Italy runs on timed tickets.
The Last Supper goes months ahead. Borghese only sells two-hour slots. Half of Florence shuts on Monday. Every tour in Italy, reviewed and ranked, with the bookings that actually need planning flagged first.
The Last Supper sells out before you book the flight.
Most of Italy can wait until you are standing in the piazza. These cannot. They run on fifteen-minute slots, two-hour windows and ticket releases that empty in an afternoon — and no amount of charm at the door fixes a sold-out day.
- 01Da Vinci’s Last Supper Guided TourFifteen-minute slots, about thirty people at a time, released in batches months ahead. There is no ticket window at the church.
- 02Borghese Gallery and Gardens Guided Small-Group TourThe gallery only admits timed two-hour sessions and caps every one of them. Reservation is compulsory — walk-ups are turned away.
- 03Skip-The-Line Uffizi Gallery Timed Entry TicketTimed entry all year. In summer the same-day queue outlasts the daylight you came for.
- 04Florence Accademia Gallery Tour with Entrance Ticket IncludedOne statue, one small hall, a queue that wraps the block by ten. The reserved slot is the whole trick.
- 05Vatican: Museums & Sistine Chapel Entrance TicketEarly-entry and after-hours slots are a fixed number of tickets per night, and they go first.
Rome, Florence, Venice: which gets the extra night?
Almost every first Italian itinerary is these three plus a decision. Here is what each is actually good at, and the days travellers rate highest in all three.
Rome
Rome is not a walkable city so much as a walkable millennium, and everything worth seeing has a reservation attached. The Colosseum arena floor, the Vatican before opening, the catacombs out on the Appia: each is a separate ticket with a separate release. Four nights is the point where the queueing stops eating the trip.
- 1Vatican: Museums & Sistine Chapel Entrance Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 144,003 reviews
- 2Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel Tour with Optional Basilica★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 67,413 reviews
- 3Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palatine Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 63,148 reviews
Florence
Florence hands you the Renaissance in about a square mile, then closes it on Mondays. The Uffizi and the Accademia are the anchors; the Duomo climb is a separate timed slot again. Everything else here is Tuscany — the vineyards south of the city are an easy day out and the reason people add a night.
- 1Skip-The-Line Uffizi Gallery Timed Entry Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 27,832 reviews
- 2Tuscany Day Trip from Florence: Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa and Lunch at a Winery★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 21,634 reviews
- 3Timed Entrance Ticket to Michelangelo’s David★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 16,983 reviews
Venice
Venice at eight in the morning and Venice at noon are different cities. Book St Mark's and the Doge's Palace for the first hour of the day, keep the afternoon for Murano glass and Burano colour, and treat the gondola as the twenty-five minutes it is rather than the hour you imagined.
- 1Doge’s Palace Reserved Entry Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 42,716 reviews
- 2Grand Canal Gondola Ride with App Commentary★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 18,908 reviews
- 3Boat Trip: Glimpse of Murano, Torcello & Burano Islands★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 15,699 reviews
The Colosseum, the Uffizi, a volcano and a plate of pasta.
Six things travellers plan an Italian trip around, and the best-reviewed way to book each of them.
Colosseum, Vatican, Vesuvius: the most-booked list.
Every review →The tours more travellers take than anything else in the country — and what each one is really buying you.
1
Vatican: Museums & Sistine Chapel Entrance Ticket
Skip-the-ticket-line access to Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel, with optional audio guide and a self-paced route through major masterpieces.
From · $38
Read our review →
2
Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel Tour with Optional Basilica
from $79.60
3
Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palatine Guided Tour
from $78.57
4
Cathedral and Duomo’s Terraces Entrance Ticket
from $30
5
Doge’s Palace Reserved Entry Ticket
from $41
6
Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & St Peter’s Basilica Guided Tour
from $22.93
7
Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Roman Forum Guided Tour
from $52
8
Guided Tour of Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palatine Hill
from $55
South of Naples the coast does the work.
Campania is the one stretch where the ruins, the volcano, the ferry and the lemon terraces are all inside an hour of each other. Sorrento is the base most people pick; Positano is the postcard; Capri is the day you book a boat for and never regret.
Pasta by hand, pizza in Naples, tiramisu before dinner.
Italian food changes every eighty kilometres and so do the classes. Rome teaches you cacio e pepe and carbonara; Bologna is the pasta board; Naples guards the pizza dough like a state secret; Florence sends you into Chianti with a driver. Book the kitchen, not the restaurant.
What a day in Italy costs.
Every tour on the site, sorted by what it actually costs. The median Italian day out here is sixty dollars; plenty of the best are half that.
Entry tickets, audio walks, market mornings and the tastings you fit around lunch.
The everyday spine of a trip: guided galleries, cooking classes, Chianti afternoons, boat days.
Private guides, Vesuvius-and-Pompeii doubles, chartered Capri boats, the once-a-trip splurge.
Three days no other country can sell you.
Galleries and old towns exist everywhere. A mural you get fifteen minutes with, a city buried alive, and a volcano you can walk on in the afternoon belong to Italy alone.
The Last Supper
Leonardo painted it onto a dry refectory wall instead of wet plaster, which is why it began falling off almost immediately and why the room is now climate-controlled. Visitors go through in small groups, fifteen minutes each, roughly every quarter of an hour. The refectory closes on Mondays and the slots are gone long before you land.
- 1Da Vinci’s Last Supper Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 10,143 reviews
- 2Guided Walking Tour & Last Supper Visit with Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 5,409 reviews
- 3Milan’s Must See: Half-Day Tour of Last Supper, Duomo & La Scala★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 4,193 reviews
Pompeii and the Volcano
Pompeii is not a ruin so much as a town that stopped mid-sentence: bread in the ovens, ruts worn into the crossing stones, election slogans still on the walls. The reason it exists is an hour uphill and still active, and the pairing is the day to book — the crater rim in the morning light, the streets while the stones are cool.
- 1Entry Ticket and Guided Tour with an Archaeologist★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 19,459 reviews
- 2Entry Ticket with Optional Audio Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 12,360 reviews
- 3Small Group Tour with an Archaeologist★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 12,264 reviews
Mount Etna
Europe's tallest active volcano runs vineyards on its lower slopes and lava fields above them, and it erupts often enough that guides talk about last month rather than last century. Cable car and 4x4 take you to the summit craters when the mountain permits; the wine grown in that black soil is the other half of the day.
- 1Mount Etna Morning or Sunset Day Trip with Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 4,028 reviews
- 2Mount Etna: Guided Volcano Summit Hiking Tour with Cable Car★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 3,784 reviews
- 3Sunset Jeep Tour of Mount Etna and Lava Flow Caves★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 2,113 reviews
Mondays and the fifteenth of August.
Italy has two days that quietly ruin itineraries. Monday closes the Uffizi, the Accademia and the Last Supper refectory; Sunday closes the Vatican Museums except the free last Sunday of the month. Then there is Ferragosto on 15 August, when the country goes to the beach and takes the shutters with it. None of that stops the kitchens, the guides or the boats.
By region — north to south
By experience — what kind of day is it?
The classic first trip, city by city.
Amalfi CoastThe newest reviews from around Italy.
All recent →
Valley of the Temples and Turkish Steps with Snack
Read our review →
The Original Catania Street Food and Market Tour by Streaty
Read our review →
Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill Ancient Tour
Read our review →
Opera Concert at Casanova Prisons in St. Mark Square
Read our review →
Caserta Palace Ticket and Train with Audioguide
Read our review →
Milan Super Saver: Skip-the-line Duomo and Rooftop Tour
Read our review →
Syracuse: Pillirina, Ortigia, and Sea Caves Tour by Boat
Read our review →
Photo Shoot in Rome with Professional Photographer
Read our review →
Small-Group Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palatine Hill
Read our review →
Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill Guided Tour
Read our review →
