The official Last Supper ticket, and how the release really works

The official ticket is real, it is cheap, and you should try for it before you buy anything else on this site. Entry to the Cenacolo Vinciano is currently €15 with no booking fee from Vivaticket, which is the only place it is sold, and that figure is current at the time of writing. Reservation is compulsory for every ticket type, the free and reduced ones included, so there is no walk-up and no queue to stand in. The whole difficulty is the release: tickets go on sale a quarter at a time and the quarter clears almost immediately. If your months are open, book them and close this page. I earn nothing when you do, which is exactly why I can tell you to.

Sold byVivaticket, and nowhere else

Face value€15

Booking feeNone

ReleasedA quarter at a time

ReservationCompulsory, every ticket

Sells outAlmost immediately

What you are actually buying

Not a museum day-pass. What Vivaticket sells is a named reservation for a timed slot in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, and the slot is fifteen minutes long with a maximum of forty people in the room. That is the product at face value and it is the same product a tour sells you at several times the price: the same room, the same quarter of an hour, the same forty heads. Nobody gets longer. If the fifteen minutes is the part you had not registered, read how long the visit is before you plan anything else, because it changes how people feel about the whole day.

Quarterly release, in plain terms

Here is the mechanic that catches everybody. Slots are not released rolling, a few weeks ahead, the way a train ticket is. They are released three months at a time, in a block, and the block goes within minutes of appearing. That produces two identical-looking failures with opposite causes. Somebody booking eight months out finds an empty calendar because their months have not been released yet. Somebody booking six weeks out finds an empty calendar because their months were released and cleared while they were asleep in another time zone. Both people conclude the site is broken. Neither is looking at a fault.

So the useful question is never “how far ahead should I book”. It is “has my quarter opened, and if it has, did I miss it”. I have set out what that means for a trip you are still planning on booking in advance.

Compulsory reservation, including the free tickets

Every ticket type needs a reservation attached to a slot. Under-18s go free and still need one. Ages 18 to 25 pay a reduced fare and still need one. The first Sunday of the month is free and is booked the Wednesday before, and that still needs one. There is no version of this visit where you turn up at a door and are dealt with, which is the single most common wrong assumption I met while guiding. The concessions and how they are booked are on free and reduced entry.

Giving yourself the best chance

Know which quarter you need before you go looking. Work out the months, then check whether that block has been released at all.
Have the account made and the party size decided. Minutes matter, and the time you spend typing an address is time the block is emptying.
Be at a keyboard, not a phone, at the release. I am not going to print a release hour here, because that is precisely the kind of detail that changes and there is no version of it worth being wrong about. Vivaticket publishes it.
Go back later anyway. Cancelled slots do surface, and a sold-out calendar is not a permanently sold-out calendar.

Insider tip

Try the official site first even if you are fairly sure it will be shut. It costs you five minutes, the ticket carries no booking fee, and we make nothing on it either way — which is the whole reason this page tells you to go there before it tells you anything else.

When the window is shut

For most people planning a normal trip, it is. That is not defeatism, it is what a quarterly release does to anybody whose dates were fixed by flights rather than by a ticket drop. The practical route in then is a tour that holds its own allocation, and every one of the six in this catalogue includes the entrance ticket. They cost a multiple of face value, and I would rather you read that here than discover it at a checkout — the arithmetic is on what you actually pay, and the step-by-step on what to do when it is gone.

Check the ticket-and-guide option

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Frequently asked questions

Where do I buy official Last Supper tickets?

From Vivaticket, which sells the Cenacolo Vinciano ticket at face value with no booking fee and is the only official channel. Reservation is compulsory for every ticket type, including the free and reduced ones, so there is no walk-up alternative.

Why are there no tickets on the official site?

Because the release is quarterly rather than rolling. Three months go on sale at once and clear almost immediately, so an empty calendar usually means either your quarter has not opened yet or it opened and emptied. Both cases are covered on booking in advance.

Do I still need to book if my ticket is free?

Yes. Reservation is compulsory for every ticket type. Under-18s go free, ages 18 to 25 pay a reduced fare, and the first Sunday of the month is free if booked the Wednesday before — all of them need a slot. See free and reduced entry.

Is a tour ticket the same as the official ticket?

It gets you into the same room for the same fifteen minutes, and every tour here includes the entrance ticket. What differs is the price, which is a multiple of face value, and the guide who comes with it. The comparison is on the tours page.