Failed attempts to book Last Supper in Milan

Yes. Are you using an AMEX by any chance? I've had this happen to me in the past not only with booking in Italy (I think Tren Italia is similar) but Paris as well.

I've found that AMEX for a lot of the online booking is a big no no. Not accepted by many of these institutions.

Not AMEX. Both cards were from BofA, one of them is their "international card" which does not charge foreign transaction fee.

Did you try calling the credit card company to let them know the international transaction will be coming through? That sometimes solves the problem.

We did not call the card company ahead of time. But we called during the transaction when the problem arose. They checked and said there was no restriction on our account. Maybe tomorrow we will try the phone number listed in Rick's guide book as an alternate way to buy tickets.

A few years ago, I forget exactly what the international transactions were for, but we had to deal with “Verified by VISA,” and had to contact our card issuer (probably was Chase) to confirm that it was us making the international purchase from home. You may have been told there was no particular hold on your account, but maybe the system flagged your card anyway. Or, I don’t know, but was this in the middle of the night in Italy while the booking was being attempted? Maybe try next time in the morning for you (afternoon in Italy?), or even on a weekday, and you could get better results? The idea of getting a definite confirmation from BofA, right before trying the purchase again, sounds like a worthwhile strategy.

For what it’s worth, we were able to just show up, and got an entry time for about a half hour later. That was several years ago, and no Pandemic, so maybe wouldn’t work now. Certainly not worth the gamble if you’re set on seeing Il Cenacolo on a certain day, at a certain time. I hope you get your reservation the next attempt.

I asked my wife. We had this problem also with the Last Supper. I was wrong. It wasn't an AMEX issue. She solved it using a debit card. Our "bank" is a major European bank though.

1. The site is: https://cenacolovinciano.vivaticket.it/index.php
2. If the problem is caused by the "Verified by Visa" or "MasterCard SecureCode" security protocols, you must speak with the fraud prevention department. Most front office employees know nothing about it because they can't even see the failed transaction. In Europe we receive a temporary PIN via text message any time we stumble upon a site requiring a double layer of security.

Thanks for all your replies and ideas!
We plan to look into the security aspect and talk with the fraud department with BofA on a weekday.

Success! We got our tickets to see the Last Supper in Milan next month. My husband contacted the fraud department for our credit card. They had to temporarily remove a level of security for the purchase to go through. Most normal shopping or restaurant use should not set off this problem. But sadly it may happen again, for instance when we buy train tickets in Italy. But now there is a solution. Thanks again!

If you are actually in Italy when you buy the train tickets, there shouldn't be a problem. It's when the card isn't physically present that extra security procedures sometimes come into play--or so I believe. (I'm not suggesting that you wait until you get to Italy to buy the train tickets if you don't need to; you might save money by buying them now, if you're willing to commit to a specific departure time on a non-refundable ticket.)