Colosseum and Hard Hat Tour of Emperor Nero's Golden Palace

Explore two of Ancient Rome’s most jaw-dropping remains on this special-access tour of the Domus Aurea and the Colosseum, in the company of an expert guide. After a 3-hour tour you’ll finish your morning wandering the ruins of the world-famous Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, birthplace of Rome.

Start your day in the Colosseum, where you’ll skip the entrance lines to walk inside the fascinating history of this iconic place. Your expert guide will tell you about the hunts, executions and gladiator fights that made the amphitheater famous, bringing history to life through storytelling.

Afterwards, it’s time to visit the building that dwarfed the Colosseum and actually gave it its name (although that’s a story you’ll have to wait to hear). Put on a hard hat, lace up your shoes and head underground to discover the Domus Aurea, Nero’s ‘Golden Palace’. This titanic villa once spanned somewhere between 100 and 300 acres and was filled with enormous rooms with 30-foot ceilings glistening with marble, frescoes, semi-precious stones, and gold. Nero threw giant parties here, entertaining guests on his man-made lake, or raining rose petals and perfume down on them as they ate dinner in his revolving dining room. The greatest treasure was a 120 foot golden statue of the man himself, which stood in one of the courtyards.

After Nero’s suicide, Romans did their best to erase any memory of the much-hated emperor, which mean completely burying the Domus Aurea under Trajan’s baths. But when it was rediscovered during the Renaissance it became a mecca for artistic explorers like Raphael, Michelangelo, Pinturicchio, the Marquis de Sade, and Casanova.

Now you can follow in their footsteps as your guide takes you to ancient rooms filled with frescoes and jaw-dropping Roman architecture. As a special treat, the excavators have added virtual reality displays that recreate the Golden Palace as it once was, so you can stand in the middle of Ancient Rome and watch it come to life around you.

Back above ground your guide will escort you to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. After ensuring that you skip the lines at the entrance, they will leave you to explore these world-class ruins in your own time.

• Domus Aurea (aka Nero’s Golden Palace)
• Colosseum
• Roman Forum (independent)
• Palatine Hill (independent)
• Ludus Magnus