How to Get Into the Colosseum Underground in 2026

Most people who visit the Colosseum see it from the stands. The underground tour takes you beneath the arena into the hypogeum, the maze of corridors and elevator rooms where gladiators, animals and scenery waited for their cue. It is the part of the building that explains how the games actually worked, and it is also the hardest part to get into.

Here is how underground access works in 2026, what the official ticket includes, why the slots vanish so fast, and how to make sure you are standing under the arena on the day you want.

What the underground actually is

When the Colosseum was inaugurated in 80 AD, the arena had a wooden floor covered in sand and the levels beneath it were built of wood too. Under Domitian they were rebuilt in solid masonry. This is the hypogeum: the service basement where everything for a show was prepared out of sight. The arena floor above was full of trapdoors, and men and animals were hoisted up through them on freight elevators worked by winches and pulleys, so that they appeared in the arena without warning.

The wood and rope that made the machinery work also made it a fire risk. The underground burned in the fire of 217 AD, which damaged the whole monument and closed it until 222.

Today the underground covers about half a hectare. Fourteen corridors are visible, arranged symmetrically on either side of a large central passage. Each end of that passage opens into a "control room" that housed the big freight elevators, flanked by converging tunnels that served as docks for the naval battles staged for the inauguration, before the wooden arena was replaced with masonry and water shows stopped.

The wooden floor is long gone, which is why from the stands you look down into a stone grid. A section of the floor has been rebuilt at one end, and that is the arena floor you can walk on with an arena ticket. The underground tour takes you down into the grid itself.

Which ticket includes the underground

Only one official ticket does: Full Experience Underground and Arena, sold by the Parco archeologico del Colosseo. It includes:

• The underground, on an accompanied route in a small group
• The arena floor
• Colosseum first and second levels and the Colosseum Museum
• The Roman Forum, Roman Forum Museum and Palatine Hill
• The SUPER sites: Santa Maria Antiqua, Curia Iulia, Temple of Romulus, the Domus Tiberiana exhibition rooms, Aula Isiaca and Loggia Mattei, the House of Augustus (closed Mondays) and the Horrea Piperataria

Time inside the Colosseum: 90 minutes.
Validity: 2 consecutive days. One entry to the Colosseum at your booked time, and one entry to the Forum and Palatine area the same day, the day before or the day after.
Last access with this ticket: 5:20 pm.

The standard Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine ticket does not include the underground or the arena. Full Experience Arena includes the arena but not the underground. Full Experience Attic goes up, not down. If the hypogeum is your goal, it is this ticket or a tour that includes it.

When underground tickets go on sale

Official Full Experience Underground and Arena tickets go on sale 30 days before the visit date at ticketing.colosseo.it. Underground slots are limited because groups go down accompanied, in small numbers, on a fixed route. In practice the slots for a popular date are gone within hours of release, and often within minutes for spring and fall weekends.

This is why so many visitors end up searching for Colosseum underground tickets a week before their trip and finding nothing. The official calendar only ever shows the next 30 days, and for most of those days the underground line is already sold out.

Two ways to get in

Option 1: buy the official ticket yourself

Work out the date you want, count back 30 days, and be on ticketing.colosseo.it when sales open that morning. Have your account set up in advance, since tickets are named and you will need each visitor's details. If you succeed, you have the ticket at face value plus the booking fee.

The catch: you get one shot per date, you are competing with tour operators and other visitors worldwide, and if you miss it there is no waiting list.

Option 2: book a guided Colosseum underground tour

Licensed operators buy underground allocations on release day and sell them as tours with a guide. You pay more than the face value of the ticket, but you can book weeks or months ahead, you are guaranteed the underground on your date, and you get someone who can explain what you are looking at, which in the hypogeum matters more than anywhere else in the building.

Our Colosseum tours include restricted-access options with the entry ticket built in. If you want the arena floor without the underground, the arena floor tour through the gladiators' gate and the semi-private arena floor tour are the ones to look at.

What the underground tour is like

Underground groups enter through the Colosseum's main entrance, pass security like everyone else, and are then taken down into the hypogeum on an accompanied route. You walk the central passage and the side corridors, see the spaces that housed the freight elevators, and stand where the trapdoors opened above the performers' heads.

From below, you look up through the grid to the stands, which is the view the gladiators had before they were raised into the light. Then the route comes up onto the reconstructed arena floor and you see the same building from the sand.

Numbers are small, the corridors are narrow, and the whole underground portion is a fixed route. It is not a place to wander. Combined with the arena and the upper levels, plan on using the full 90 minutes.

Practical rules for the day

Named, timed tickets. Bring photo ID that matches the name on the ticket. Entry is only at the booked time, so be at the entrance 15 minutes early.

Security. Everyone passes airport-style screening. Small bags are fine, large backpacks and suitcases are not, and there is no storage.

Footing. The underground surfaces are uneven and the route includes steps. Inside the Colosseum a marked accessible path covers most of the first tier and, with the elevators, all of the second tier; three wheelchairs are available at the first-tier reception.

Weather. The hypogeum is open to the sky in places, so it is not a cool refuge in August. Water fountains are on the first and second tiers.

Time limit. 90 minutes inside the Colosseum with this ticket type. Guides pace the underground so you still have time upstairs.

Colosseum opening hours in 2026

The Colosseum opens daily at 8:30 am. Closing is 7:15 pm through September 30 (last entry 6:15 pm), 6:30 pm from October 1 to October 24 (last entry 5:30 pm) and 4:30 pm from October 25 to February 28 (last entry 3:30 pm). Closed December 25 and January 1. Underground and arena access is not available on free-entry days (the first Sunday of the month, April 25, June 2, November 4).

Underground, arena floor or standard: which is right for you?

Standard ticket or tour. You want the classic view from the stands, the Forum and Palatine, and you are visiting more than 30 days out. Read our Colosseum tickets guide for the full breakdown.

Arena floor. You want to walk out through the gladiators' gate and photograph the building from the sand. The arena is the best photo spot in the Colosseum and the ticket is easier to get than the underground, although the official Full Experience Arena ticket is only released 7 days ahead.

Underground. You have already been to the Colosseum once, or you care about how the games worked, or you want the one part of the building most visitors never see. Book early, and book a tour if the official calendar is empty.

Book the underground before it sells out

Underground slots do not wait. Choose your date, then browse our Colosseum tours and lock in a restricted-access tour with a local guide.