cultural week in italy April 2011

I was wondering the same thing. I booked our plane tickets a little while ago, and lucked out, because just happen to be in Rome and Florence during this year's Cultural Week. We were planning on checking out the Uffizi, Academia, Borghese Gallery, and of course the Colosseum/Forum. Will there be extra large crowds at these locations? Will I still have to pay the normal fee to book tickets ahead of time? Can my hotels get us free tickets and hold them for us? Did anyone go during a previous cultural week? Were there special events/fairs/concerts that you would recommend checking out? BTW, Cultural Week is April 9th 2011 - April 17th, 2011. There is some more information here: http://www.roninrome.com/%20sites-and-attractions/xiii-culture-week-in-italy and this is the official webpage: http://www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/index.html (Note: you can use google translator on that webpage, but even with an English translation there is basically no good information there... yet).

My wife and I are going to be in Italy during Culture Week. I just found out about this and am very excited. However I can't find any useful info like what places will be free to the public besides the ones already mentioned. Also, are there any sites in Venice that will be free as well?

I sure wouldn't want to spend all the money to fly to and stay in hotels in Italy and then have to deal with multitudes of extra people in galleries for free. I would rather pay the 10-15 euros a pop.

Look when cultural weeks are: the front and end of the season. The chamber of commerce / tourist bureau / interior ministry / whatever is trying to stretch the season to bring in more bucks. It isn't working too well - - there are no crowds. We were in Rome during the spring week the year before last and walked straight into the collesseum. The only odd thing is that you have to get a ticket in the usual manner, but it's free. Everything controlled by the national governmnet is free. Many cities and districts follow suit. Private outfits don't seem to, but that's more of an impression. Edit: Snotty comment deleted.

I happened to be in Rome and Sorrento during Culture week last year and it was awesome! Saw most sites in Rome (except for the Vatican and catacombs) as well as the Naples arch. museum and Pompeii for free and didn't wait in any lines. Overall, at that time of year there were no crowds anywhere, especially if the skys were cloudy and it started to sprinkle (the Vatican area was deserted when I went into the museum because it was dark and cloudy, but when I came out into the sun, there was a line around the block).

I've been in Italy several times when the state museums were free. In addition to cultural week, there's often a night out in May and a cultural weekend in late September. I haven't found long lines and overcrowding to be a big problem. In Florence, only the Uffizi had long lines, but I got in fairly quickly late in the day. My wait at the Accademia was less than 5 minutes. The free days are also a nice opportunity to check out museums you might not otherwise pay to see, and it's not just museums. Last May, the elevator to the top of the Victor Emmanuel monument was free, and it wasn't crowded. You can't get free tickets to sights in advance. It's first come - first admitted, so you'll wait in line. However, my recollection is that you can still pay for tickets and reservations at museums like the Uffizi, with the same time-saving benefits as any regular day.