Roman Forum & Palatine Hill (2026): Tickets, Entrances, a Route and What to See (2026)

The ticket. There's no ticket for the Forum alone or the Palatine alone; they're one site. The standard €18 Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine ticket gives one entry to the Forum and Palatine at any time within 24 hours before or after your Colosseum slot, and the Full Experience tickets (€24) give one entry over two consecutive days, including the SUPER sites. If you're skipping the Colosseum, or did it on another day, the Forum Pass SUPER (€18) covers the Forum, the Palatine, the Imperial Fora and the SUPER sites, with no time slot: bought online, it can be used any day within 30 days, and is valid for the day you first use it. It can't be used on free first Sundays. EU citizens aged 18 to 24 pay €2 for admission, and under-18s go free but must book. Buy only at ticketing.colosseo.it or the park's ticket offices; our Colosseum tickets guide covers the name and ID rules, which apply here too.

What the SUPER sites are. They're the smaller, fragile sites with capped visitor numbers: the House of Augustus (closed on Mondays), Santa Maria Antiqua, the Temple of Romulus, the Aula Isiaca and Loggia Mattei, the Palatine Museum (lower floor only), the Curia Iulia, the Domus Tiberiana exhibition rooms and the Horrea Piperataria. The House of Livia has been closed for restoration since 24 August 2026. Entry to the SUPER sites runs from 9.30am until an hour before closing, and once a site is full you wait.

The five entrances. The Arch of Titus, at the Colosseum end of the Via Sacra, is the obvious one if you've just come out of the Colosseum. Largo della Salara Vecchia, on Via dei Fori Imperiali, is the main Forum gate and has a ticket office. The Via del Tulliano passage is at the Capitoline end, by the Mamertine Prison. There's also Via del Foro Romano, and Via di San Gregorio, which puts you straight onto the Palatine. The old entrance by Trajan's Column is no longer in use. Ticket offices are in Piazza del Colosseo (by the Temple of Venus and Rome), Largo della Salara Vecchia and Foro Romano 1, and they close 75 minutes before the site does.

Winter hours (25 October 2026 to 28 February 2027). The Forum and Palatine open at 9am (the Colosseum opens at 8.30am) and close at 4.30pm, with last admission at 3.30pm. They're closed on 25 December 2026 and 1 January 2027. In winter that's a short day, so if you're doing the Colosseum too, book an early Colosseum slot and do the Forum after, or the Forum first and a late-morning Colosseum slot.

A route: allow two to three hours. Enter at the Arch of Titus, built by Domitian for his brother Titus after the Jewish-Roman War of AD 70; inside the archway, the panels show the triumph, including spoils from the Temple in Jerusalem. Climb the Clivus Palatinus onto the Palatine and head for the palace of the Flavian emperors (the Domus Flavia and Domus Augustana), looking down into the Palatine Stadium, a 161-metre sunken garden or exercise ground built by Domitian. Then cross to the Farnese Gardens, laid out for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese from 1537 on top of the Domus Tiberiana, where the terraces look straight down over the Forum. Then loop back down the Clivus Palatinus to the Arch of Titus and walk the Forum east to west: the vast Basilica of Maxentius, the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, the round Temple of Vesta and the House of the Vestal Virgins, then along the Via Sacra past the Basilica Iulia to the Curia and the Arch of Septimius Severus at the foot of the Capitoline. Leave by the Via del Tulliano passage, next to the Mamertine Prison, for Piazza Venezia and the city centre. With a SUPER-inclusive ticket (the Forum Pass SUPER or a Full Experience), add the Palatine Museum, the House of Augustus (not on Mondays), the Neronian Cryptoporticus (a 130-metre underground corridor under the Farnese Gardens), Santa Maria Antiqua at the foot of the Palatine and the inside of the Curia; the standard €18 ticket doesn't include them, and capacity limits can mean a wait.

What to see on the Palatine. The hill holds traces of Rome's Iron Age huts and, later, the aristocracy's houses, then the emperors' palaces: Augustus chose to live here, and the hill became so identified with imperial power that its name, Palatium, became our word 'palace'. The House of Augustus was the first emperor's home, the Domus Flavia and Domus Augustana were the main imperial palace, and the Palatine Museum holds finds from the hill, including sculptures from the Stadium area. The Farnese Gardens on the north side are a 16th- and 17th-century garden of terraces and stairs built over the ruins, with two aviaries at the top and the best view over the Forum. The House of Augustus and the Palatine Museum are SUPER sites, so they need a Forum Pass SUPER or Full Experience ticket.

What to see in the Forum. The Arch of Septimius Severus (AD 203) celebrates victories over the Parthians; look for the line in the inscription where Geta's name was removed after his brother Caracalla had him killed. The Temple of Vesta held the sacred fire that was never allowed to go out, tended by the six Vestal Virgins, whose house next door still has its courtyard pools and copies of statues of the chief Vestals. The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina became the church of San Lorenzo in Miranda in the 7th century, and its door, high above the Via Sacra, shows how deep the Forum was buried before excavation. Santa Maria Antiqua (a SUPER site), abandoned after an earthquake in 847, has walls painted in layers from the 6th to the 9th centuries. The Basilica of Maxentius, begun in 308 and finished by Constantine, once had a nave roofed by three huge cross vaults, and only its north aisle still stands; fragments of its colossal statue of Constantine are now on the Capitoline Hill.

Horrea Piperataria. Domitian's spice warehouses, open for the first time, are seen on a 75-minute educational tour on Mondays only (in English at 11.30am and 2pm, Italian at 12.15pm), for up to 10 people. It's €8 on top of the Forum Pass SUPER. Meet at the Largo della Salara Vecchia entrance.

Water, shade and comfort. The park has about ten drinking fountains, including near the south-east corner of the Basilica Iulia, by the Vicus Argentarius near the Tabularium, in the Farnese Gardens and near the Domus Augustana, plus drinking water in its eight public toilets and vending machines on the Via Nova, in the Farnese Gardens and by the Palatine Stadium. There are around 70 benches. The Forum lies in an open valley, so in warm weather start early and carry a refillable bottle.

Free days. Entry is free on the first Sunday of every month (next: 6 December 2026, 3 January 2027 and 7 February 2027) and on 25 April, 2 June and 4 November, so the next free day is Wednesday 4 November 2026. Tickets are handed out in order of arrival at the ticket offices, and the SUPER sites, the Curia Iulia, the Farnese Aviaries and the Nymphaeum of the Rain are closed on those days. The Domus Tiberiana opens, but not its exhibition rooms.

Nearby: after the Forum and Palatine.

The Circus Maximus lies along the valley between the Palatine and the Aventine: at 600 metres long and 140 wide, it was the largest venue for spectacles in the ancient world, built for chariot racing. Most of what's visible dates from Trajan's rebuilding. Today it's a long open valley with a free view up to the palace ruins on the Palatine. The Circo Maximo Experience offers an augmented and virtual reality visit; check its own site for times and prices.

The Mamertine Prison (the Carcer Tullianum) is just outside the Forum's Capitoline end. It was ancient Rome's oldest prison, where enemies of the state such as Jugurtha of Numidia and Vercingetorix of the Gauls were held before execution, and Christian tradition says Saints Peter and Paul were imprisoned here. Entry is by a one-hour guided visit, €15 for adults and €10 for ages 6 to 17 and EU students up to 25, booked through Omnia Vatican and Rome. It isn't accessible for visitors with walking difficulties.