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Italy’s free museum Sundays are making a comeback

Italy's popular free museum Sundays scheme, which was scrapped under the previous government, is being reinstated starting this weekend.

Published: 4 October 2019 10:29 CEST
Italy's free museum Sundays are making a comeback
Pompeii is among the sites you can visit for free on the first Sunday of each month. Photo: Carlo Hermann/AFP

Many Italian museums will be free again on Sundays starting from October 6th, as a popular government scheme curbed by the last culture minister is reintroduced, the Italian culture ministry announced on Thursday.

This means all state-run museums and archaeological sites will once again be free to enter on the first Sunday of the month.

The scheme applies to world-famous sites and monuments including the Colosseum, Pompeii, Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia, the Reggia di Caserta and Trieste's Miramare Castle.

Michelangelo's David at the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP

The offer does not apply to sites which are run by local authorities, rather than by the state.

Over 15 million visitors have taken advantage of free museum Sundays since they were first launched in 2014, by then culture minister Dario Franceschini.

But last year a new culture minister, Alberto Bonisoli, scrapped the scheme and replaced it with a more complicated system of 20 free museum days spread out throughout the year.

Bonosoli said the change was necessary as  free museum Sundays caused long queues and overcrowding at the country's most popular attractions

However, the original free Sundays scheme is now being reintroduced after Franceschini got his old job as culture minister back in the new Five-Star-Democratic Party coalition government.

The culture ministry has said that visitor numbers would now be capped at some sites as free Sundays are reintroduced.

Fr a complete list of the attractiond you can visit for free, see the official Culture Ministry website.

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VENICE

What are the new rules for tourist groups visiting Venice?

The famed Italian city of Venice will restrict tour group sizes from summer 2024 in an effort to regulate crowds of tourists that throng the streets.

Published: 3 January 2024 11:16 CET
What are the new rules for tourist groups visiting Venice?

The Italian city of Venice announced on Saturday new regulations on the size of tourist groups to reduce the number of huge crowds and improve the lives of locals. 

The measure will come into effect from June. The use of loudspeakers will also be banned as they “create confusion” the city said in a statement.

Elizabeth Pesce, the city’s security councillor said: “This is an important measure to improve the management of organized groups and promote sustainable tourism.”

The rule is an amendment to the police and urban security regulation dedicated to ‘regulating the methods of conducting visits for accompanied groups, with particular attention to the needs to protect residents and promoting pedestrian mobility’.

Simone Venturini, tourism councillor for the city added: “The measure is part of a broader framework of interventions aimed at ensuring a greater balance between the needs of those who live in the city and those who come to visit it.”

He concluded the introduction of the new rule on June 1st will give operators enough time to organise themselves.

The regulation was announced just five weeks after the city said it would introduce a fee of €5 for day trippers starting from April 25th to May 5th this year. The fee will also apply for the rest of the weekends in May and June as well as the first two weeks of July. Tickets will be sold via an online platform that’s expected to be up later this month. 

Both the moves come after UNESCO warned it could list the city as an at-risk heritage site, partly due to the risk of over-tourism.

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