The Roman Forum and the Palatine: tickets, route and what is left

Ticket and entry

There are two options:

• You are doing both the Colosseum and the Forum — buy the ordinary EUR 18 ticket. The Colosseum at your booked time, the Forum and Palatine the same day or the next; the window is wider than people think.
• You do not need the Colosseum — there is a separate Forum Pass SUPER for the Forum, the Palatine and the Imperial Forums.

How the sale works and why tickets open exactly 30 days ahead is covered in our guide to Colosseum tickets and what they include.

The route: top down, not bottom up

The mistake most people make is to enter the Forum from below, walk the Sacred Way and leave without ever understanding what it was. From below the Forum looks like a yard full of rubble.

The reverse order works:

1. Go up the Palatine first. It is the hill above the Forum, included in the same ticket. From up there the whole site reads as a city: you can see the streets, the square, the temples and how it all sat together.
2. Stand at the viewpoint by the Farnese Gardens. The best view of the Forum, and a free part of your ticket that many people skip.
3. Go down into the Forum itself and walk the Sacred Way to the Arch of Titus. Now you know what is where.

What you are actually looking at

Five anchor points that hold the whole site together:

• The Temple of Saturn — eight columns, the most recognisable outline in the Forum. The state treasury was kept inside.
• The Curia — the brick building with a roof. The only one to survive almost intact: the senate met here.
• The Temple of Vesta — a round foundation. A fire was kept burning in it that was never allowed to go out.
• The Arch of Titus — its relief shows the capture of Jerusalem, one of the few places where ancient propaganda is literally visible.
• The Basilica of Maxentius — three giant vaults. They show how tall Roman buildings really were.

How to explain it to a child

The Forum is the hardest place in Rome for children, because you have to look at what is not there. What helps:

• Start from above. From the Palatine you see the plan, and the “city” becomes a city rather than a heap of stones.
• Hunt rather than listen. Find a column with holes left by iron clamps. Find where the road is worn by wheels. Find the arch whose relief shows trophies being carried.
• Compare with today. The Curia is parliament. The basilica is the court and the stock exchange. The Temple of Saturn is a bank. Translated like that, the Forum holds for forty minutes.
• Do not go at midday. There is no shade at all.

Is the SUPER supplement worth it

The SUPER sites — the House of Augustus, the House of Livia, the Temple of Romulus, the Palatine Museum — are not in the ordinary ticket; the supplement is EUR 4. They are interiors with frescoes and mosaics.

With children under ten we would not pay it: by that point the child has already walked their limit, and frescoes need attention of their own. Adults without children should take it — the House of Livia is worth it.

If the Forum is in your one-day plan, see how it fits the route: Rome in one day with a child.