Getting exactly the tour you want at midnight or later exactly 30 days before your visit is very hard. This guide can help.
If you are a little flexible on time, you can get in to the GUIDED tours more easily than the main ticket. We did the full underground experience because we wanted to see where the gladiators prepared. There are other options at the site below. But this is the path that was successful for me.
PREP 90 to 40 DAYS BEFORE YOUR VISIT
Go here:
https://ticketing.colosseo.it/en/
Then we chose Individuals (up to 8 people); Groups is for 9 to 25 people).
You should then be here:
https://ticketing.colosseo.it/en/categorie/singoli-1-8-persone/
Choose your path, by hitting the PURCHASE button and you will be redirected to a site
https://ticketing.colosseo.it/en/eventi/full-experience-sotterranei-e-arena/
1) NEVER select Number of Participants on the calendar pages. It wastes time because it hides dates that don't match your party size, but when you are scrambling for tickets it's an extra step. At checkout they will let you know if you can get your number of tickets.
Always ignore this unless you are picking a date within 30 days.
2) Ignore the calendar on this page and go straight to GUIDED TOURS - way fewer people pick this because it is 8 EURO more. BUT a) It is so worth it to have a guide, b) you can actually get tickets, and c) it's only eight bucks per person.
The GUIDED Tours link looks like this:
Guided tours are available here
3) Bookmark the Guided tour site so you can easily revisit it.
The URL should have "percorso-didattico" on the end of it. That means "Educational Path".
OPTIONAL STEP: CREATE AN ACCOUNT AND LOG-IN BEFORE EACH VISIT
OK. Now that you are here this is how to avoid PAIN.
40 DAYS BEFORE YOUR VISIT
4) 40 days before your visit go to your bookmarked site. Look on the calendar for any open date. In the example below, I can see the 22nd of August is open. This isn't my desired date, but that's fine. If there aren't any, just check back the next day. Slots open and close all the time. A minute before I took this screenshot, the 21st was open. A few minutes later the 17th opened up.
When I click on the 22nd I will see the timetable. Almost everything will be sold out, but now I can see when the tour times are and plan when I will need to get online for my REAL date.
Below I can see there are nine (9) English tours starting at 9:30am through 4:50 pm. If you can, select the same day of the week you are planning to go, which will be the best indicator of tour times for your real day.
The calendar will open Exactly 30 days to the minute of the future tour date/time. So you need to calculate what the time is where you are buying the tickets.
Example:
In the US, you have to know if you are on Daylight Savings Time to get exactly the same time they open up in Italy. In January, when I did this we were not on DST, so Texas was eight (8) hours different. But in summer we are only seven (7) hours behind.
So, if I want the 10am slot, I would try at seven hours earlier which is 3am.
5) Write down all the tour times you are OK with and the time in your location that they will go on sale.
EARLY MORNING 30 DAYS BEFORE YOUR VISIT
6) EARLY MORNING on the date of sale you should have your timetable from Step 5 in front of you. Access the site again via your bookmark in Step 3. (for Full Underground Tour it was this: https://ticketing.colosseo.it/en/eventi/full-experience-sotterranei-e-arena-percorso-didattico/)
7) Click the right arrow to get to one month out.
7a) If it says Not available Online it means one of two things (1) Colosseum is closed that day or (2) tickets are not yet on sale (you're too early) #1 is rare
7b) If it just shows the date then click it and GO GO GO! Skip to step 9
7c) If you are approaching your BUY time on your timetable, then you may see either "Not available online or the little ticket with a line through it SOLD OUT icon.
This is normal. You are exactly where you are supposed to be.
9) In the minute leading up to your time refresh the page. REFRESH on your browser (the little circle arrow in the top left). You may have to do this a few times.
9a) It may switch the calendar back to the current month - just hit the calendar right arrow.
9b) It may kick you totally out to a page to detect if you are human.
Don't freak out. Just do this:
9bb) If you hit the back arrow instead of refresh or are forced to take the Human test in 9b you may be sent back to the NOT GUIDED TOUR page. If this is the case, click the Guided tour link Step #2 above. Then click the right arrow on the calendar. It's just two clicks and you won't lose much more time.
10) If you are lucky you will see your planned date with no Icon or Words:
Click it and skip to Step 11.
If you see the SOLD OUT Icon just keep refreshing. People will return tickets and it can revert to available.
If you try for a few minutes and it looks like it is really sold out, try again in 15 minutes (see step 13 for why), then go have a snack and return for the next time slot. Then try again.
Here's how it went for me:
I did a dry run the day before and saw the behavior of the tickt buys. Early morning tours went really fast. Later ones not as fast.
On the day of my real date:
9:30 and 10am slots - both tours were too early for us and was 1:30/2:00 am in Texas. I didn't even try.
Got online at 3am to try for 11am. Was too slow.
Got some coffee.
Tried again at 11:45am Italy, 3:45am Texas and got to the next page, but I couldn't pick seven people. If I had picked seven people using the dropdown at the top of the page it would have just said sold out, but every refresh I'd have to select it again. I stand by step one - the dropdown is a timewaster for 30-day-out tickets.
At 12:15 / 4:15 Texas time, I got in:
Resume here from step 10 above
11) Looks like this, but the time will be open:
12) Click the available slot and your page will continue to:
This is where you will put in the number of people. (See? no point in doing it above)
Hopefully you can get your whole party in at the same timeslot. Else try to break it up. Get some in now and some in the next time slot.
Do this step 12 fast or you may still lose out.
13) Once past the number of tickets screen, you should get to a page where you have to fill in additional data. I think your number of tickets is reserved now for 15 minutes, indicated by the evil timer at the top.
14) At the next page you can log in if you have not already, or you can proceed without registering, and you can confirm. Then you can pay.
15) Everything should be normal after that. Once you get there, show your tickets to a guide outside the Colosseum entrances and they can tell you where to enter. Ignore the people up on the concourse above the Colosseum, they are trying to SELL tickets.
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