Rome Underground Tours: The City Beneath the City

Rome has several undergrounds, and most visitors only see one. For the city beneath the streets of the centre, book the Immersive Underground and Piazzas Tour: a guide takes you under Piazza Navona into the remains of the Stadium of Domitian, then past the Pantheon to the Trevi Fountain and down into Vicus Caprarius, the “City of Water”, where an imperial-era house sits beside a reservoir still fed by an ancient aqueduct. It costs from $107 per person and is rated 4.6 from 140 reviews (checked October 2026). For the early Christian burial tunnels outside the walls, the catacombs and Capuchin Crypt tour on this site’s homepage is the most-reviewed one.

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The undergrounds of Rome

Under the piazzas

Piazza Navona keeps the long oval of the Stadium of Domitian, the athletics stadium it was built on, and part of the stadium survives about four and a half metres below today’s square. Near the Trevi Fountain, Vicus Caprarius was found in 1999 during work on a former cinema: an apartment block rebuilt after the fire of 64 AD, later turned into a house, and a water tank of the Aqua Virgo, the one Roman aqueduct still working today. The Trevi Fountain district underground tour ($42) goes there with an archaeologist and adds a ticket to the fountain’s inner perimeter, and the Trevi Fountain and underground express tour ($35) is the shorter version.

The Colosseum underground

The tunnels beneath the arena floor are where animals, scenery and fighters waited before being lifted into the games. They are not part of a standard Colosseum ticket; you need a ticket or a tour that includes them, and places are limited. The Colosseum 3-in-1 tour ($54, 4.5 from 1,498 reviews) adds the Roman Forum and the Palatine and lets you choose the underground or the arena floor when you book, so pick the underground option if that is what you came for.

The catacombs and the crypts

The catacombs lie outside the old city walls along the Appian Way and the Via Salaria. The Catacombs of St. Callixtus ticket with a guided tour costs $16, and the same sellers offer the Catacombs of Priscilla for $16. Rome With Mike’s skip-the-line catacombs tour ($54) goes to the Catacombs of Domitilla and is rated 4.9 from 1,018 reviews. In the centre, the Capuchin Crypt under Via Veneto is decorated with the bones of some 4,000 friars; the Capuchin Crypt guide covers it.

Under St Peter’s

The St. Peter's Basilica, dome climb and underground tour ($33, 4.8 from 6,312 reviews) takes you down to the Vatican Grottoes, where popes are buried and where tradition places St Peter’s tomb, as well as up into Michelangelo’s dome.

Every underground tour, side by side

Prices per person, checked October 2026.

Which underground tour to book

Book whichever fits your Rome:

Prices, ratings and review counts from our October 2026 data check.

Is the Trevi Fountain underground worth it?

For an hour, yes, if you are at the fountain anyway: you see the water that feeds it running through Roman masonry nine metres down, plus the remains of a house with traces of its coloured marble. It is small, a site to visit with a guide rather than a big ruin; the Immersive Underground tour pairs it with the Stadium of Domitian, so you see two of these hidden sites on one walk.

Before you book

Bring something with sleeves for the tours that enter churches or the Vatican: St Peter’s asks for covered shoulders and knees, and the church above the Capuchin Crypt expects the same modest dress. The underground sites are cool and the steps can be steep, so wear shoes with grip. Every tour on this page has free cancellation up to 24 hours before, except the Colosseum 3-in-1 tour, which needs 7 days’ notice.