Rome’s great gladiator stadium, the Colosseum, is now open for moonlight tours. Find out what it means. By Deepali Sharma

One of Rome’s iconic monuments, the Colosseum, is now open for moonlight tours, allowing travellers to explore the huge Flavian Amphitheater at night.

These private moonlight tours are a big nod to the recent restoration work undertaken to protect the monument. Although a tad more expensive than the daytime tours, these special night tours do come with some perks. For example, after you take a guided tour of the main floor, you are taken to the underground dungeons known as hypogeum, where the gladiators and animals were once kept before a fight. Afterwards, visitors are also given a quick show of the mechanism of the exemplar trap door and the elevator system that was used to bring the gladiators and the animals to the main fighting area on the upper floor.

Local officials are hoping to protect the monument from any damage after the extensive, 33-month restoration it undertook, with an expensive ticketing system that will allow only discerning travellers to see the dungeons.

Don’t miss this exclusive chance to discover the beauty of Roman architecture under the moonlight.