Leonardo's Last Supper Tickets

Why it's so hard to get in

The Last Supper isn't expensive; it's scarce. To protect the painting, the museum lets in at most 40 people every 15 minutes, with filtered air and fixed slots.

There are only three official channels: the booking site cenacolovinciano.vivaticket.it (up to 5 tickets), the call centre +39 02 92800360 (up to 9) and email for groups of 10 or more. The museum says plainly there are no others: staff don't sell tickets by email or on social media.

Rules to know before you pay:

• Named tickets. Enter each visitor's name; it can't be changed later. Bring the matching passport or ID.
• Five tickets per calendar year online. One booking for a family of six won't go through on the website; use the call centre.
• No changes, no refunds. Date and time are final.
• Be there 30 minutes early. The ticket office is on Via Ruffini, about 10 metres left of the museum entrance. Hand over the receipt, show ID, collect your tickets. Late means no entry.

Some time slots show a higher price. That's not a surcharge: those slots include the museum's own guided visit in English or Italian (€10 extra) or a workshop (€16 extra). If you only want entry, pick another time.

How the release calendar works

Tickets go on sale in blocks of several months. When we checked on 28 October, dates from 1 September to 31 December were on sale; that block opened on 23 June at noon. The next opening date is announced on the museum website, and the first days are when the best slots go.

The second window is the one that saves trips: every Wednesday at 12:00 noon Italian time, extra tickets are released for the whole of the following week, online only. If you're flying in next week and everything shows sold out, be on the site a few minutes before noon on Wednesday. The museum itself says availability changes daily, so keep checking.

The first Sunday of each month is free, but those tickets also drop on the Wednesday before at noon and vanish fast. No groups or guided visits that day.

Sold out? What the resellers sell

This is where Tiqets, GetYourGuide and Headout earn their margin. They don't sell the plain €15 ticket; they sell guided tours with entry included, on slots booked well ahead. You pay a lot more than the official price, and what you're paying for is availability.

• Last Supper with a guide: the briefing happens before you go in, so your 15 minutes are spent looking, not reading.
• Last Supper + Duomo or + Sforza Castle: a half day with two big sights, handy on a short stay.
• Walking tour with Last Supper: the city centre plus the painting, with someone else juggling the time slots.
• Last Supper + bus tour: entry plus a sightseeing loop.

Read two things on the product page: the meeting point, and how names are handled, since the museum checks ID. And remember that "skip the line" here just means a guaranteed slot; inside, everyone gets the same 15 minutes.

In the refectory

You get 15 minutes. Don't spend them all on Leonardo: the whole south wall is a Crucifixion by Giovanni Donato da Montorfano, an intact fresco, in which Leonardo later added portraits of the Sforza duke's family that have almost faded away.

No large bags, food or drinks inside. There are free timed lockers at the ticket office, but only a few dozen, so leave the suitcase at the hotel. The route is accessible to wheelchair users.

Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 8:15am–7pm, last entry 6:45pm. Closed every Monday, 1 January and 25 December.

Getting there: metro M1 (red) to Conciliazione or Cadorna, M2 (green) to Cadorna, or tram 16 to Santa Maria delle Grazie. The museum sits inside Milan's Area C congestion zone, so don't drive. Taxis stop at Via Ruffini 1, opposite the ticket office.