How a visit works
The Domus Aurea is not a site you wander into. The park's Italian ticket page and English ticket page both say visits start every 15 minutes on the three opening days, so you book a specific start time.
The standard ticket includes the park's educational route with virtual reality. The park's Domus Aurea Experience page describes this as a guided tour in 12 stages with multimedia, including a projection on the site's history in the entrance gallery and a virtual reality installation in the Hall of the Gilded Vault. None of the park's pages gives a visit length for the Domus Aurea, so leave some slack either side of your slot.
Ticket prices: which one to buy
| Ticket | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Educational route and virtual reality | €26 | The standard guided visit, any open slot |
| Ticket only | €18 | Entry without the route or VR, two set slots a day |
| EU citizen, 18 until 25th birthday | €2 | Ticket-only option, same two unguided slots |
The ticket pages state that free admission and legal reductions apply only to the €18 ticket; the Italian page adds that they do not apply to the guided route with virtual reality. The park does not publish what a reduced or free visitor pays to join the €26 guided visit, so if you qualify and want the guided route, check the price the ticket shop shows for your ticket type before paying, or ask the park's booking helpdesk.
The €18 ticket saves €8 but ties you to the two unguided slots and leaves out the virtual reality, which is the main way to picture the decorated rooms. For a first visit, the €26 ticket is the better use of a weekend slot.
Opening days, times and closures
The site opens Friday, Saturday and Sunday only. The park's pages give two versions of the daily times:
- the Italian ticket page and the opening times page: visits every 15 minutes from 9:00 to 16:30, last entry 15:30;
- the English ticket page and the site page: visits every 15 minutes from 9:15 to 17:00.
In practice, book a slot well before 15:30 if you can; the shop will only offer the slots that exist.
The site page and the opening times page both say the Domus Aurea is closed on the first Sunday of each month, when the rest of the park is free. The Italian ticket page lists closure days that match the park's free days of 2025 (each first Sunday plus 25 April, 2 June and 4 November), so expect it to be shut on free days. For the coming months that means 1 November and 6 December 2026, and 3 January 2027.
The opening times page also says the whole park is closed on 25 December 2026 and 1 January 2027. Both are Fridays, normally an opening day, so the Domus Aurea is not available on those dates. Our Rome Christmas and New Year guide lists what else is open over the holidays.
Booking
The park's opening times page sets the rules that apply to every ticket:
- tickets are nominative for every ticket type, whether bought online, through the call centre or at a ticket office, and you show an identity document with the ticket at the entrance;
- sales open 30 days before the visit, on the official shop at ticketing.colosseo.it;
- you do not need to print anything: the English ticket page's FAQ says showing the receipt on your smartphone is enough.
The park's pages disagree on free tickets: the English ticket page says they cannot be booked and are collected at the ticket offices, while the Italian page says ordinary free tickets are booked on the ticketing site. If you qualify for free entry, check whether the shop offers a free Domus Aurea ticket for your date, and ask the booking helpdesk if it does not. Tickets can also be bought at a ticket office, but with few slots and only three days a week, booking online as soon as your date opens is the safer choice.
The Domus Aurea is not part of the Colosseum tickets, and the park says there are no cumulative tickets. Our Colosseum ticket guide explains what each Colosseum ticket covers and who enters free across the park; if you want both on one day, book the two time slots with a generous gap, since the park publishes no visit length for the Domus Aurea.
Getting there
The site page places the Domus Aurea on Viale della Domus Aurea at the corner of Viale Serapide, on the Colle Oppio hill just north-east of the Colosseum. Visitors enter from Viale Serapide; the site page says the work site is reached by entering Colle Oppio park from Via Labicana, and the opening times page refers to an entrance from Via della Domus Aurea.
- Metro: Colosseo (line B).
- Bus: 51, 85 and 87.
- Tram: 3.
For tickets and tap-to-pay on the metro, see our Rome metro and bus tickets guide.
If you cannot get a slot
Slots are limited to three days a week, so they can run out. Check again on the day sales open for later dates, consider the €18 unguided slots, or look at the Domus Aurea Highlights visits on the third Thursday of the month. If you are in Rome only from Monday to Thursday, the Domus Aurea is not an option; the Baths of Caracalla are another large imperial site, and our guide gives their days and hours.
