Do not turn up at the Santa Maria delle Grazie convent in Milan expecting to see Leonardo’s The Last Supper on the day. Individual tickets sell out weeks in advance, but you can get in with a tour guide.
Where is Leonardo’s The Last Supper?
Leonardo’s The Last Supper is one of the most revered paintings in the world, but it’s unusual as it’s not on display in an art museum. Also known as Il Cenacolo, this large-scale Renaissance mural painting is found in the refectory of the Santa Maria delle Grazie convent in Milan.
Visiting the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie
Obviously, this refectory was never designed to accommodate thousands of tourists traipsing through it every day. This means tickets to get into the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie are limited, and often hard to get hold of.
Buying individual tickets for The Last Supper in Milan
Tickets for visiting The Last Supper go on sale quarterly, about six weeks in advance, and need booking online at the Cenacolo Vinciano site.
Obviously, for the casual visitor to Milan who just fancies seeing the famous Leonardo painting, this is absolutely useless. Looking in mid-August, all the tickets for August, September and October had gone.
Can I get tickets on the day for The Last Supper?
This, of course, means you have absolutely zero chance of getting tickets to see The Last Supper by rocking up at the Santa Maria delle Grazie on the day.
But there might be a way to get in and see Leonardo’s work during your stay at relatively short notice.
Last Supper tours in Milan
Individual tickets for The Last Supper in Milan sell out like lightning, but plenty of them are allocated to tour operators. Booking a guided tour to see The Last Supper may work out more expensive – at least €60 as opposed to the €15 individual ticket – but it’ll at least get you into the refectory.
There are several guided tours to The Last Supper available, some of which combine the visit with a Milan history tour or a guided visit to the Duomo.
The key thing for most visitors, however, will be which tour gets you into the Santa Maria delle Grazie earliest. This will vary depending on when you look, but searching on a Thursday evening, I found tours that would let me see The Last Supper on the Saturday morning.
That’s not perfect, but it at least shows that you can visit Milan on a short break with zero advance planning, and still book to see The Last Supper while you’re there.
Ideally, however, you’ll book the Last Supper tour before you depart for Milan.
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