We will be in Milan 4 days, September 15-19. I waited too long to get tickets for the Last Supper. Currently trying a Viator tour, but that’s pending also. Any tips for scoring tickets?
Also, any tips for a day trip to the Lake Maggiore islands?
Posted by
Rick Steves Europe
372 posts
Hello,
Several walking or mini-van tour companies listed in the Milan chapter of Rick's Italy guidebook offer tours which include the Last Supper, so you might try one of these:
Veditalia - https://veditalia.com/destinations/milan
City Wonders - https://citywonders.com/milan-tours
Autostradale - https://autostradale.it/en
Zani Viaggi - https://www.zaniviaggi.com
As for visiting the islands in Lake Maggiore, you can take an early, local train from Milan to Stresa (about 1.5 hours, almost hourly, €8.60). See https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html for Italian train schedules and tickets.
Once in Stresa, there are ferries going twice hourly, to several nearby islands such as Isola Bella (10 min), Isola Superiore (15 min) or Isola Madre (40 min). You can buy tickets from the ticket window in the gallery of the yellow dock building. See the Stresa chapter in Rick's Italy guidebook for details.
You can then take an afternoon or early evening train from Stresa back to Milan.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
15894 posts
I'll just add that Viator is a 3rd party tour consolidator so they don't actually run the tours. If you look at the Viator website, go to Additional Information and scroll down you can see which company is providing the tour. It may be one of the ones Rich listed above.
Viator charges 20-30% to the tour company so most of us try to book directly with the tour company especially if it is smaller.
Posted by
Los Angeles
5242 posts
How are these tour companies able to get "sold out" tickets? Pays to know people?
Posted by
74 posts
I wrote this several times, hope this site doesn’t mind. My husband and I tried many times and many ways to get tickets, we just wanted the museum, not a tour. The morning we arrived in Milan we took a chance and went to the museum and asked if any tickets were available for that day, she said, “how many?” I think they must hold tickets back. If you are going to be in Milan anyway, do what we did, take a chance. Oh and btw, the tickets were really inexpensive
Posted by
Saint Paul, Minnesota
1879 posts
Tour companies have bought them up beforehand.
Posted by
Los Angeles
5242 posts
That walkup policy can also work at restaurants which claim to be "sold out" since there are always cancellations