 January.
- The quietest way in is the Palatine gate on Via di San Gregorio. It usually has no queue and sits about five minutes’ walk from the Colosseum.
- The other entrance is on Via della Salara Vecchia. Skip the gate right beside the Colosseum. It’s an exit only.
- Nearest metro: Colosseo, on Line B.
- There’s almost no shade, and the site heats up fast in summer. Bring water and a hat, and wear shoes you can cross uneven ground in.
- There’s no food inside, but you’ll find taps to refill a bottle.
What to See & Do
The Roman Forum isn’t one building but a whole valley of them, spread across the low ground at the foot of the Palatine. For centuries this was the centre of Roman public life. Its marketplace and law courts sat here, and so did the stage for its triumphs and trials.
What’s left is a field of standing columns, arches and foundations. It makes far more sense from above, so start on the hill and come down into it.
Palatine Hill
Winston/Depositphotos
scaliger/DepositphotosThe climb up the Palatine is gentler and more shaded than the one from the Forum floor. This is the hill the emperors chose, and they built one palace over another until the summit was covered.
anamejia18/DepositphotosThe biggest is Domitian’s palace, which split in two: the public Domus Flavia and the private Domus Augustana. Beside them, a vast sunken oval was his stadium, though no one is sure whether it held races or was simply a private garden.
The Domus Tiberiana runs along the ridge, nearly ten acres on its own. What survives across the hill is brick and vaulted shell, sprawling and roofless, yet the scale still lands.
The two rooms worth slowing down for are the Houses of Augustus and Livia, still lined with fresco. Give them under an hour. If you want the finds themselves, the Palatine Museum on top of the palace gathers the frescoes and mosaics lifted from the hill, along with its portrait heads.
anamejia18/DepositphotosNearby, the Farnese Gardens were laid out in the sixteenth century as the first botanical garden in Europe. A pavilion and a fountain are what remain.
The hill ends at the Terrazza Belvedere, about forty metres up. The Forum spreads out on one side, the long oval of the Circus Maximus on the other. From up here the layout finally makes sense.
The Roman Forum floor
YKD/DepositphotosCome down the slope and you land on the Via Sacra, the main street of ancient Rome. Much of the paving is original: big, glassy cobbles, larger than the stones in the modern city. It runs the length of the Forum and ties the monuments together.
The Arch of Titus stands at the head of the street. Look closely and you’ll find a relief of soldiers hauling away a menorah, looted from the temple in Jerusalem.
marcorubino/DepositphotosBelow it the Basilica of Maxentius rises: three colossal brick vaults, less than a third of what once stood, still large enough to feel built for giants. A little further on, a long flight of steps is nearly all that’s left of the Basilica Julia, the law court Caesar put up in the 50s BC. The round Temple of Romulus, close by, still hangs its original bronze doors, fitted in AD 309 and swinging to this day.
Vfotografie/DepositphotosThe middle of the Forum held the machinery of the republic. The round Temple of Vesta, once ringed by twenty columns, kept the sacred fire of the state. Beside it, the House of the Vestals stood around a long courtyard of pools, home to the priestesses who tended the flame.
This was the stage for Rome’s politics too. The Rostra is the low platform where the orators addressed the crowd, probably where Mark Antony spoke over Caesar’s body. A few steps away, the Temple of Julius Caesar marks the spot where he was cremated, and people still leave flowers on the altar.
anamejia18/DepositphotosAt the far end the columns cluster. The Temple of Saturn, the oldest in the Forum and once the city’s treasury, keeps a row of tall columns. Next to it stand three surviving columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, and the triple Arch of Septimius Severus, raised for a victory in Mesopotamia.
Two odd ones repay a look. The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina has a later church built straight inside it, a church in a temple. And set low in the pavement, the Lapis Niger is a black-stone shrine the Romans themselves tied to Romulus, their mythical founder.
The Curia Julia was the senate house itself, where the laws of Rome were passed. Off to one side, Santa Maria Antiqua is the oldest Christian building in the Forum, reopened not long ago with its early frescoes still on the walls.
By now the pattern is plain. Most of it is columns and footings now, broken down to fragments. It rewards knowing what you’re looking at, which is exactly what the audio guide, or a guide, is for.
Did You Know? Roman Forum facts
- The Forum began as Rome’s marketplace and grew into the city’s civic stage, where triumphal processions passed and trials were argued, and speakers addressed the crowd from the Rostra.
- Some of the oldest buildings in the ancient city stood here, with origins reaching back to the sixth century BC.
- The Arch of Titus, at the head of the Via Sacra, was the model for the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
- The Temple of Caesar was raised over the place where Julius Caesar’s body was burned.
Insider Tips
- Come at opening or in the late afternoon. The site is exposed, so you dodge both the midday heat and the busiest gates.
- Start on the Palatine rather than the Forum floor. You get the shade and the gentler climb, plus the view down before you’re among the stones.
- Give it a proper half-morning. The Forum and Palatine together can easily fill four hours.
- Walk to the Via di San Gregorio gate instead of queuing at the Colosseum-side kiosk. It’s the shortest line on the site.
FAQs
Do you need tickets for the Roman Forum?
Yes. Tickets are sold almost entirely online, and the same ticket covers the Colosseum, Forum and Palatine. Buying at the gate on the day rarely works.
Are the Colosseum and Roman Forum tickets the same?
Yes. The standard ticket is a single ticket for all three sites, valid across two days, with the Colosseum on a fixed time slot.
Is the Roman Forum free?
It’s free for everyone one Sunday a month, always the first, and free all year for under-18s. Those free-Sunday tickets are handed out at the gate rather than online.
What time does the Roman Forum close?
Closing shifts with the season, from about 19:15 at the height of summer down to 16:30 in winter. Last entry is an hour before.
Where to book Roman Forum tickets?
Online, ahead of your visit. The on-site Colosseum kiosk carries the longest queue on the site.
How do Roman Forum and Palatine Hill tickets work?
They share one ticket. If you’re skipping the Colosseum, there’s a Roman Forum and Palatine ticket that covers just those two.