This is an essential Colosseum guide for visitors who want to visit the Colosseum in their own time. Follow our step by step guide, learn where to stand and what to look for to get to know this incredible Roman monument and the infinite stories it tells.
The Colosseum is one of the most impressive and significant monuments from ancient Roman times.
It is an invaluable testimony to the architectural and engineering genius of the Romans, but well beyond that, it is a source of information about the psyche and spirit of those who built it and those who frequented it.
By learning the history of the Colosseum, we get an insight about the Roman idea of leadership, public relations, demagogy, entertainment, stardom: the Colosseum is an infinite source of information for the curious visitor, as well as a visually stunning construction to see.
I am a Roman history graduate from Rome and I have been to the Colosseum more times I can count.
I could talk about the Colosseum for days and not be done but I don’t think that would do you any good!
Instead, today I share what I believe are the most important things to know and most enjoyable and satisfying facts about it in the form of a visitors’ guide you can use before and during your visit.
I hope you enjoy it!
Please note: this guide is to accompany you on the day. If you need help to get tickets, read this guide to getting Colosseum tickets first!
How to use this guide: this guide follows your own joinery around the Colosseum. It starts from the outside and then it focuses on the entrance, corridor and main areas. You can follow this guide no matter what tickets you have. If you have kids, you may like to also get our Colosseum printables for children on Etsy, with facts, illustrations and a bingo game to help them learn and enjoy the visit.
Introduction
The Colosseum is an ancient Roman amphitheater form the I century AD.
The construction of the Colosseum happened under three emperors: Vespasian, who started the project in 72AD, Titus who was emperor at the time of its inauguration in 80AD , and Domitian, who carried out additional works and likely finalised the underground area.
All these emperors belonged to the Flavian Dynasty: this is why the official name of the Colosseum is actually the Flavian Amphitheater (see below why we refer to it as the Colosseum instead!).
The Colosseum was built as a performance space: it is the equivalent of a modern arena and was built to host shows such as hunts and gladiator fights, as well as public events such as executions.
The word amphitheater comes form the Greek language and means ‘double theatre’: if you think of a theatre as a C shaped set of spectators’ seats facing a stage, an amphitheater is two Cs facing one another, creating an oval shape with spectators’ seats around an oval stage.
The word amphitheater was then, like now, descriptive of the shape of an arena / stadium.
Stop 1 – outside: the Colosseum location
Start your visit by taking some time outside of the Colosseum: good observations points are Colle Option (the little hill in front of the Colosseum, above the metro stop) and the esplanade just beside the main entrance.
Before you start looking at the Colosseum itself, look around you and observe the land around you.
By turning to your left, identify the Oppian Hill and notice how the Colosseum lies on flat ground just below it. This is significant.
By looking at the land now, it is easy to think the Colosseum lies here because it was a flat empty area, an easy place to a large construction, but is far from the truth.
In the I century AD this very place was occupied by the palace of Emperor Nero, the incredibly large, luxurious and imaginative Domus Aurea and its gardens.
Look around you and try imagine this: at the top of the Oppian Hill, where you now see a park, stood the palace, overlooking the valley below.
The pendices of the hill were a sloping garden, who came all the way down to where you are standing now.
Where the colosseum is now, Nero had a large pond and water fountain for decorative purposes and just beside it a colossal statue of himself.
Where did it all go, you may ask? Why is the Colosseum here then, if the area was already taken? You may even ask: why should we care?
Well, the answer to this is that the Colosseum is here because this was the house of Nero and its very existence is linked to this fact. Let me explain!
Emperor Nero was a controversial figure, to say the least.
When he died, Rome went through a year of Instability and eventually Emperor Vespasian took power.
To show the Romans that he was the bearer of a new era and that he was a magnanimous, generous leader, he appropriated Nero’s house and made a grand gesture: he gave back this private property to the public, by tearing down Nero’s palace and garden and, instead, building a massive amphitheater for public use where people could enjoy shows for free.
It was a genius PR coup to send a strong signal to the people of Rome that he was a new type of leader: one who was generous, understood what people want and also not shy when it came to making sweeping decisions!
Stop 2 – the ancient statue of Nero
Have a look around you and identify a set of trees just beside the colosseum main entrance / in front of the Roman Forum entrance (basically: place yourself so that you have the Forum entrance in the photo behind you and you are facing the Colosseum.).
Here is where the old statue of nero used to be. This statute was colossal: it represented the emperor and had a height that is said to pretty much matched that one the current colosseum.
The statue is long gone but it is worth devoting a minute to it as it is significant to your visit.
As we mentioned, the colosseum official name is Flavian amphitheater.
However the statue was often used as a meeting point and landmarks and people referred to it as ‘the colossus’. It’s fun to imagine: ‘meet you at the colossus!’ – it makes sense!
Over time, the habit of calling the area the colosseum (the place with the colossus) took hold so much, it stayed also after the statue was taken down – the is how the ‘colosseum’ got its name
Stop 3 – Outside: facade and outer structure
The Colosseum is a large amphitheater; an oval structure not dissimilar to our stadium or arenas, which replicated its shape.
Looking at it , you will notice it is made of four storeys, each of them marked by arches.
It you look closely, you will notice that each of the stories have columns of a slightly different type. Ancient coins with representations of the Colosseum suggest there may have been bronze statues between them, as decoration.
Stop 4 – the Entrance Gate
Right now, the hordes of tourists and the metal detector might take away from the experience but you enter the colosseum by the very same entrance gates the ancient Romans used.
Just like in a modern stadium, the colosseum had several gates that allowed people to swiftly find their assigned seat.
Yo reach the seats, each person would walk along the very same corridor you are in now, go to the same stairs and then find their seat in one of the numbered rows.
If you look to the top of the entrance gates, you will see there are some Roman numerals: those are the numbers of each gate.
Just like for a modern event, each ticket would have an entrance gate and a seat location, so that each person knew where to go (more about this later!).
Tickets in Ancient Rome were small pieces of pottery and would have showed on entrance to the staff juts like you are about to do.
Stop 5: the corridors
The corridors of the colosseum have a special name: vomitoria.
For safety reasons, it was paramount to be able to guarantee a speedy exit of all spectators at the end of the game or in case of emergency, and the corridors were built just with this function in mind. The name says it all: they were built to be able to vomit out (expel quickly) the contents of the theater.
It is blieved it took 15 minutes for all the spectators to clear the theater. This is pretty impressive if you think the Colosseum probably honesty’s about 50 thousands of them!
Before you leave the corridor, look closely at the walls: you will notice many holes in them. These whole used to have metal brackets inside, used to hold together the blocks. Since the camps were metal, they got stolen over the course of the cervice and reused or sold as construction material.
Stop 6: the arena
The arena is the ancient stage of the colosseum, the oval large flat area you see at the center of the amphitheater.
Even without knowing what the Colosseum was, it is easy to guess its function: the arena is very much like a playing field in a modern stadium and around it there would have been bleachers, going all the way up to the top floor.
At present, you will notice the arena floor only covers parts of the stadium floor but this is only for modern visitors purposes as t allows to see and visit the undergrounds, more about it later). In ancient Roman times the floor would have covered the whole area.
The arena floor is now light in color and has a hard surface but at the time, you must imagine it covered in sand. The latin word for sand is arena (hence the name) and the reason for its use makes sense if we think of the type of event taking place here: sand would soak up spillages!
Fun fact: the arena is 280 ft long and 260 feet wide, a 5 to 3 ratio, also known as the golden ratio. Since Greek times, this mathematical proportion has been considered ideal and even to have mystical properties. The Colosseum engineers know this and clearly wanted to replicate what was considered a perfect shape
Stop 7 – The seats
If you look around, you will see there is one small set of seats that has been restored for us to see. To get a mental picture of the Colosseum as it was, you can imagine the whole of the theater covered in them, so that each spectators would face the stage.
Just line in modern theater, some seats were better than others.
At present the upper levels of the colosseum are among the most scenic but in the past the higher up you were seated the poorer and less important you place in society was and the worse your view. Just like in modern theatres, the further up and away you are from the state, the worse your view!
The best seats were, of course, for the Emperor but also for the Virgin vestals and the most important citizens.
All ticket to the colosseum we’re free, not matter who you were.
The Roman Emperors used the games to show off the generosity of their leader: the emperor would pay for the event and offer it to the population, as a way to get their appreciation and loyalty.
Ancient write Juvenal is our best source about this: he said emperors gained popularity by giving people ‘panem and circences‘ aka brad and circus, things that would appese the crowds and gain favour.
Stop 8 – The roof
At present there is not roof but in the past, the colosseum was equipped with a large tent-line structure called the Velarium which could be pulled over it to protect the spectators from the sun. This was important as the games here lasted a whole day!
You can read all about games in Ancient Rome here
Stop 19 – The Underground
From the arena but also from the general area, you can peek to the the underground of the colosseum, the area that used to be under the stage (it is not uncovered for the ease of the visit).
This was the backstage area of the theather, the place where stage props, gladiators and animals would be kept and wait for their turn.
The underground area, at the time, was fully under the arena floor and therefore invisible to the audience.
It was connected to the arena by 8 elevators that allowed stuff, animals and people to ‘appear’ on the arena, giving the idea that they ‘magically’ materialised onto the stage.
You can still see the squares elevators shaft and also the elevators themselves, actually: although the elevators are now reconstructions!
You can read about gladiators here
Stop 20 – Upper levels
The upper levels of the colosseum where entirely covered by seats and nowadays are excellent observations points to see the colosseum from all sides.
One of them hosts an interesting exhibition about the storu of the colosseum which shows the many phases of life of this monument, which go well beyong it original use.
Stop 21- The cross – the cross
Before you leave the Colosseum, look around you and identify a large cross: as odd as it may seem, this is because indeed in the colosseum there is consecrated Christian area!
Several ancient documents from the 1400s and subsequent centuries tell us about plans to build an actual church inside the colosseum: you can find information and drawing of this on the second floor, in the exhibition area.
While the plans never came to full fruition as such, the colosseum did indeed have a a church inside it and even hosted aediculas marking the stations of a Via Crucis.
This tells us that the colosseum changed use and went from being a roman theater to being a place of Christian devotion: some documents even tell us it hosted shows representing the passion of the Christ.
This connection between the colosseum and Christianly is complex and goes beyong the scope of this guide or a general visit but it is significant if you think that it still alive today: every Good Friday, the Pope leads the easter Via Crucis across Rome and the last station is inside the Colosseum!
Essential Colosseum guide: pin this!
