The paper describes the process of building Internet‐transmittable, 3‐D digital virtual models of ancient heritage monuments from on‐site data, focusing especially on 3‐D dimensional data acquisition techniques and color processing methods. Section 1 considers project goals and the attendant problems; Section 2 provides a brief summary of state‐of‐the‐art experience and the technologies adopted by the Authors; Section 3 illustrates the key features of the 3‐D color data acquisition methods used as well as the shape and color processing pipeline; Section 4 describes the specific study conducted on single elements and faades of the Coliseum in Rome, while Section 6 outlines future work.