In Italy, there were about as many museum visitors as inhabitants in 2023

Italy’s museums set a new visitor record in 2023As media reported on Thursday, citing the Italian Ministry of Culture, 57,730,502 visitors were registered in state museums and archaeological sites last year. The number of registered residents is at a similar level.

By far the most visited destination was the Colosseum in Rome with 12.3 million paying visitors. This represents an increase of more than 25 percent compared to the previous year. In second place is Rome’s second largest ancient monument, the Pantheon, with 5.2 million visitors, closely followed by the Uffizi Gallery in Florence with 5.1 million.

The places ranked 4th to 6th recorded unusually large increases in visitor numbers of more than a third: Pompeii with now 4.1 million visitors, the Accademia in Florence (2 million) and Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome (1.3 million).

The Vatican Museums were not included because they are not located in the Republic of Italy. According to media reports, they record around 6 million admissions annually, making them the top museums on the Italian peninsula. In 2022, they were ranked second among the most visited museums in the world, after the Louvre in Paris.