Foro Romano & Palatino Disabled Access Rome Guide

The three gates and their lifts

The Park’s three main gates are all declared accessible in a wheelchair, and each works as entrance and exit:

• Largo della Salara Vecchia, with a lift that drops about six metres from via dei Fori Imperiali to the floor of the Forum;
• the Arch of Titus, with a platform lift over a difference in level of 1.40 m;
• Via di San Gregorio.

Both figures come from a Ministry of Culture release of 2015. Which gate involves the least climbing is not documented: no official source ranks them. A further lift at via dei Cerchi is given as under restoration, on a page not updated since February 2025: leave it out.

The accessible route, and where it stops

The route runs alongside the Via Sacra, not on it: the Via Sacra has steep gradients, irregular basalt paving and steps. The alternative is beaten pozzolana, which the Ministry says carries wheelchairs and pushchairs, and it reaches the House of the Vestals, the Forum square and the Curia. A lift serves the Curia Iulia at the level of via dei Fori Imperiali, a side the Park can restrict: check the notices on colosseo.it, since whether a restriction puts that lift out of use is written nowhere.

The Park declares 1.5 km of accessible paths and announces 2.0 km, an aim stated in 2015 and not yet reached. The top of the Palatine is the limit: the Park calls the climb “not particularly difficult” but says it stays conditioned, on some short stretches, by gradients and uneven paving, without saying which stretches or how steep. The Palatine Museum has a lift and two stairlifts.

Tickets, hours and what is on site

Admission is free for the person with a disability and for a family member or other companion who can show they belong to social-health assistance services, under Ministerial Decree 507 of 1997. The wording is the decree’s own: ask the ticket office what your companion must produce. The free ticket still has to be booked online or collected at a desk with proof; it is nominative, so bring ID. No official page mentions a priority lane, or says how long the accessible route takes.

The Forum and Palatine open at 9.00, half an hour after the Colosseum; from 25 October 2026 to 28 February 2027 the last admission is 15.30 and closing 16.30, a short window for a slow visit. Eight toilets are declared accessible, mostly at entrances and exits, with no full list published. Five wheelchairs are kept at the main entrances, and one golf cart moves visitors with walking difficulties who have their own chair, on booking; the Palatine shuttle from via di San Gregorio is still “being activated” and is not running. If you would rather arrive in your own chair, we rent wheelchairs in Rome and deliver to your hotel.

Getting there: metro B has no lift

The Park points to metro B at Colosseo, metro C at Colosseo-Fori Imperiali and buses 51, 75, 81, 85, 87 and 118. Line B is where plans come apart: there is no lift at Colosseo, only a stairlift, and ATAC’s own table shows it, a red cross under “Lifts” and a green tick under “Stairlift”. Access is by that stairlift, in your own wheelchair, booked through the ATAC ServiziAccessibili app, on 06.46954444 or at assistenza.prm@atac.roma.it. As a rule the equipment stops when no ATAC staff are in the station, remote-controlled lifts apart; ATAC asks you to check before you set out, on WhatsApp at 335.1990679 or at @infoatac.

The metro C station has lifts from concourse to platforms, but works there will affect how they run: confirm first. Every ATAC bus has a fold-out ramp and a wheelchair space, which makes the bus the steadier way in.

What the sources leave out

Neither the Park nor ATAC publishes the distance from the stops to the gates, or the paving outside. The Park’s English pages have not been updated since July 2022 and disagree with the Italian ones, so take the Italian as current. We cover the rest of the city the same way in our wheelchair accessible Rome guide.