Rome Highlights: Vatican Museums & Colosseum

PLEASE NOTICE: Confirmed time is not always the same time you requested; museum automatically confirms the closest available time on the same date if requested time is sold out. Tickets will be confirmed upon availability of museum. Please note time confirmed can be ANY TIME during opening hours.

ATTENTION: You will receive one voucher for the Vatican Museums and one cumulative voucher for the other three sites; print them both as you will have to show them at the Vatican and at the Colosseum 15 minutes before each time confirmed.

PLEASE NOTE: Vatican Museums confirm the visit only two months before the date, so reservation guarantees the insertion into the waiting list. Credit card charge is made the business day after the reservation request.

VATICAN MUSEUMS:

The admission ticket to the Vatican Museums is valid for visiting the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel only on the date of purchase. It is also valid for entrance to the Vatican Historical Museum and Noble Apartment of the Lateran Apostolic Palace (near the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome) during regular opening hours if used within the five consecutive days from the date of purchase (included).

Maximum 10 people per group, tickets NOT refundable. IMPORTANT: The Vatican Museums require the name and birth dates of all participants of the group, please enter their names in specific field in the order form, once you have added the reservation to your shopping cart

The reservation allows you to enter the museum at confirmed date and time without queuing up, only at time confirmed on the voucher; delays on reservations are not allowed. It is advised to be at the meeting point 15 minutes before time indicated in the confirmation voucher. Your preferential entrance can, in any case, have a waiting time respect time indicated on the voucher due to the huge number or visitors entering the museums every day. Weekend a Firenze is not responsible for eventual delays related to inefficiencies of the Vatican Museums cashiers.

You will receive an e-mail with the confirmation of the booking, the voucher containing the reservation code and tour information. You are asked to print off the voucher so as to present it on the day of the tour. The reservation will be checked by means of the bar code present on the voucher. In case of loss of the voucher please consult the Customer Care Staff. To access the museums, you will have to show the Voucher you got by email together with a valid identification document.

Rooms closed at the moment of the visit will be indicated at entrance.
Access to the Museums is permitted only to visitors with proper attire.
All the reservations, dates and times might be changed or cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances related to activities of the Pope.
Reservations can be made until 4 days before the visit.

The Vatican Museums are the largest, richest, most compelling and perhaps most comprehensive museum complex in the world. Many treasures of the city's history are here, from both classical and later times, and many of the Renaissance's finest artists were in the employ of the Pope.

The Vatican Palace holds a collection of museums on very diverse subjects: displays of classical statuary, Renaissance painting, Etruscan relics, Egyptian artifacts, not to mention the furnishings and decoration of the palace itself.

The Vatican Museums are the Egyptian Museum, the Chiaramonti Museum, the Museum of Popes Clement XiV and Pius Vi, Gregorian Museum of Etruscan Art, Antiquarium Romanum, the Vase Collection, the Biga Room, the Gallery of the Candelabra, Gallery of the Tapestries, Gallery of the Maps, the Apartment of St.Pius V, the Sobieski Room, the Room of the Immaculate Conception, Raphael's Rooms and Loggias, the Collection of Modern Religious Art, the Sistine Chapel, the Apostolic Library, the Vatican Picture Gallery, the Gregorian Museum of Profane Art, the Christian Museum, the Missionary Museum of Ethnology, and the Carriage Pavilion.

Justly known as one of the most famous places in the world, the Sistine Chapel is the site where the conclave for the election of the popes and other solemn pontifical ceremonies are held. The ceiling as well as the wall above the altar bear the magnificent frescoes by Michelangelo. Pope Julius II commissioned the Florentine master sculptor and painter to decorate the ceiling between 1508 and 1512. Much later, from 1537 to 1541, Michelangelo was again called to create The Last Judgement on the wall above the altar, a fresco which would change the course of Western art.

Built according to the architectural design of Baccio Pontelli by Giovannino de Dolci between 1475 and 1481, the chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who commissioned it. A large rectangular room with a barrel-vaulted ceiling, it is divided into two unequal parts by a marble screen. The screen and the transenna were built by Mino da Fiesole and other artists.

Voucher #2: THE COLOSSEUM, THE ROMAN FORUM, THE PALATINE MUSEUM

The Colosseum is probably the most famous monument in the world. With its height of 48 meters (157 feet), the colossal elliptical structure has fascinated humans throughout history.

Construction of the Colosseum was begun under Vespasian as a symbol of the grandeur of the Roman Empire. It was inaugurated by Emperor Titus in the year 80 AD.

The popular name of "Colosseum" is due to a statue ("colosso") of Nero once situated next to the arena. The original name of this ancient Roman sports arena, the largest arena of its kind, is the Amphitheatrum Flavium.

The exterior borrows elements from Greek architecture. Every arch is framed by columns. From the bottom to the top, the columns are Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. The attic is decorated with Corinthian pilasters. Here, small windows once alternated with bronze plaques. Marble and metal were taken from the facade and interior of the Colosseum for use in later buildings.

The design of the Colosseum is a triumph of functional planning. The Colosseum consisted of four floors. It stood 160 feet high with four stories of windows, arches, and columns. It could easily accommodate as many as 50,000 spectators who entered through the 76 gates on the ground level. Two of the entrances were used by Emperor Titus and two for the gladiators. Barrel-vaulted corridors gave access to tiers of seats. The spectators were seated by rank with the topmost seats reserved for women and children.

The basement level, now exposed, was covered with a wooden floor strewn with fine sea sand. The level underneath contained elaborate corridors, service rooms, elevators, gladiatorial barracks, and rooms for wild beasts. During the first ten years of its existence, the stadium was filled with water and used for mock naval battles called Naumachie.

Most shows lasted all day beginning with comedy contests and exotic animal shows in the morning and professional gladiator events in the afternoon.

The Palatine Hill is located between the Roman Forum, the Velabrum and the Circus Maximus. It is one of the seven hills of Rome, and probably the site of the first settlements of the city. The western side of the Palatine Hill is where Roman mythology places the site of the dwelling of Romulus, as well as the cave where Romulus and Remus were raised by the she-wolf.

The Palatine Museum is located on the Palatine Hill, on top of what was once the palace of Domitian. The former Convento della Visitazione was built here in 1868. The museum was set up around 1930 by Alfonso Bartoli. In the beginning, only the first floor was used to exhibit the most important material, including findings from Diocletian's Baths. After WWII, items of greatest artistic importance were relocated to the Museo Nazionale Romano, while the Palatine Museum was dedicated to exhibiting items relating to the topography of the Palatine Hill and its monuments.

The museum was reorganized at the end of the 1960's. After a long closure period and recovery of Diocletian's sculptures, the Palatine Museum reopened to the public showing the artistic culture of the Domus from Augustus to late imperial times.

The Palatine Museum is entirely devoted to ceramics, frescoes, mosaics, inscriptions, sculptures and portrait heads actually found on the hill. Given the lasting importance of this relatively small area of the city, the museum's mere nine rooms offer a remarkably rich and comprehensive tour through ancient Roman history and art.

Ticket with "Skip-the-Line" reservation

- Full Price Tickets

- Reduced Price Tickets:

Children aged between 6 and 18 years
Students aged no more than 26 years on presentation of a student identity card (International Student Card) on the day of the visit
If a reduced price ticket is purchased without the required documents, the visitor will be asked to make payment of a full price ticket so as to enter. The reduced ticket will not be refunded.

- Free Admission (cannot be booked online):

Children under 6 (no need to consider them while booking)
Last Sunday of each month
World Tourism Day (September 27)
Directors of museums, ministries or governmental organizations assigned to archeological, artistic, artistic heritage preservation
Disabled (with 100% invalidity) and one companion each
Journalists authorized by the Direction of the Museums after clearance from the “Sala Stampa della Santa Sede”, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, the Foreign Press Association and the "Ordine Nazionale Italiano dei Giornalisti"
ICOM members (with valid membership card)
ICOMONS members (with valid membership card)
Patrons and Friends of the Vatican Museums
University professors (Department Chairs of Archaeology, Art History, Architecture and Ethnology), professors of academies with seat in Rome, may give special lectures in particular sections of the Museums on subjects within their specialization by presenting a written request to the Direction of the Museums. The authorization is not valid for a subsequent visit outside those sections.

Open from Monday to Saturday; entrance times will be indicated at the moment of the reservation.

Closure:
Sundays (except for the last Sunday of each month, excluding Easter, June 29th and December 25th and 26th)
January 1st and 6th (Epiphany)
February 11th (Lateran Pacts Anniversary)
March 19th (St. Joseph), 23rd and 24th (Easter - Easter Monday)
May 1st (Ascension Thursday) and May 22nd (Corpus Christi Day)
August 14 (Assumption Vigil) and 15th (Assumption Day)
November 1st (All Saint's Day)
December 8th (Feast of the Immaculate Conception), 25th (Christmas Day) and 26th (St. Stephen's Day).

COLOSSEUM

Ticket is valid for the Colosseum, the Palatine Museum and the Roman Forum, and it is valid for two days from the pick up and allows one entrance to each site.

Reservations are limited to 13 persons maximum.

Opening hours:
8:30 am - 4:30 pm from January 2 to February 15
8:30 am - 5 pm from February 16 to March 15
8:30 am - 5:30 pm from March 16 to 28
8:30 am - 7:15 pm from last Sunday of March to August 31
8:30 am – 7 pm from September 1 to September 30
8:30 am - 6:30 pm from October 1 to last Saturday of October (October 24th on 2009)
8:30 am - 4:30 pm from last Sunday of October (October 25th on 2009) to December 31
8:30 am to 2 pm April 11
1:30 pm - 7:15 pm June 2
Closed January 1, December 25. Ticket office closes one hour before closing time

Once the visit is confirmed, you can not cancel or modify.