Rome's Catacombs and the Appian Way (2026): Tickets, Closing Days and How to Get There (2026)

How the catacomb visits work. The catacombs belong to the Church and are overseen by the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, and the four in this guide work the same way: you can't wander in alone, you join a group with one of the catacomb's own guides, and the guided tour is included in a €10 adult ticket (€7 for children aged 7 to 16 and some students and clergy; free for young children: under 7, or under 6 at San Sebastiano). Tours last about 40 to 45 minutes at San Callisto, San Sebastiano and Priscilla; Domitilla doesn't publish a length. San Callisto and Priscilla ask every visitor to reserve ahead; San Sebastiano and Domitilla take bookings too. They don't all close on the same weekday, and each has a winter closure, so check the card below before you go. Resellers sell 'catacomb tours' for much more; the €10 includes the guide.

San Callisto is the biggest name on the Appian Way and the one most people choose first. Around half a million Christians were buried here, among them many martyrs and 16 popes, and the tour takes in the crypt of the popes and the crypt of St Cecilia. Tours leave every 30 minutes and take about 40 minutes.

Price: €10. Open: 9am-noon and 2pm-5pm; the last morning tour starts at noon and the ticket office closes at 4.50pm. Closed: Wednesdays, 25 December, 1 January, Easter Sunday, and for the season from 13 January to 10 February 2027. Book: online reservation is required, through Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi (omniavaticanrome.org), the one online seller the catacomb authorises; prepaid tickets are collected at the ticket office. Bus: 118 to the Catacombe di San Callisto stop.

San Sebastiano is a few minutes further along the Appian Way, under the basilica of St Sebastian, and its tours run all day without a lunch break. Tours are in Italian, English, French, Spanish and German.

Price: €10 if you reserve free and pay on site; the online guided-tour ticket, sold through omniavaticanrome.org, costs €12. Open: Tuesday to Sunday 9.15am-5.15pm, last entry 4.45pm. Closed: Mondays, 25 December, 1 January, Easter Sunday, and from 7 to 27 December 2026 for its annual closure, so it's the one to skip on a pre-Christmas trip. Bus: 118 from Colosseo or Circo Massimo, or 660 from Arco di Travertino (Metro Line A), to the Catacombe di San Sebastiano stop.

Domitilla is on Via delle Sette Chiese, just west of San Callisto, and is one of the largest catacombs in Rome, with about 17 km of galleries on four levels. It's the only open catacomb with an underground basilica you can visit, built in the late 4th century over the tombs of the martyrs Nereus and Achilleus.

Price: €10. Open: 9am-noon and 2pm-5pm; the last tour starts 20 minutes before each closing. Closed: Tuesdays. Its winter closure for 2026-27 hasn't been announced yet; the most recent one it published ran from 24 December 2024 to 21 January 2025, so check its site or call +39 06 5110342 if you're going over Christmas or in January. It's open on Wednesdays, when San Callisto is shut. Bus: 218 from San Giovanni (Metro Line A) to Fosse Ardeatine.

Priscilla is the odd one out: it's on Via Salaria in north Rome, by Villa Ada, not on the Appian Way. If you want one catacomb and don't want to spend half a day out of town, this is the one to do. It's known for its paintings, among them an image of the Virgin and Child dated to about 230-240, which the catacomb calls the oldest known depiction of the Virgin.

Price: €10, plus a €2 fee if you pay online. Book: every visitor must reserve a slot first, on the booking form on its site. Open: Tuesday to Saturday 9.30am-1pm and 2pm-5pm, Sunday 11.30am-1pm and 2pm-5pm; last tours at noon and 4pm. Closed: Mondays, 1 November, 8 December, 24-26 December, 1 and 6 January, for maintenance from 11 January to 1 February 2027, Easter Sunday, and 16-23 August 2027. Getting there: Metro Line B (towards Jonio) to S. Agnese Annibaliano and a 15-minute walk, or bus 63, 92 or 310 to the Priscilla stop.

The Appian Way and its park. The Via Appia Antica starts at Porta Capena by the Circus Maximus and ran south to Capua and Brindisi; the road has some 2,300 years of history. The Baths of Caracalla are a few minutes' walk from that first stretch, inside the city walls. The best-preserved stretch begins at the junction with Via Ardeatina by the little church of Domine Quo Vadis, where the Roman paving runs dead straight between hundreds of ruined tombs. Walking the road is free. The ancient sites along it belong to the Parco Archeologico dell'Appia Antica, which charges for a handful of them; the park ticket (€12) covers all of them for seven days from first entry, with booking.

The Tomb of Cecilia Metella is the round travertine tower everyone photographs, built between 30 and 10 BC for a wealthy Roman woman, probably the daughter-in-law of Marcus Licinius Crassus. In the early 1300s the Caetani family turned it into part of a castle, the Castrum Caetani, with the church of San Nicola alongside; inside are statues, sarcophagi and inscriptions from the road, and holographic projections in the burial chamber. It's a few hundred metres past San Sebastiano.

Price: €8 (the one-day ticket also covers the Capo di Bove complex, but that has been closed for restoration since 22 June 2026); €2 for EU citizens aged 18-24; €4 with a Roma Pass; free for under-18s. Open: Tuesday to Sunday; from 1 November to the end of February, 9am-4.30pm, last entry 30 minutes before closing. Closed: Mondays. Ticket machines on site take cards only.

Villa dei Quintili, about 4 km further out, was the largest country estate in Rome's suburbs, with a monumental fountain-front on the Appian Way, big bath complexes, a theatre and a circus, and a wine cellar uncovered in recent digs. The neighbouring Santa Maria Nova holds Roman roads, a cemetery and good mosaics, including a gladiator named Montanus. It's quieter than anything in the centre, and the park lets you enter up to 75 minutes before closing, so in winter be in by 3.15pm.

Price: €8; €2 for EU citizens aged 18-24; €4 with a Roma Pass; free for under-18s. Open: Tuesday to Sunday; from 1 November to the end of February, 9am-4.30pm. Closed: Mondays. Getting there: Metro Line A to Colli Albani, then bus 663 or 664 to the Via Appia Nuova 1092 entrance; or bus 118 to the Appia/Squillace stop for the Via Appia Antica 251 entrance.

The Park of the Aqueducts is a big, free, open meadow where the arches of the Aqua Claudia, up to 28 metres high, march across the countryside, with the Anio Novus channel running on top and the remains of the Aqua Marcia, Tepula and Iulia nearby. It's part of the same archaeological park but sits between Via Appia Nuova and Via Tuscolana, so it's a separate outing from the catacombs rather than a stop on the same walk. Go late in the afternoon, when the low sun lights the arches.