Nhartmannphotos, CC BY-SARoman Forum: tickets, opening hours and what to see
Every Colosseum ticket also opens the Roman Forum, but the 24-hour ticket does not list the Curia, Santa Maria Antiqua or the Temple of Romulus: those are on the Full Experience tickets and the Forum Pass SUPER.
In short
- Every Colosseum ticket also gives you one entry to the Roman Forum and Palatine area.
- The 24-hour ticket leaves out the Curia Iulia, the Temple of Romulus and Santa Maria Antiqua: for those, take a Full Experience ticket or the Forum Pass SUPER.
- With the 24-hour ticket, your Forum entry time is free, within 24 hours either side of your Colosseum slot.
- Three gates lead in: Largo della Salara Vecchia, Via del Tulliano and the Via Sacra from Piazza del Colosseo.
- The paths are rocky and uneven: the park advises against high heels and flip-flops.
- On the free first Sunday of the month, the Curia Iulia, Santa Maria Antiqua, the Oratory of the Forty Martyrs and the Temple of Romulus stay closed.
- 130 × 50 mthe open square by the imperial period
- 203dedication of the Arch of Septimius Severus
- 608the Column of Phocas, last monument of the Forum
- 1898start of the state-funded digs led by Giacomo Boni
Don't miss
The Curia Iulia
The Senate House rebuilt by Julius Caesar, saved as the church of Sant’Adriano. It is not on the 24-hour ticket.
The Temple of Romulus and Santa Maria Antiqua
Two SUPER sites with restricted access, kept that way to protect their paintings from crowding.
The Arch of Septimius Severus
White marble at the northwest end, raised for the emperor’s victories over the Parthians.
The Temple of Saturn
Eight columns left of one of the oldest buildings in the Forum.
The Basilica of Maxentius
On the Velian Hill, the last great addition to the Forum, completed under Constantine.
Roman Forum tickets: how to get them
No separate ticket: the visit is made with a Colosseum Archaeological Park ticket.
Sold by ticketing.colosseo.it, at the official price.
| Ticket | Adult | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Forum Pass SUPERStandard entry | €18Young person, EU nationals and residents €2 | Name on ticket · ID checked at entry |
| Colosseum, Roman Forum and PalatineTimed entry | €18Young person, EU nationals and residents €2 | Timed slot · Booking required · Name on ticket · ID checked at entry |
| Full Experience ArenaTimed entry | €24Young person, EU nationals and residents €2 | Timed slot · Booking required · On sale 7 days ahead · Name on ticket · ID checked at entry |
| Full Experience AtticTimed entry | €24Young person, EU nationals and residents €2 | Timed slot · Booking required · On sale 30 days ahead · Name on ticket · ID checked at entry |
| Full Experience Underground and ArenaTimed entry | €24Young person, EU nationals and residents €2 | Timed slot · Booking required · On sale 30 days ahead · Name on ticket · ID checked at entry |
| Membership CardAnnual pass | €50Family €80 · Young person €25 | Name on ticket · ID checked at entry |
| Only ArenaPartial access | €18Young person, EU nationals and residents €2 | Timed slot · Booking required · Name on ticket · ID checked at entry |
| A Night at the Colosseum 2026Evening entry | €50Child Free · Young person, EU nationals and residents €28 | Booking required · On sale 7 days ahead · Name on ticket · ID checked at entry |
| A Night at the Roman Forum 2026Evening entry | €35Child Free · Young person, EU nationals and residents €19 | Booking required · On sale 7 days ahead · Name on ticket · ID checked at entry |
| Full Experience Passage of CommodusGuided tour | Price on the official site | Timed slot · On sale 7 days ahead · Name on ticket · ID checked at entry |
| Horrea PiperatariaGuided tour | €26 | Timed slot · Name on ticket · ID checked at entry |
Free entry (2026)
- Teachers
- Under 18s
- Visitors with disability and one companion
- First Sunday of the month (next: Sunday 1 November)
Which ticket is right for you?
The open-air Forum and the Palatine are enough
Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine
One entry plus the Roman Forum Museum, at any time within 24 hours of your Colosseum slot.
You want inside the Curia, the Temple of Romulus and Santa Maria Antiqua
Full Experience tickets
They list the three buildings that the 24-hour ticket leaves out.
You want the painted SUPER sites and come in from the Imperial Fora
Forum Pass SUPER
Entry to the SUPER sites only until maximum capacity, and never in the last hour before closing.
You come on the first Sunday of the month
Free first Sunday
The open-air Forum only: the Curia Iulia, Santa Maria Antiqua, the Oratory of the Forty Martyrs and the Temple of Romulus stay closed.
Your visit, step by step
Southeast end
The Arch of Titus
Start where the triumphs came down from the Velian Hill and walk the Via Sacra northwest.
On the Velian Hill
The Basilica of Maxentius
The last great addition, completed under Constantine in 312.
Between the two arches
The Temple of Romulus
Built by Maxentius for his son and later turned into the church of Santi Cosma e Damiano.
Between the two arches
The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina
Partly transformed into the church of San Lorenzo in Miranda.
On the southeastern edge
The Temple of Vesta and the House of the Vestals
Near the Regia, the former royal residence.
Between the two arches
The Temple of Caesar
Built by Augustus on the site where Caesar’s body was publicly burned in 44 BC.
Northwest end
The Arch of Septimius Severus
Finish by the white marble arch, the Temple of Saturn and the Column of Phocas.
The ticket that opens the Forum, and the buildings it leaves shut
The Roman Forum is part of the Parco archeologico del Colosseo. The park’s combined Colosseum tickets and the Forum Pass SUPER each give you one entry to the Roman Forum and Palatine area.
| Ticket | Forum and Palatine area | Curia Iulia, Temple of Romulus, Santa Maria Antiqua |
|---|---|---|
| 24-hour Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine | One entry, plus the Roman Forum Museum | Not on its list |
| Full Experience tickets | One entry | Included |
| Forum Pass SUPER | One entry | Until maximum capacity, and not in the last hour |
The guide to the Colosseum park tickets compares them all. What matters here is the difference inside the Forum itself.
The Temple of Romulus and Santa Maria Antiqua are among the park’s SUPER sites, where access is restricted because they preserve paintings that crowding could damage. The Forum Pass SUPER gives entry to those sites only until maximum capacity is reached, and its access to them ends one hour before closing time.
On the 24-hour ticket, you enter the Forum at the time you choose, within 24 hours before or after your Colosseum slot.
Avoid this mistake
The 24-hour Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine ticket opens the open-air Forum and the Roman Forum Museum. Three buildings in the Forum are not on its list: the Curia Iulia, the Temple of Romulus and Santa Maria Antiqua. They are on the Full Experience tickets and on the Forum Pass SUPER.
Three gates into the valley
The park lists three gateways for the Forum:
- Largo della Salara Vecchia (no. 5/6), the address the park gives for the Forum, with an elevator at the entrance
- the gateway of Via del Tulliano
- the Via Sacra, walked in from Piazza del Colosseo.
The park’s three main entry and exit points are Largo della Salara Vecchia, the Arch of Titus and Via di San Gregorio, and all three are accessible to wheelchair users. An elevator also stands at the Curia Iulia, on the level of Via dei Fori Imperiali, and there is an elevating platform at the Arch of Titus. Five wheelchairs are available at the main entrances to the Forum and Palatine.
The closest metro stops are Colosseo on line B and Colosseo-Fori Imperiali on line C.
Good to know
Visitors on the Forum Pass SUPER arrive another way: their route comes through the Imperial Fora and reaches the Curia to enter the Forum.
A square of 130 by 50 meters, and why it sits so low
The Forum fills the small valley between the Palatine and the Capitoline. Space was short: the large public buildings had reduced the open square to a rectangle of about 130 by 50 meters by the imperial period.
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Its long side runs northwest to southeast, from the foot of the Capitoline to that of the Velian Hill. Two basilicas framed it: the Basilica Aemilia on the north side and the Basilica Julia on the south.
The ground you walk on is the result of centuries of filling:
- Late 7th century BCE: It was originally a swamp, and the park dates its reclamation to the late 7th century BCE. The draining is credited to the Tarquins and the Cloaca Maxima, the great sewer that emptied into the Tiber. The floods of the river and the erosion of the hills then kept raising the ground for centuries, and the Romans simply paved over what they could not remove.
- Reign of Augustus: The final travertine paving, still visible, dates from the reign of Augustus.
- After the 7th century: part of the area was buried under silt and became a meadow called the Campo Vaccino, the “cow field”.
Along the Via Sacra, from the Arch of Titus to the Arch of Septimius Severus
The Via Sacra was the route of the triumphs: victorious generals came down it from the Velian Hill into the Forum, then climbed the Capitoline Rise to the Temple of Jupiter.
At the southeast end, the Forum is sometimes counted as far as the Arch of Titus, where the walk toward the Capitoline starts.
At the northwest end, the white marble Arch of Septimius Severus, dedicated in 203 to the emperor’s victories over the Parthians, stands near the eight columns that remain of the Temple of Saturn, one of the oldest buildings in the Forum.
In front of the Rostra, the speakers’ platform, stands the Column of Phocas. It was erected in 608 and proved to be the last monument added to the Forum.
Temples that became churches, and stone for St. Peter’s
Several buildings survived the Middle Ages because they were turned into churches. The Curia Iulia, the Senate House that Julius Caesar rebuilt, became the church of Sant’Adriano.
| Ancient building | Church it became |
|---|---|
| Curia Iulia | Sant’Adriano |
| Temple of Romulus | Santi Cosma e Damiano |
| Temple of Antoninus and Faustina | San Lorenzo in Miranda, in part |
- 1536 For the triumph of Charles V, the papal authorities cleared some 200 houses and dug a new Via Sacra to pass under the arches of Titus and Septimius Severus.
- 1540 to 1550 Pope Paul III quarried the Forum intensively for stone to build the new St. Peter’s Basilica.
- 1898 to 1925 Systematic excavation only began after the unification of Italy, and the state-funded digs started in 1898 were led by Giacomo Boni until his death in 1925.
The Temple of Romulus and the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina were converted in the same way.
Other monuments were not so lucky, and the site kept changing after antiquity:
Piranesi’s views of the Forum record many features that have since vanished.
An accessible route, water and restrooms
An accessible alternative to the Via Sacra now reaches the main monuments: the House of the Vestals, the Temple of Romulus, the Lacus Iuturnae, the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, the square and the Curia.
- Water: There are drinking fountains in the Forum by the Vicus Argentarii and Tabularium, and at the southeast corner of the Basilica Iulia, near the exit onto Via Foro Romano, where the restrooms have a baby changing station.
- Snacks: Vending machines stand on the Via Nova.
First Sunday of the month
On the free first Sunday of the month, the Curia Iulia, Santa Maria Antiqua, the Oratory of the Forty Martyrs and the Temple of Romulus stay closed: to go inside them, come on another day.
Opening hours
| Period | Days | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| All year | Friday night visits | 7:30 pm to 10 pm last entry 8:30 pm |
| 1 October to 24 October | Every day | 9 am to 6:30 pm last entry 5:30 pm |
| 25 October to 31 December | Every day | 9 am to 4:30 pm last entry 3:30 pm |
| ||
Before you go
- The park warns that its paths are often rocky and uneven, with ancient steps that are not always level, and it advises against high heels and flip-flops.
- You may not leave the marked paths or lean over railings.
- With the 24-hour ticket, plan the Forum within 24 hours before or after your Colosseum slot.
- Using a wheelchair? Come in by Largo della Salara Vecchia, the Arch of Titus or Via di San Gregorio, all three accessible.
Accessibility
- Lift
- Yes
Map and nearby sights
Frequently asked questions
Is the Roman Forum included in the Colosseum ticket?
Yes. Every Colosseum ticket also opens the Roman Forum, with one entry to the Forum and Palatine area. The buildings you can go inside depend on which ticket you hold.
Which ticket opens the Curia and Santa Maria Antiqua?
The Full Experience tickets and the Forum Pass SUPER. On the Forum Pass SUPER, entry to the SUPER sites stops when maximum capacity is reached and ends one hour before closing.
Where is the entrance to the Roman Forum?
The park gives Largo della Salara Vecchia 5/6 as the Forum address, with an elevator at the entrance. You can also come in by Via del Tulliano or along the Via Sacra from Piazza del Colosseo. The nearest metro stops are Colosseo (line B) and Colosseo-Fori Imperiali (line C).
Is the Roman Forum wheelchair accessible?
Largo della Salara Vecchia, the Arch of Titus and Via di San Gregorio are all accessible, with elevators at Salara Vecchia and the Curia and a platform at the Arch of Titus. An accessible route replaces the Via Sacra to reach the main monuments, and five wheelchairs are available at the main entrances.
Is there drinking water in the Roman Forum?
Yes, at fountains by the Vicus Argentarii and Tabularium, and at the southeast corner of the Basilica Iulia, near the exit onto Via Foro Romano. Vending machines stand on the Via Nova.
Nearby
Christoph Strässler, CC BY-SAArchaeological site0.5 km awayPalatine Hill
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FeaturedPics, CC BY-SAArchaeological site0.6 km awayColosseum
The arena floor. From the arena floor you see the whole cavea at once, the ring of seating that held the spectators.Rome, Italyfrom €18
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Oceanus and his chariot. In the central niche, Pietro Bracci’s Oceanus drives a shell-shaped chariot pulled by a restive horse and a calm one.Rome, Italyfrom €2
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The oculus. The open eye at the top of the dome has never been covered: rain lands on the floor and runs off through drains in the paving.Rome, Italyfrom €7Sources
- colosseo.it official 20 pages
- Wikimedia Commons 3 pages
- Wikipedia
- wikidata.org 2 pages
Facts last checked on 15 October 2026. Prices and opening hours change, often in January: confirm on the official website before you go.