Opera Tickets in Milan

We used the website to purchase La Scala tickets for a performance in July and it took a bit of patience but it worked. I think you are having problems because the website indicates that there are no tickets left for the performance of L'Elisir d'Amore on October 16. There are a few left for Oct. 14 and Oct. 18, but none for October 16. http://www.teatroallascala.org/en/index.html Go to "2009-2010 calendar", scroll down to that performance, and then click on "buy tickets". You'll see the various dates and the number of tickets available. It says "0" for Oct. 16. Can you change the date you will be there? We found that contrary to the information in Rick's book, tickets go on sale online a bit more than 60 days in advance. We registered in advance, and logged on at midnight (9 am Milan time) on April 24, the day the website indicated was the day they went on sale for a July 1 performance. Even then we found many tickets already gone. I hope you can find an alternative way to get tickets if you can't change your dates.

Lola[INVALID]-did you actually go to the opera there? Was it worth it?

La Scala is beautiful. We have used the website (albeit difficult) once. On another occasion, we contacted our hotel concierge and they got us tickets - that may be an option for you. In addition, on the day of the opera, the La Scala box office sometimes sells any left-over or cancelled tickets at a discount. We did this once and we're surprised to get great seats at less than we paid for all the other tickets. Luck of the draw!

We really enjoyed our evening at La Scala. It was ballet, not opera, and we had a private box for four, right above the orchestra. It was a slightly oblique view, but a good close one. The interesting thing about the boxes is that the seats are priced individually, with 2 being quite expensive, and 2 much less. The seats are velvet-covered chairs of different heights, and you can move them around, or stand if you like. The whole experience was lots of fun for us and our 2 daughters.

A couple of sugggestions for others who may be reading this thread in hopes of buying La Scala tickets online. Investigate the website (http://www.teatroallascala.org/) well in advance of the date of the performance you want to see, like months ahead. Learn to navigate the website so you understand when the seats go on sale (in our case it was more than 2 months in advance), look at the seating chart, and also be sure and register so you can use the site to purchase. Shortly before you go online to buy the tickets, be sure and notify your credit card issuer that you will be making a purchase in Italy. And then when you go online at the appointed time, don't be shocked at how few seats are actually available. Many of them are held by subscription and not available for online purchasers. All the seats we identified in advance as desirable were unavailable, and we had to take what we could get, paying more and getting what we thought might be inferior seats in a box way up front. As it turned out the box seats were wonderful, and we really enjoyed the experience of seeing the opera house from that vantage point.