A new ticketing system for Rome’s most famous landmark, the Colosseum, is being launched this year, which will see prices rise by 33 per cent.
The “differentiated” system is currently in the process of being introduced at the site, with visitors being asked to pay €16 as of November 1. A ‘basic’ ticket currently costs €12 and provides access to the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill.
Visitors can buy, as of this week, the new ‘super’ ticket, which also includes sites such as the House of Augustus and the Santa Maria Antiqua church.
As of November, the ‘full experience’ ticket will provide access to all the above sites over the course of two days for €22.
According to Ansa, Colosseum archaeological park director Alfonsina Russo, said new routes and technological innovations had been added in 2018, as well as improved accessibility.
She added that growth had been steady over the past 20 years, “to the point of reaching the maximum limit of visitors. For security reasons, the monument cannot have more than 3,000 in it at the same time. The ‘super ticket’, for example, makes it possible to access ‘Super’ sites when the Colosseum is ‘full’. Some 60 million people or 0.8 per cent of the global population have visited the Colosseum in the last 10 years.”
Russo added: “The number of visitors is in continual and strong growth, even higher than that of tourists arriving in Rome.”
The Colosseum archaeological park is the fourth most popular cultural site in the world (after the Louvre, the Great Wall of China and the National Museum of Beijing).
Culture ministry undersecretary Gianluca Vacca and Rome deputy mayor Luca Bergamo also announced that a system to cut queueing times may be introduced “soon”, possibly in the next year.
The same system was introduced at the famous Uffizi art gallery in Florence, Italy last year on days when the art museum is free.
Image:
Share this