I first wrote about this hack to beat the lines to go to the Colosseum, Forum and Palatine Hill way back in 2015 when I visited Rome for the first time as part of a 9 day trip in Europe. I was in Rome again in 2024 and I was surprised to see that this Ancient Rome hack still works like a charm! Today’s tip comes from our 3 days that we spent in Rome. We arrived in Rome late on a Monday evening. After taking the bus from the Rome Airport to the City Center, we didn’t have much time to do anything but just hang out at our hotel. Our plan was Tuesday to visit Ancient Rome, Wednesday to visit Vatican City, and then catch our Thursday morning flight
Visiting Ancient Rome sites
Rome is so old that just about everything in the whole city has a LOT of history. You find yourself thinking – “oh, that’s ONLY from the 1600s? Booooorrrrrring” 🙂
But definitely the big attractions as far as visiting Ancient Rome sites goes are the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill
Those were the top things on our list as we walked down from our hotel near Termini station
Pro tip for visiting the Colosseum, Forum and Palatine Hill
The Colosseum, Forum and Palatine Hill are all accessed with the same ticket, which costs €18 and is good for 24 hours. My pro tip for visiting Ancient Rome sites is that there are 3 entrances to buy tickets, and two of them always has a TON of people in line to buy tickets, and one of them is usually super empty.
Any guesses? Maybe just think about those 3 Ancient Rome sites – the Colosseum, Forum and Palatine Hill. Which one have you heard of? Which one do you think MOST tourists have heard of and so which one is the one that everyone lines up to go to. Hint: it rhymes with “Schmolosseum” 🙂
But, if you just walk down the street a bit to the Palatine Hill entrance, not only will you have virtually no line, but you can spend your time walking on the Palatine Hill, including getting some amazing views of the Colosseum itself.
Here’s me on the Palatine Hill overlooking the Colosseum
Ancient Rome Hack – Beat The Lines At The Colosseum
Here’s a map of the area, with the Colosseum in the top center of the map. Rather than going to the Colosseum (the big Red X), just walk down the hill to the Palatine Hill entrance (the green arrow on the map below). On our 2024 trip, our hop on, hop off bus actually dropped us off down here at the “Colosseum” stop, so it was even easier.
There was a small line here but only about 10 people. Even though this line said “ticket holders”, we asked and we were even able to buy tickets here.
On our 2024 trip, when we bought tickets here, they gave us a timed entry to the Colosseum which was about 2 hours later.
Compare that short line above to these pictures of the lines to get into the Colosseum (winding around at the back of this picture)
Or the Forum entrance
An hour or two was plenty of time to visit the Palatine Hill and the Forum. Then, when we were done with the Palatine Hill and Forum, you can show your timed ticket to the Colosseum and walk right in.
The Bottom Line – How To Skip The Lines At The Colosseum
Rather than wait in the long lines to get into the Forum or the Colosseum in Ancient Rome, there’s a simple hack to skip the lines. Just walk down the street a few feet and enter in at the Palatine Hill entrance. The lines there are MUCH shorter, and this gives you the chance to visit the Palatine Hill and Forum before ending your tour of Ancient Rome with entry into the Colosseum.
Ever been to the Colosseum / Ancient Rome? Did you know about this hack to skip the line?
This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as thepointsguy.com. This may impact how and where links appear on this site. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
We purchased the Roma pass at a TI and skipped the line at the Colosseum,etc. Also, we pre-booked a wonderful early morning guided tour of the Vatican that got us into the Sistine Chapel before everyone else.
I was talking with a friend of mine and she said that her and her husband also purchased that early Vatican tour – when we went it was definitely crowded! Pretty much the entire Sistine Chapel was filled with people (and guards SHHHHHHHHHing everyone :-D)
This is an excellent tip, luckily some friends have us the same advice and we also got to skip lines. If they hadn’t, we wouldn’t have known and wasted HOURS waiting in line with the others
*Gave
Fairly straight forward Rick Steve’s trick. That book sure pays off in Rome.
Sweet, sweet tip! I think we bought our passes at the Forum last visit but the line was not too bad.
Thanks! It probably depends a lot on time of day and time of year that you’re there.
You can prebuy your tickets ahead of time on the official coloseum website and avoid having to go to Palatine first 🙂
That’s true. Isn’t there an extra fee if you buy them online though?