On day two, we walked from our hotel to the ticket booths at the Roman Forum just after 10.30am. It was straightforward to locate and there were hardly any queues at all. We showed them our daughter’s disability card at the ticket booth and they offered us a disabled ticket and carer tickets for free. EU children under 18 can get free entry. Hence we only paid 18 euros for one adult.
This ticket is valid for 24 hours for entrance to the Colosseum, without access to the arena, and one entrance to the archaeological area of the Roman Forum, Imperial Fora and Palatine Hill. The ticket does have scheduled entry timing to the Colosseum. The queue at the Colosseum was huge but we didn’t take long to enter and passed through security quickly.
There are lifts provided for people with difficulty walking or children in prams. The stairs to levels 1 and 2 can be quite arduous for some people as they are uneven, narrow, steep and tall. There are handrails on the sides and middle, but the crowds of people can be quite challenging.
There are plenty of artefacts to look at and explanations are provided on the posters. We then walked outside the second level with panoramic terraces and took a few photos. As it was super hot (mid-day 35 degrees), most of our selfie photos didn’t look great.
The building does look spectacular and grand. No doubt, this place is very well preserved. I think we did the right thing by going to the top level 2 and working our way down. There were plenty of photo opportunities for the whole arena. As this ticket does not include the arena nor the underground, after visiting the ground floor, we made our way to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.
To be honest, you can view most of the Roman Forum from the outside and take as many photos as you want without any crowds at the top view of Via di S. Pietro in Carcere. Not far from Piazza del Campidoglio, a Hilltop square designed by Michelangelo, lined with museums and you can also take good photos from there.
We then went to the Roman Forum and had a quick look. The heat was unbearable hence we did not fully appreciate the various monuments that were built through the centuries.
To access Palatine Hill, you go through the Roman Forum. Again, there were many ruins and monuments for you to appreciate.
I do think we went at the wrong time as the temperature was unbearable, plus there were a lot of renovations around the area. It makes it difficult to walk on pavements, especially as a lot of their buildings are covered in fences and also makes it hard to take good photos without any construction machinery in your view.