Keeping major Italian monuments and museums open every day for up to four hours longer than usual. The experiment starts on August 1st between Rome and Milan, an initiative concerted between the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Tourism, and the Municipality of Milan, with the daily extended opening of three major symbolic sites: the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and the Sforza Castle. The experiment will last throughout August and will involve the state monuments of the Capital and the civic ones of the Lombard capital.
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Dual objective
The objective is twofold: to benefit tourists and improve visitor flow management, offering the possibility to visit these places during less hot hours and times more compatible with work commitments. In detail, the Colosseum will extend its hours on Fridays and Saturdays from 7:45 PM to 11:30 PM; the Pantheon from 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM, every day except Thursday; the Sforza Castle from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM. For the Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli, «the extraordinary evening openings of the Colosseum and the Pantheon offer an opportunity to approach, in a particularly evocative dimension, two universal testimonies of human history and ingenuity. Making these places even more accessible promotes knowledge and strengthens awareness of their value». The collaboration between the ministries, says Giuli, «expresses the institutions’ ability to work together, placing skills and resources at the service of citizens».
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Cultural tourism
A project that also stems from discussions with sector operators, as highlighted by the Minister of Tourism Gianmarco Mazzi. «This experiment, the result of discussions with tourist guides and sector operators, meets the needs of travelers and citizens. In particular, it strengthens the link between the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Culture, which since 2026, as ISNART (National Tourism Research Institute) tells us, has become the primary motivation for tourists to travel, jumping from seventh to first place in just ten years. For this reason, we dedicate maximum attention to cultural tourism, to explore the growth potential of a sector that already contributes 58 billion euros to the national economy».
Milan participates in the experiment with its most visited civic monument, the Sforza Castle, which recorded half a million visitors in the last year. The Councillor for Culture Tommaso Sacchi announces the extension of hours and recalls the growth of civic museums. «Milan joins the national experiment promoted by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Tourism together with the Municipality, which from Saturday, August 1st, will extend the opening hours of major Italian monuments. The Sforza Castle, which recorded half a million visitors to its museums in the last year, will remain open every day until 7:30 PM, two hours beyond the usual time. This data is part of a constant growth of Milan’s civic museums, which since 2019 have seen visitors increase from 1.3 to 1.7 million, confirming the importance of culture in the city’s tourist flows. Throughout August, visitors, with a reduced ticket, will be able to admire the rooms of the Museum of Ancient Art and Michelangelo’s Pietà Rondanini, as well as the exhibition ‘Passion and Design’ in the Graphic Arts Rooms, which collects masterpieces ranging from Leonardo da Vinci to Keith Haring».
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