Colosseum Glass Lift & Early Morning Tour

Italy Rome Travel

The VIP Colosseum Glass Lift And Early Morning Tour

by Steph Fox 17th October 2023

I had previously visited the Colosseum on a past visit to Rome, but this time I really wanted to do it differently. I’m not usually a guided tour sort of person, but for somewhere like the Colosseum they can actually teach you so much about the place you’re visiting. I did a lot of research on the types of Colosseum passes and tours, and found that a new tour has recently become available, the VIP Colosseum glass lift tour.

Disclaimer: My trip to Rome was in collaboration with Jet 2 City Breaks, I paid in full for my trip to the Colosseum myself.

Advertised on the official website, the VIP Colosseum Glass Lift and early morning tour has only been open to the public to book since June 2023. The summary is that you can go into the Colosseum between the hours of 7am-8:30am before it opens to the public, and via the Colosseum glass lift, access the higher levels that aren’t open to the general masses visiting who stay down in the main arena, or on the pre booked underground tours.

Despite this tour being advertised on the main website, you can’t actually book it here, and it’s a bit misleading as you can’t book by calling the call centre like it says, and tickets definitely aren’t 18 euros either! I learned all of this the hard way by waiting on the phone to speak to them, where they then told me that you basically have to find yourself a registered guide who can offer this tour.

They give you no additional information such as where to begin finding a guide, you’re left to figure it out yourself. Which is exactly what I did – so you don’t have to!

Visiting the Colosseum

The Colosseum is one of the best historic places you will ever visit, and judging by the queues and masses of people who visit it daily, everyone else seems to think so too. If you’re wanting to visit on a standard entry ticket, with access to the main levels of the arena and reconstructed floor, these cost from approx €18, and are available online here.

There are some price variations on ticket types, for example if you want to add audio or visual guides, and some different tours such as underground, with an archaeologist, evening tours etc. They go up to around €40-€50 if you want guides or fast track skip the line options, but be aware even the skip the line tickets result in you standing in line.

The specific underground floor tours do sound really interesting as they take you through the lower floors where the gladiators and animals were held before emerging out into public arena before the baying crowds. Your choice of tickets really depends on what you want to pay for, how long you want to spend at the Colosseum and for what convenience.

Tickets often include access to the Roman Forum too. It obviously gets SO busy with long queues around the Colosseum even with fast track, and look out for ticket touts selling them on the day. My advice will always be to go earlier in the day, or you could end up spending so much time queuing, and even once you’re inside it’s very busy and people are packed in moving slowly.

Personally I wanted to avoid that experience this time, so when I found the Colosseum Glass Lift Tour available before the rest of it opened I was really pleased, and more than happy to spend more to be able to do it.

The Colosseum Glass Lift Early Morning Tour⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Fitting a glass lift into such a precious and ancient monument was obviously a huge project, but it’s been done so cleverly to not take away from the monument itself, but to provide new views from the higher levels, and to provide broader accessibility for people who are unable to climb the 100 steps.

Finding a Registered Guide

The first thing you need to do is find your registered guide. I used Get Your Guide and this is the exact experience I booked. It says from £81.96 per person (at the time of writing with an offer applied), but for all the dates I looked at tickets were 119 euros which worked out as £101.84.

I booked four days in advance and it’s worth noting that at that point all the standard tickets had sold out for the full week by then, so plan your visit whatever ticket type you want in advance. It’s a good job I wanted to do this instead and didn’t mind paying for it. Group sizes for this experience can be no more than 7 people, as the lift only takes 4 at a time so it would take too long for any bigger groups to all gather at the top.

Once my ticket was booked it prompted me to download the app which was great and easy to use, it had my ticket stored, and it gave directions to their office which is about a 5 minute walk from the Colosseum, and where you meet the guide.

Get to the Colosseum early

Despite it being in the name that it’s an early morning tour, you do need to be at the tour office 15 minutes prior to your booked time, and I’d even recommend going 20 minutes before that, because honestly the Colosseum is even more incredible to witness without the crowds.

I was booked for 7:30am, I had to be at the tour office by 7:15am, and I was dropped off by my Uber just before 7. This gave me time to walk all the way around which I’d absolutely recommend doing. There was hardly anyone there and it was beautiful to see.

I got to the office on time where I was crossed off the list and met the rest of the group, as well as the guide. It’s just a short walk from the office to the Colosseum entrance, but the tour begins outside as the guide talked through the exterior of the Colosseum, the incredible Roman architecture and detail that went into the Colosseum, and some of the history. Did you know it took ten years to build?!

Arriving at the Colosseum entrance with nobody else there is honestly very overwhelming. Without the distraction of the crowds or the heat of the day it’s amazing to see it up close and the details that make up the ancient Romans place of entertainment so many years ago.

The Colosseum Glass Lift

The lift is fairly small so no more than 4 can go up at a time, we went up in two groups with the guide. At first you’re going through the lower darker levels, but then as you get higher you get your first glimpse of the Colosseum arena stretching out in front of you. It gets lighter and more open, until you come to a stop on the intermediate gallery which is between the second and third levels.

The remains of the Colosseum are more intact on one side than the other, and this is the side where you’ll find yourself. From this floor you can go up again to the level above via some stone steps, and even further again into the attic level.

You can explore the entirety of this first gallery level, with incredible views right across the arena below, it really was fantastic. From here you can see the difference in each section and how they were constructed differently for the different levels of class. The richest at the front with marble seats and much more space, with steeper rows so the poorer couldn’t look down onto them.

The guide showed us how the women were kept further back, not because they were seen as inferior but because it was thought they’d distract the gladiators! And the upper levels much more packed in, where even the homeless could visit for free and view the games through windows above.

From here you can also see across the Roman Forum, and key parts of Ancient Rome. Your ticket to the Colosseum includes entry to the Forum which is close by, so its a great thing to do straight after your Colosseum visit.

Before that though, we went up to the higher level, for more incredible views, and again into the enclosed attic space which has been lit to show what it would have been like. Walking among the dark tunnels and archways out into the arena you can vividly picture what it would have been like.

The guide pointed out the graffiti and symbols that were inscribed on the walls. You can even see the axe marks where the stones were shaped. In these upper levels which were for the poorer Romans, they didn’t bother smoothing over the walls or the edges, they were left as they were made.

The entire experience is absolutely fascinating, and it feels a real privilege to be able to explore it as such a small group, with no people below or in the Colosseum at all. The panoramic views are just incredible, and so is the knowledge of the guides I learned so much.

Although advertised as half an hour, we definitely spent longer than that in the Colosseum, we just had to be out before 9am when it opened to the rest of the public who were beginning to line up outside. I’d say the entire experience was just over an hour, and it was absolutely worth every penny. I came straight home and watched Gladiator.

There is very little open at this time, so be sure to take water with you for your visit, as parts of it are out in open air and it can get very hot up there. Due to the timing of the early morning tours, and your ticket allowing access to the Forum, it would be great timing to then go on to the Forum afterwards to continue your ancient Roman experience.

Being totally honest, despite being advertised as more accessible with the lift, I wouldn’t say this tour is suitable for people with mobility issues. The steps are very steep to go up, and in some parts to see the views you do need to be able to stand to look over the top.