Colosseum Night Tour 2026: Official Evening Openings vs Guided Tours

By day the Colosseum is 20,000 people, 30 degrees of stone heat in summer, and a guide you cannot hear over the one next to you. After dark it is a few dozen people, a lit arena and a cool breeze through the arches. The catch is getting in. There are two doors, and they work differently.

How do Colosseum night visits work?

The Parco archeologico del Colosseo runs official evening openings on select nights in the warmer months, sold under the name "Moon over the Colosseum". Small guided groups, the arena lit from inside, no day-tour traffic. Dates and hours change every year and are published on ticketing.colosseo.it, the only place that sells them.

The problem is supply. Tickets are released a short window before each date and they are gone within minutes. If you have flexible evenings and an alarm, you can get them. If you are planning from abroad with fixed dates, you need the second door.

The second door is a guided evening tour from an operator with its own reserved evening entry. It costs more than the official ticket and you visit with a guide, which is either the point or the price, depending on how you like your ruins.

Option 1: the official evening opening

In recent seasons the official evening tickets have cost roughly €35 to €45. The visit is guided in small groups and covers the Colosseum, not the Forum or the Palatine. Set the alarm for the release, have your account on ticketing.colosseo.it ready before it opens, and pick two possible evenings. Our best time to visit the Colosseum guide tracks how the season's calendar is announced.

Who this is for: you are in Rome for a week or more, you can move an evening, and you do not mind refreshing a page.

Option 2: the guided evening tour

The Colosseum by Evening guided tour on GetYourGuide starts at €59: reserved evening entry, a 3-hour visit with a live English-speaking guide, 4.6 stars on 1,072 reviews, groups of 10, 15 or 25 depending on the option you pick, and the Arena Floor as an optional upgrade. Full refund if you cancel 4 days ahead. You pay €41 over a daytime ticket and €15-25 over the official evening price, and in exchange you can book it weeks out with your dates fixed.

Who this is for: fixed dates, one shot at Rome, and the night visit matters more than the price. Pick the 10-person option if hearing the guide matters to you; the price difference is what you pay for a quieter group.

Is the Colosseum night tour worth it?

As a second visit, yes, and by a wide margin. The building you saw at 11 AM with a thousand people on the second tier is a different building at 9 PM with forty.

As a first and only visit, no. The night visit covers the Colosseum alone. The daytime combo ticket is €18 and includes the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill for 24 hours, and the 8:30 AM slot gets you the upper tiers before the groups. If you have one morning, spend it there. If you have one morning and one evening, do both: the day ticket for the site, the night visit for the building.

What the night visit does not include

The underground. The hypogeum, the tunnels under the arena floor, is a separate daytime product. The evening tour offers the Arena Floor as an upgrade, which puts you on the reconstructed floor looking down into the tunnels, not inside them. If the tunnels are the reason you came, the underground tour is the one to book, by day.

The Forum and Palatine. Closed at night. Walk the perimeter on Via dei Fori Imperiali afterwards instead: the Forum is lit and empty, and free to look at.

Where to book

Official evening openings

Select nights, warmer months · roughly €35-45 in recent seasons · only on ticketing.colosseo.it · sell out within minutes of release

Guided evening tour

From €59 · 3 hours · live English guide · groups of 10/15/25 · full refund 4 days ahead · Arena Floor optional · GetYourGuide · 4.6★

Daytime standard ticket

€18 · Colosseum + Forum + Palatine, 24 hours · on sale from 8:45 AM Rome time, exactly 30 days before your date

Not included at night

Underground (separate daytime tour) · Roman Forum and Palatine (closed after dark)

Evening dates, hours and prices change each season. Confirm on the official site and on the product page before you book.

Last verified: October 2026

Frequently asked questions

Can you visit the Colosseum at night?

Yes, on select evenings in the warmer months. The official evening openings, sold as "Moon over the Colosseum", run as small guided groups with the arena lit and no day crowds. Tickets are sold only on ticketing.colosseo.it, released a short window before each date, and they go within minutes. If you miss them, guided evening tours on GetYourGuide hold their own reserved evening entry.

How much does a Colosseum night tour cost?

The official evening openings have cost roughly €35 to €45 in recent seasons; the current price is on ticketing.colosseo.it when the dates are published. The Colosseum by Evening guided tour on GetYourGuide starts at €59 for a 3-hour visit with a live English-speaking guide, with an Arena Floor upgrade as an option. A standard daytime ticket is €18.

Is the Colosseum night tour worth it?

If you are in Rome between late spring and early autumn and you have already seen the Colosseum by day, or you cannot face the heat and the 20,000 daily visitors, yes. You get the arena lit, the temperature down and a group small enough to hear the guide. If it is your only visit and you want the Forum and the Palatine too, take the 8:30 AM daytime slot instead: the night visit covers the Colosseum alone.

How do you get official Colosseum night tickets?

Only on ticketing.colosseo.it. The Parco archeologico publishes the season's evening dates, releases tickets a short window ahead of each one, and they sell out within minutes. Set an alarm for the release, have an account ready, and have a second evening in mind. Any other site selling "official" night tickets is a reseller, or worse.

Does the night tour include the underground?

The guided evening tour on GetYourGuide includes the Arena Floor only as an optional upgrade, and the underground (hypogeum) is a separate daytime product. If the tunnels are the reason you came, book the daytime underground tour and do the night visit for the atmosphere, not the access.

See it by day for the site. Come back at night for the building. If you can only do one, make it the morning, and leave the night for the trip when you have time to refresh a ticket page.