Easter and Free Sunday at the museum: boom in visitors, but queues for hours

The Easter weekend gave an incredible boom of visitors to state museums: in fact, thousands of tourists and citizens decided to spend Easter and Easter Monday in the most popular museums. Literally taken by storm was the Colosseum, which counted 32,878 visitors (data released by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism), immediately followed by Pompeii, with 19,608 visitors, while on the third step of the podium was the Boboli Gardens, chosen by 17,582 visitors. Record-breaking attendance also at the Reggia di Caserta (11,537 visitors), the Royal Museums of Turin (10,200), the Uffizi (9,260) and Palazzo Pitti (8,634) and the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence (8,252). Closing the top ten most visited museums are Villa D’Este (6,422) and the Ducal Palace in Mantua, which recorded 5,570 visitors on Easter Day alone (in fact, it was closed today due to staff shortages).

The large numbers, however, created huge queues at entrances to major museums. The Uffizi queue, in particular, at peak times crossed the entire Piazza della Signoria and reached as far as Via dei Calzaioli (with a three-hour wait to enter). The bad weather did not stop tourists in Florence, where long lines were also reported at the Accademia Gallery. Biblical waiting times also to enter the Colosseum, where queues invaded a good part of Via dei Fori Imperiali, entailing a wait of several hours for entry, and more “assaults” at the Reggia di Caserta (with lines taking up the entire Piazza Carlo III, which was suitably cordoned off to cope with the mass of visitors), in Neapolitan museums (where it was made it necessary to close the Real Bosco di Capodimonte in order to avoid overcrowding situations), in Pompeii (where access was restricted to two time slots). Apart from the long waits, however, no reports have come in about situations of particular discomfort.

These are the access figures for the most visited museums: 4,500 visitors at the Paestum Archaeological Park, 4,393 at the Pinacoteca di Brera, 4,237 at the Castello di Miramare in Trieste, 4,226 at the National Museum of Capodimonte in Naples, 4,218 at the Archaeological Park of Ancient Ostia, 4.096 at the Royal Palace in Naples, 3,677 at the National Gallery of the Marches in Urbino, 3,569 at the Archaeological Museum of Reggio Calabria, 3,491 at the Rocca Scaligera in Sirmione, 3,420 at the Archaeological Park of Herculaneum, 3,380 at the Medici Chapels in Florence, 3.365 at the Villa Adriana in Tivoli, 3,232 at the GNAM in Rome, 3,153 at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, 3,140 at the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence, 2,975 at the Palazzo Reale in Genoa, 2,765 at the two Gallerie Nazionali d’Arte Antica in Rome, 1.615 at the Galleria Borghese in Rome, 1,553 at the Baths of Caracalla, 1,170 at the Archaeological Museum of Taranto, 1,128 at the Archaeological Museum of Venice, 1,112 at the Campi Flegrei Archaeological Park, 1,071 at the Appian Way Park, and 1,023 at the National Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome.

Pictured: the queue to enter the Colosseum. Ph. Credit: what_abeautifulworld

Easter and Free Sunday at the museum: boom in visitors, but queues for hours

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