Museo di San Marco tickets

Get there before lunch

This is the museum that trips up afternoon planners. San Marco opens Tuesday to Sunday from 8:30 am to 1:50 pm, and the ticket desk stops selling at 12:45 pm, which is also last entry. Show up at 2 pm and the door is shut.

It's also closed every Monday, on the fifth Sunday of any month that has one, and on 1 January and 25 December.

The neat plan: be at San Marco when it opens, then walk a few minutes down to the Accademia for a late-morning David slot. Both are on the north side of the centre, away from the Duomo crowds.

Tickets and the EU-only discount

Full price is €11. The €2 reduced ticket applies only to EU citizens aged 18–25, so visitors from the UK, US or Australia pay full price whatever their age, unless they're under 18. Under-18s of any nationality enter free; bring a passport for teenagers.

On the first Sunday of every month entry is free for everyone, under Italy's "Domenica al museo" scheme for state museums.

Booking is optional. If you want a guaranteed entry, the official call centre is 800.615.615 from Italy or +39 055 035 41 35 from abroad, daily 8 am to 7 pm, and CoopCulture sells online. Tiqets sells entry with an audio guide. It costs more than the desk price, but here the commentary earns its keep: the cells carry almost no labels, and knowing why each fresco is different changes how you walk through the corridor.

What you'll see

Downstairs, the Fra Angelico room (formerly the Pilgrims' Hospice) holds the world's most important collection of his panel paintings. Then the cloister of St Antoninus, the Chapter House with Angelico's Crucifixion and Saints, and the refectory with Ghirlandaio's Last Supper.

Upstairs are the monks' cells, frescoed by Fra Angelico between 1438 and 1445, and Michelozzo's library, commissioned by Cosimo de' Medici. Don't leave without the Annunciation. There's also a painted terracotta bust of Girolamo Savonarola, the only known Renaissance portrait of him in the round.

Access

There's a step down at the entrance, with a portable ramp on request from staff, and the pavement isn't level with the road. Inside, an enclosed lift platform reaches the upper floor. The exit isn't wheelchair accessible, so wheelchair users leave the way they came in.