What Are The Best Days (of The Week) To Visit Museums In Italy?
Over the summer I am going to Italy with my family and we are planning on visiting many of the major museums (Uffizi, the Vatican, Pompeii, the Colosseums, etc…). We are already planning on booking reservations for the museums to avoid lines, but would like to know if there are any ‘slow’ days of the week, to avoid large crowds in the museums, and what times of the day are best?
There really aren’t any slow days at the major museums during the peak tourist season. Pompeii is a huge outdoor space, so you really don’t have to worry about crowds there too much. In Florence, there’s a ticket booth on the back of the Orsanmichele which is on the main street running from the Duomo to Palazzo Vecchio where you can get tickets for the Uffizi, Accademia or other museums. I can’t remember ever seeing a line there. For the Colosseum, the lines are much shorter at the Palatine Hills or Forum ticket offices; you can get combined tickets there and bypass the line at the Colosseum. If you’ve prebooked reservations, you won’t need to do that though. Early is less crowded, but the lines start forming somewhat before the attractions open.
You have planned some of the most typically touristy places, and in the summer. So you can’t expect to find any slow day, all these are perpetually crowded by visitors.
Instead, for instance, if you’d decide to visit the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica in Rome, or the Archaeological Museum in Florence, you might be the only visitors in every time of the day and of the year. And I’m not sure they are less worth a visit than those you have planned.
Wednesday, that is the day the Pope holds public audience, of course it’s not the best time to visit the Vatican. Also in Europe people like to sleep in so hit the place first thing in the morning. And if I may suggest, be sure to check out the Capitoline museum and Castle San Angelo, and when I was there the admission ticket for the Colosseum was also good for the Roman Forum.