The Colosseum is one of the most famous and popular attractions in all of Rome. Thousands of people visit the attraction every day, and in fact, they had to introduce a rule saying that only 3000 guests could be inside the attraction at the same time.
With so much people visiting, should you expect to stand in long lines? The answer is probably yes. For that reason, it is very popular to buy so-called “Skip The Line” tickets. Is it worth it?
If you haven’t bought yourself a Skip The Line ticket already, then you will be offered such a ticket from very eager sellers also outside the Colosseum. They will tell you the story of long lines and much more, but if you skip the line and buy a more expensive ticket, then life will be easier and quicker. So, is it true? Is it worth buying a skip the line ticket as you come to the Colosseum?
What is true about Skip The Line?
When you buy a Skip The Line ticket for the Colosseum (and the Forum), then you will get more than you get with a normal ticket to the Colosseum. You will normally also get access to an audio guide or some sort of a guided tour, which in itself will give you much more value for your money, and get to understand much more of what you see. If you anyway plan to buy such a service as a guided tour or an audio guide, then this will most likely serve you well.
If you just want to get inside the Colosseum to look around, then you might not actually benefit that much from a Skip The Line ticket. Last week we did a test and visited the Colosseum on a Wednesday, without any tickets. We came with a big family, including three kids. At once we were approached by sellers who wanted to sell us skip the line tickets that would cost 25 Euro per adult. They promised us lines that would last for about 90 minutes, but we took the challenge.
At first we went to buy tickets at a ticket office just next to the Colosseum. One line consisted of people who had reserved tickets online (that line was long), but since we just wanted to buy tickets without any pre-reservation made, we could just walk straight to the window and buy tickets.
Once we had the tickets, we could enter the line for those with tickets. There was another line next to us for those without tickets (which was empty), and they had to buy their tickets almost inside the Colosseum. The way we noticed it, that was probably the quickest option, but for us the line also moved quite rapidly, and after about 30 minutes of waiting we entered the Colosseum with our tickets and we had also passed through security by then.
Things might be different on weekends and during the main tourist season, but we totally found skipping the “Skip The Line” to be easy and half the price of skipping the line.
Do you have any experience about skipping the line in Rome that you would like to share? Use the comment field beneath, we would love to hear your positive or negative experience!
