Top 10 Colosseum Tips

Hey, it's Elissa from Romewise, your go-to guide to Rome. I'm here today at the Colosseum to give you my top 10 tips for visiting this amazing monument. So ready? Here we go. Number one tip, dress comfortably. I cannot stress this highly enough. You're going to be doing a lot more walking in Rome than you probably realize and in particular a visit to the Colosseum usually lasts around three hours and includes also the park of the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. So you've got to be comfortable. Dress in really comfortable walking shoes, not shoes that you have to break in. Try to avoid flip-flops also and of course comfortable cotton pants and whatever you need for layering, whatever the season is. So dress comfortably and your visit will go that much smoother. Tip number two, book your tickets in advance. I used to say come on over here in the afternoon, go to the Palatine Hill or the Roman Forum and buy your tickets right on the spot without much of a line. This is no longer the case. This video is coming to you in the spring of 2019. The rules have changed. You now need to book a date and time to visit the Colosseum. Even if you just walk up, they still are going to give you a date and time. It could be for the same date but you might not get in. You might show up and find out it's sold out for the day. So at this point, my number two tip has got to be book your visit to the Colosseum in advance. Number three, make a food plan. I am all about avoiding low blood sugar. Whenever I'm sightseeing, I always want to make sure that I have a bar with me, something that you can get here at the pharmacy or the grocery store. You want to make sure you have something that gives you a chance to have a snack in the middle of your sightseeing so you don't kind of lose focus, you know, get that sort of drowsy, hunger pangs, I'm ready to stop now feeling when you're not really ready to stop and all you need is a snack. There really isn't any place to buy food inside of the Colosseum, inside of the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. There are vending machines but I wouldn't count on those. You might not have, they might not have what you want, you might not have spare change. So bring a bar or a snack or a sandwich or something. Make sure you have a food plan, especially when you're bringing small children with you. Tip number four, take a tour. With something like this that has so much history, so much to know, I think that it's the best way to get the most out of a visit to the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Palatine Hill, any ancient Rome site really, is to take a tour. You have lots of options from private tours to small group tours, big group tours, even just an audio guide if that works for you. But take something so that you have an idea of what you're looking at. There's just so much history and there's so much wealth of information about this incredible monument. So at the very least, brush up on your history so that you're not standing here looking at this and going, oh, let me look on my phone and see what does that arch mean? What does that Roman numeral above the arch mean? I can tell you, but you might want to take a tour or know in advance. Tip number five, don't bring the wrong stuff here. What do I mean by that? Well, it's on the website for the Colosseum and I would never presume to bring some gigantic backpack, but it seems people must do so or they wouldn't put it on the website. So don't come with a huge bag or backpack and don't come with a tripod. These are not allowed inside the Colosseum. Tip number six, bring a water bottle. Even if you're coming in winter and you're probably thinking you don't need water, but guess what? It's pretty easy to get dehydrated even in winter. You're walking around a lot. You're doing a lot more walking and exercising than you think and it's a good idea to stay hydrated. So just bring a small water bottle. You can fill these up around Rome at the little water fountains that we have all over the city. You can even fill them up inside the Colosseum. There are water fountains inside and that water is safe to drink. So bring a water bottle and stay hydrated. Tip number seven and this may apply more for visits to the Colosseum in spring through fall, but you want to avoid visiting the Colosseum itself during the hottest time of day. There is nowhere to sit down inside the Colosseum. So there are parts that are internal, but the parts you kind of want to take all the pictures of and the parts you're going to walk around the most are on the outside with no shelter. So if you're coming to visit the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill, which are all included, then I would consider visiting the Palatine Hill during the hottest time of day. So if your visit is in the afternoon, start with the Palatine Hill because there are lots of places to sit and benches in the Palatine Hill. Work your way down to the Roman Forum where there is no place to sit and no shade and finish at the Colosseum as your last visit. If you're coming in the morning, start with the Colosseum, go to the Roman Forum next and end around 11, 12, 1 o'clock, whatever, in the Palatine Hill where, again, you have shade and places to sit down. Tip number eight, try to avoid visiting the Colosseum on the same day as you have another major visit planned like the Vatican or some other big site. It is feasible to do both of these sites in one day, absolutely. Usually a visit to the Colosseum takes about three hours. Usually a visit to the Vatican is about three hours. So time-wise, you can do it. But they're both visits that take up a lot of mental energy and physical energy and if you have at least two or more days to spend in Rome, I would suggest spreading these visits out. If you're coming from a cruise ship, if you're coming just for the day into Rome and you want to see big sites and fit it all in, by all means, do it. Plan for it. Just try to spread it out if you can. Tip number nine, plan your visit to the Colosseum. If you want to just come over here and walk around the outside, you can actually see a lot. You don't have to pay to go in. You don't have to fight with the crowds. You don't have to stand in line. There's a lot you can get just from coming and looking at this monument from the outside. That will be a very quick and easy visit and you can just fit it in in about an hour and then go off and see other things. But if you want to visit the inside of the Colosseum, it'll take you at least an hour to just walk around sort of the normal parts that you can access with your standard ticket, the main tier and the second tier. If you decide that you want to visit all the things that are on your ticket, you also have the possibility to visit the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill on the same ticket as the Colosseum. This ticket is actually good over two days. So you could spread it out and visit the Colosseum in the morning, visit the Palatine Hill, Roman Forum in the afternoon or even the following day. But there's no re-entry. The Palatine Hill and Roman Forum is considered one park. So that park you need at least a couple of hours to visit. Colosseum, at least an hour. So if you're going to do it all at once, give yourself about three to four hours to see it all. That means it's about a half a day visit. So a morning or an afternoon. You should also know we now have these extra tickets, extra things that you can see. We have super tickets which allow you to see these incredible sites on the Palatine Hill and in the Roman Forum that are not normally accessible with the regular ticket. Each of those sites takes between 20 to 40 minutes to visit on their own. So you'll need at least a full day, if not two, to see them all. You also have the option to visit the Colosseum at night. If you do that, just know that you cannot visit the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill with that ticket. It's a special ticket. If you do that, visit the Colosseum at night and you still want to see the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, you can buy one of the super tickets which is only good for the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill. So you could do it that way. You can also choose to visit the underground and upper tiers. This is really special. It adds a whole other dimension, literally, to your Colosseum visit. But you've got to add time for that. So consider how much time you have, what your interest level is, and plan accordingly. Tip number 10, how to skip the line. That's a biggie, I know. Save the best for last. So how do you skip the line? Well, tip number two, I told you to book ahead. At this point, you want to book ahead regardless because if you show up without booking in advance, you risk having to wait in a huge line. You also risk not getting in on the day that you show up. Number two way to skip the line, buy the Roma Pass. This is a pass that allows you to skip the lines at some of the sites in Rome. It's not really a money saver, but it is more about convenience and skipping lines. So that could be another option. I have a page about that below. Number three, book a tour. The tour companies, they get your tickets for you. They have it all organized and they have special entrances just for them. So you are guaranteed to skip the big lines of people waiting out in the front. You should know though that no matter what, everybody has to go through security and that is a line you really cannot avoid. So just plan for that. I hope you've enjoyed this video about my top 10 tips for visiting the Colosseum. If you did, please hit the like button below and subscribe. And thanks again for watching and we'll see you at the next video. Ciao for now.