Roman amphitheatres in Italy compared: the Colosseum, Verona and Pompeii

The short answer

The Colosseum, the Verona Arena and the amphitheatre of Pompeii were built for the same spectacles, but visiting each is a different kind of decision.

• The Colosseum is part of the Colosseum Archaeological Park, which also covers the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill.[1]
• The Verona Arena is a civic monument by day, sold through the City of Verona's Civic Museums, and the stage of the Fondazione Arena di Verona's Opera Festival in summer.[5][6]
• Pompeii's amphitheatre is one building of the excavated city, and Piazza Anfiteatro is one of the three entrances the Archaeological Park of Pompeii lists for the site.[8]

So the useful question is not which amphitheatre to see but what each visit is attached to: a park of Roman ruins, a working venue in a living city, or an ancient town.

Age: three dates, one of them disputed

The Archaeological Park of Pompeii dates its amphitheatre to 70 BC, built on the initiative of the magistrates Caius Quinctius Valgus and Marcus Porcius, and calls it the oldest of the amphitheatres known from Roman times.[7] Turismo Roma, the City of Rome's tourism portal, says the Colosseum was begun in 70 AD and finished in 80 AD under Titus.[1]

Verona sits between them, but its official sources disagree on where. The Fondazione Arena di Verona says the Arena was built in 30 AD, "roughly between the reigns of Augustus and Claudius".[3] Italy's national tourism portal says it was built during the reign of Claudius, around 41-42 AD, decades before the Colosseum was inaugurated in 80 AD.[4] XTOUR gives both and does not choose.

Size and capacity

Turismo Roma gives the Colosseum as 189 metres long, 156 metres wide and over 48 metres high, holding about 50,000 spectators.[1] For Verona the two official sources again differ: the Fondazione says 140 by 100 metres and 31 metres high, while italia.it gives axes of 152.43 and 123.23 metres. Both use the figure of 30,000, italia.it for the Roman building's original capacity and the Fondazione for its seats today.[4][3] The Pompeii Park's page gives no dimensions, but says the amphitheatre could hold up to 20,000 spectators, from Pompeii and from neighbouring towns.[7]

Who runs each, and what a visit is part of

The Colosseum. Turismo Roma places the Colosseum in the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo together with the Roman Forum and the Palatine, and gives ticketing.colosseo.it as the online sales channel.[1] Italia.it lists the park as also covering the Arch of Constantine with the Meta Sudans and the Domus Aurea.[2] Turismo Roma notes that the Forum and Palatine are one archaeological area that cannot be entered a second time on the same ticket, and that the underground passages can be visited only in some periods of the year.[1] XTOUR could not open colosseo.it on 2026-10-09 (connection reset), so the park's own ticket rules are not quoted here; the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine tickets guide covers them.

The Verona Arena. Here the monument and the theatre are sold separately. Verona's official tourist board says monument tickets are sold at the gate 5 entrance or online through the Civic Museums' booking site, with an entry time.[6] The Fondazione, which sells the opera, refers questions about visiting the monument to the City of Verona.[5] See the Verona Arena guide.

Pompeii. The amphitheatre is not ticketed on its own. The Park says its official ticket offices are only at the Porta Marina, Piazza Anfiteatro and Piazza Esedra entrances, that tickets carry the holder's name, and that daily entries are capped at 20,000, with time slots from 16 March to 14 October. One of its site tickets is described simply as "only the ancient city of Pompeii".[8] XTOUR's reading is that the amphitheatre, a building of the ancient city, falls under the site ticket; the Park publishes a separate list of the buildings open to visit, which XTOUR has not checked for the amphitheatre. Pompei is a municipality of its own, not a district of the city of Naples: the Park names the Comune di Pompei as a partner in its concert season.[9] See Pompeii, Herculaneum and Vesuvius compared.

Which ones still hold performances

All three are used for events today, in different ways.

Verona's Arena has hosted the Fondazione's Opera Festival since 10 August 1913.[3] Pompeii's Park announced on 21 May 2026 the presentation of a third season of concerts in the amphitheatre, alongside evening walks and themed visits in the Park, under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and the Park and organised with the Campania Region and the town of Pompei.[9] Turismo Roma says the Colosseum periodically hosts temporary exhibitions and modern shows.[1] XTOUR's reading is that only in Verona is performance the building's main public identity, with a season, a foundation and a box office of its own.

What the buildings tell you

Each official page stresses something different, and the differences are useful on site.

• Pompeii is the one whose story is local. The Park describes external two-flight staircases to the upper seats, a building placed on the edge of town to ease the movement of crowds, a parapet painted with gladiators and inscribed with the names of the magistrates who paid for the seating, and a brawl in 59 AD between the people of Pompeii and of Nocera, after which the Senate in Rome closed the arena for ten years, a ban withdrawn in 62 AD after the earthquake. It was excavated in 1748 and again in 1813-1814.[7]
• The Colosseum is the one shaped by Rome's emperors. Turismo Roma says it took its name from a colossal statue of Nero nearby, stood on the site of the artificial lake of Nero's Domus Aurea, had an arena of wooden boards covered with sand, lost its gladiator games when Valentinian III abolished them in 438, and was later quarried for building stone.[1]
• Verona is the one that stayed in use. Italia.it says the Arena was built just outside the ancient walls, that its outer ring was demolished under Theodoric and partly collapsed, perhaps in the earthquake of 1117, and that it later served residential, commercial and judicial uses before the opera began in 1913.[4]

What XTOUR does not know

XTOUR does not publish prices, opening hours, visit lengths, accessibility or crowd levels for any of the three. It could not read the Colosseum park's site or the City of Verona's Civic Museums site, and it has not checked whether Pompeii's amphitheatre is on the Park's list of open buildings on a given day. It does not resolve the Verona Arena's date or dimensions, and it does not rank the three by age or size beyond what the pages above state.

For the cities, see the Rome and Verona destination pages.