It has been 17 years since I was there and I think at that time we were abel to go inside what was left of the Colosseum, is this still the case?<BR><BR>Michael

Michael - You can still tour the colosseum, just make sure you get there as early as you possibly can - the lines are HUGE. When you buy your tickets you can also buy a ticket for a tour. The tour is only about 1/2 hour but it doesn't cost very much anyway, so I thought it was money well spent.<BR><BR>Enjoy Rome!

Michael - I've been to the Colsseum the last two summers. Yes, you can go in - the lines were not long last summer but we were there before lunchtime. We did an audiotour - where you rent the recording and headphones and you can walk around on your own and listen - I liked that better than the tour we did the summer before with the guide because we could go at our own pace - you could skip over sites or listen twice . Either way, I think the Colosseum is one of the most interesting sights in Rome. Have fun

Just got back from Rome. The Colosseum was just as impressive as I thought it would be. I was there right at 9, and could have walked straight in. I came back at 2, and waited for maybe 5 minutes for a ticket. There was a crowd inside, but it wasn't bumper-to-bumper by any means, and there is plenty of room to spread out. I didn't take the tour, but I was happy with the $3 audioguide (as I was at most venues that offered audioguides).<BR><BR>The $7 ticket also admits you to the Palatine next door, the hill where Rome was most likely founded, which was a nice side-trip. With all the feral cats up on the hill, it was almost like a zoo. Take some extra prosciutto for the Roman mountain lions.

if you do come across lines to get a ticket at the colosseum, the way to avoid them is to buy your ticket down the street at the counter for the forum which covers both the forum and the colosseum. we bought there, had no line, and were able to get into the colosseum without a wait. and there was HUGE line when we were there just this past march.

oh, and michael, be prepared for a shock. the last time i'd seen the colosseum was about 18 years ago, and it is totally different now. the cats are gone and you can no longer roam freely around the structure...scaffolding everywhere. i know they need to do this to keep it from deteriorating completely, but it is such a different atmosphere that i found myself quite disappointed. i know that's politically incorrect, but hey...

I did a tour of the Colosseum and Forum with the Scala Reale organization and it was excellent. We spent about 90 minutes in the Colosseum alone, if I recall correctly, and out guide was able to explain what all those rocks and broken columns really meant. Can't praise the tour highly enough.<BR><BR>there is also an audioguide, I understand.

Jan-There were cats there last year (2001), altho not nearly so many visible as before -- but my daughter took almost a whole role of film of Colosseum cats!