---
node: spot_rome_colosseum
type: spot
slug: colosseum
destination: dest_rome
title: "Colosseum"
lead: "The Colosseum is the largest amphitheatre ever built, opened in 80 CE with a hundred days of games and holding perhaps fifty thousand people. Its missing south wall was quarried for later Roman palaces after earthquakes brought it down."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_rome_colosseum.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colosseum_of_Rome,_Italy.jpg"
image_author: "Wilfredor"
image_license: "CC0"
---

## Overview

Vespasian began it on the site of Nero's private lake, which was the point: the emperor was returning to the city ground his predecessor had taken for himself. Beneath the arena lies the hypogeum, two levels of tunnels, cages and lifts that raised animals and scenery into the fighting floor. The building survived because it was reused — as housing, workshops, a fortress and a church — and was only cleared as a monument in the nineteenth century.

## Highlights

The hypogeum and the reconstructed arena floor need a separate timed ticket bought well in advance; the standard ticket covers the tiers and the Forum. Enter at the time on the ticket, not before, and use the Forum entrance on Via di San Gregorio to skip the worst queue. The upper tier gives the only view that makes the scale legible.