Why go

The Baths of Caracalla are among the most impressive ruins in Rome and, for many visitors, a surprise. Built in the early 3rd century AD under the emperor Caracalla, they were a leisure palace for the people, with hot, warm and cold baths, swimming pools, gyms, gardens and libraries, all fed by a dedicated aqueduct. The brick walls still rise more than 30 metres in places, and you can wander among them in near silence.

Without the crowds of the Colosseum, it is much easier to imagine daily life here: Romans exercising, gossiping and bathing in rooms clad in marble and decorated with statues.

What to see

  • The caldarium. The great circular hot room, once covered by a dome nearly as wide as the Pantheon’s.
  • The frigidarium and natatio. The cold hall and the open-air swimming pool.
  • The mosaics. Large areas of geometric floor mosaic survive, including fragments of athletes.
  • The palaestrae. Two exercise courtyards on either side of the central block.
  • The underground. Service tunnels where slaves kept the furnaces running, and a Mithraeum, a temple to the god Mithras.

Plan your visit

The baths open Tuesday to Sunday and close on Mondays, 25 December and 1 January. From 25 October 2026 to 28 February 2027 opening hours are 9am to 4.30pm, with last entry at 3.30pm.

A standard ticket costs €8, or €2 for EU citizens aged 18 to 25. Until 10 January 2027 the price rises to €10, or €4 reduced, because it includes an exhibition of photographs by Frank Horvat. Entry is free on the first Sunday of the month. Tickets are sold on the Musei Italiani portal and at the entrance, where only cards are accepted. Booking is rarely necessary outside the first Sunday.

In summer the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma stages open-air opera and ballet in the ruins, a memorable way to see them after dark.

Getting there

From Circo Massimo station on Metro line B, walk about seven minutes south along Viale delle Terme di Caracalla. Tram 3 and several bus routes, including the 118 to the Appian Way, also stop nearby.

Tips

Allow one and a half to two hours. Much of the site is open to the sky, so bring water and a hat in summer and a layer in winter. The ground is mostly flat and gravelled, which makes the baths easier for families and visitors with limited mobility than the hilly Palatine. Combine the visit with the Circus Maximus, five minutes away, and continue to the Aventine Hill for its orange garden and famous keyhole view of St Peter’s. If you are heading out to the catacombs, bus 118 stops close by, so the baths make a natural first stop on a day along the Appian Way.

Look out for the information panels with drawings that reconstruct the rooms as they once looked, which make the scale of the vaults much easier to picture. Visitors are not allowed to climb on the walls or step onto the mosaic floors. There is little to buy inside, so bring a snack, and pace yourself in summer, when the sun reflects off the pale gravel paths.