Rome Underground ToursCatacombs of St. Callixtus: Entry Ticket & Guided Tour
A Catacombs of St. Callixtus tour takes you into the Crypt of the Popes, where nine popes and three bishops were buried, with an estimated half a million Christians in the galleries around it. This is the official entry ticket with a guided visit, sold by Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi — the Vatican's own pilgrimage operator — which is why it sits so close to the €10 door price. There is one thing to check before you book, and it is not the price.
Quick answer What the $16 buys, and the one thing to check before booking
This is the official St. Callixtus entry ticket with a guided visit, at roughly the door price. The inclusion list is exactly two lines — the entry ticket and the guided tour. Hotel pickup and food are listed as exclusions, so budget for bus 118 or 660 out to the Appian Way. The catch is language: this listing's guides work in Italian, German and French.
Key takeaways
- See how it stacks up against every Rome underground tour compared side by side
- Guides work in Italian, German and French — for English, book the skip-the-line English tour instead
- St. Callixtus is closed every Wednesday; the rotation table shows what stays open
- Photography is not permitted anywhere inside the catacombs
- No transfer is included — this is a ticket, not a day out
- No city pass covers it: the catacombs sit outside the state museum system. Why
About This Catacomb Ticket
About 30 minutes underground; tours leave every half hour
$16 per person — the door price is €10 full, €7 reduced
4.59 from 3,689 reviews on GetYourGuide
Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, the Vatican's pilgrimage office
Italian, German and French — English is not offered on this listing
Via Appia Antica 110, about 25 minutes by bus 118 from the Colosseum
Listing at a Glance
The same fields on every tour page here, read from the operator's own listing on 5 September 2026. "None stated" means the listing is silent, not that the answer is no. Prices and availability are set by the operator and confirmed at checkout.
- Tour name Catacombs of St. Callixtus: Entry Ticket & Guided Tour
- Operator OPERA ROMANA PELLEGRINAGGI
- Booking platform GetYourGuide
- Product ID t464126
- Starting price $16 USD per person
- Price last checked 5 September 2026
- Rating 4.59 out of 5
- Review count 3,689 reviews
- Review source GetYourGuide verified bookings
- Duration 30 minutes
- Guide language Italian, German, French
- Transport On foot; the site is on Via Appia Antica
- Group size None stated
- Pickup window Check availability for pickup times
- Hotel pickup Included
- Expected return None stated
- Skip-the-line Yes
- Minimum age None stated
- Difficulty underfoot Uneven ground and stairs underground
- Wheelchair access Not suitable for wheelchair users or people with claustrophobia
- Weather and conditions None stated
- Cancellation 24 hours before the start time
- Reserve now, pay later Yes
- Good to know None stated
- Ethical note None stated
- Underground site entered Catacombs of St. Callixtus
- Site closing day Wednesday
- Photography Not permitted inside
- Dress code None stated
- Booking requirement Not required; tours every 30 min
- Meeting point Meeting point varies by language option
Check Dates and Availability
Live prices and departures come from GetYourGuide. Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start time.
What the Half Hour Underground Covers
Thirty minutes is short, and St. Callixtus uses it on the parts that matter most.
The Crypt of the Popes
The guided route leads to the Crypt of the Popes, the burial chamber of nine popes and three bishops of the third century — the reason St. Callixtus is called the oldest official cemetery of Rome's Christian community rather than one more burial ground. The Greek inscriptions cut into the wall panels are original.
Next to it is the Crypt of St. Cecilia, named for the Roman matron who, by tradition, made sure martyrs were buried properly. Her body was moved to Trastevere in the ninth century; the crypt kept her name and a statue marking where she lay. If you go on to Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, you can see the other end of that story for a couple of euros.
The frescoes and the scale
The listing highlights the frescoes in the Cubicles of the Sacraments as among the oldest painted in any Roman catacomb — early Christian symbol-language rather than portraiture: the fish, the anchor, the shepherd carrying a sheep. Around them run galleries on multiple levels holding an estimated half a million burials.
What you will not do is wander. Every catacomb in Rome is guided-only, and the route is fixed. Thirty minutes is the whole visit, not a portion of it.
What the ticket does not include
The operator's own inclusion list runs to two lines: the entry ticket and the guided tour. Hotel pickup, drop-off, food and drink are all marked as exclusions. Nothing is hidden here — it is a ticket, sold at close to the door price, and everything else is on you.
- Included: Catacombs of St. Callixtus entry ticket
- Included: guided tour
- Not included: hotel pickup and drop-off
- Not included: food and drinks
- Not allowed: photography inside, baby carriages
- Bring: comfortable shoes and clothes
The Language Question, Answered Plainly
This is the single most useful thing to know before booking this particular listing.
Italian, German, French
The booking options on this listing read "Entry Ticket with Guided Tour in Italian", "in French" and "in German". English is not among them. The site itself does run English tours through its own ticket office — the catacombs offer Italian, English, French, Spanish and German — but this listing does not sell them, and turning up expecting one because the page is written in English is the mistake to avoid.
If English matters, the skip-the-line catacombs tour in English exists for exactly that, at 4.93 across 946 reviews — the highest rating of any underground tour compared here. It costs meaningfully more, and what the extra money buys is the language and a transfer, not a better catacomb.
Who this ticket is right for
Anyone who speaks Italian, German or French. Anyone who has already read up and mainly wants to be underground rather than talked at. Anyone travelling on a tight budget who is happy making their own way out to the Appian Way — at $16 this is the cheapest entry to any catacomb compared on this site.
It is the wrong booking if you are relying on the guide to carry the visit in English, or if you want the Appian Way itself to be part of the day. For that, the golf cart tour drives the ancient road with catacomb entry included.
Getting to Via Appia Antica 110
Three buses, no metro
There is no metro to the catacombs. Three Atac bus routes serve Via Appia Antica from different points in the centre, and which one you want depends on where you are staying rather than on price — a standard 100-minute ticket covers any of them. Routes as published by Atac and the catacomb sites, checked 5 September 2026.
- Allow 25 to 35 minutes from the centre either way
- St. Callixtus opens 09:00–12:00 and 14:00–17:00, closed Wednesdays
- Tours start every half hour, so a mid-morning arrival rarely means waiting
- "Skip the line" on a catacomb listing means the fee is prepaid, not that a queue is jumped
| Bus | From | Stops at | Walk |
|---|---|---|---|
| 118 | Colosseo or Circo Massimo | Catacombe di San Sebastiano | At the gate |
| 660 | Arco di Travertino (Metro A) | Catacombe di San Sebastiano | At the gate |
| 218 | San Giovanni (Metro A) | Fosse Ardeatine | 300 m along Vicolo delle Sette Chiese |
Making a morning of it
San Sebastiano sits about fifteen minutes further along the same road, and Domitilla is a similar walk west. Two catacombs in one morning is comfortable if their closing days line up — and on a Wednesday, when St. Callixtus is shut, San Sebastiano is the obvious substitute. Sundays close the Appian Way to through traffic, which is when Romans walk and cycle it.
St. Callixtus Questions
Is the guide English-speaking on this ticket?
No. This listing sells guided visits in Italian, German and French. The catacombs do run English tours through their own office, but not on this booking — for a guaranteed English guide, book the skip-the-line catacombs tour in English.
How long does the visit take?
About 30 minutes underground, with tours starting every half hour. That is the entire visit, not a portion of a longer route — every catacomb in Rome is guided-only and the path is fixed.
Which day is St. Callixtus closed?
Every Wednesday, plus 1 January, Easter Day and 25 December. It also shuts for an annual winter period — the official site still advertises dates that expired in February 2025, so phone ahead if you are visiting in January or February. The full closing-day table.
Can I take photos in the catacombs?
No. The listing marks photography inside as not allowed, as do the catacombs themselves. Baby carriages are also not permitted.
Does the Roma Pass cover the catacombs?
No. The catacombs are run by the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, a Vatican body outside the Italian state museum system, so neither the Roma Pass nor the state's free-first-Sunday scheme reaches them. What passes do and do not buy.
Is transport to the Appian Way included?
No — hotel pickup and drop-off are listed as exclusions. Buses 118, 660 and 218 all serve the road from different metro stops. If you would rather not deal with it, the Capuchin Crypts and catacombs tour includes transfers.
Page last reviewed September 2026. Price, rating and review count read from the listing on 2026-09-05. Prices, availability and terms are set by the operator and confirmed at checkout.
We may earn a commission if you book through one of our links, at no extra cost to you. Full affiliate disclosure