July 5, 2025: How To Buy Last Supper Tickets

Rob wrote this summary on March 18:

This morning I got up at 6:30am to buy tickets to one of Milan’s premiere attractions, Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper painting. The artwork is housed in the Cenacolo Vinciano Museum. It is critical to purchase tickets in advance. The museum opens ticket sales for each block of three months about six weeks in advance. Today the tickets for May-July were released on their website at noon Milan time (7:00am my time).

Because of helpful articles that I had read online, I knew that I needed to sign up ahead of time for a Vivaticket account. At 6:30am I logged into my Vivaticket account, clicked on the link to buy tickets and a tour with an English guide, and got ready for the sale to start in half an hour. At 6:51am I refreshed the screen, but it didn’t show the new months yet. A minute later I refreshed the screen again and was placed in the queue. The message on the screen said that my expected time to be placed on the website was 12:02pm Milan time. So far so good. I could see my progress by the little man marching on the green line in the middle of the screen.

At 12:02pm, my screen returned to the ticket purchasing website. I had 20 minutes to complete the process. I selected the date, July 5, the time, and the number of tickets and checked a couple of boxes. On the next screen I had to enter our names. I knew from my research that I should click on the icon of a human head with a red x on it.

Soon I progressed to the payment screen. I was ready with two credit cards, just in case. I only needed one. I chose payment in euros. After they accepted payment, I was presented with a confirmation screen where I could download and print the tickets. They also sent an email confirmation.

The whole process went smoothly. But did I really need to get up at 6:30am?

Farewell, Verona! An Uber driver named Claudio gave us a pleasant ride to the train station. He said that many Americans come here to Verona to get married. He presumes that Americans are very romantic!!

On the train I was in thermal shock. Our train car felt like riding in a refrigerator. Rob liked it at first but soon got his down jacket from his suitcase.

We arrived in Milan to our apartment situated right in the middle of things.

Up the elevator and then a narrow flight of stairs. Poor Rob!!

This was a spacious room but had a slanted roof. Rob and I kept bumping our heads.

Rob chose this place because it was time to do the laundry. I couldn’t understand any of these Italian settings. I tried everything to start the first load. It was unplugged!!!

The Last Supper

The famous painting is located in the refectory of the Basilica di Santa Maria delle Grazie.

This lantern covers the dome of the basilica and was common in Roman architecture.

As Rob explained, one needs to get tickets ahead of time. A couple of people ahead of us were trying to get tickets for today and were pleading that they had come all the way from Germany to see it!! They were turned away.

Inside the Basilica di Santa Maria delle Grazie

Leonardo da Vinci’s mural, created around 1495-1498, is a renowned High Renaissance masterpiece.
It captures the moment after Jesus declares the betrayal, showcasing the varied reactions of the apostles.
The painting is noted for its use of perspective, its depiction of human emotion, and its innovative use of pigments.

In Italy they call it Cenacolo which is the Latin word for the place where people ate. Now the word specifically refers to the Last Supper painting. The scene is a moment of unspoken drama.

This digitized version is what it would have looked like years ago and additionally illustrates items that are no longer visible.

Bartholomew can’t believe it, James the Less has his hand on a surprised Andrew’s shoulder and across to touch Peter.

Judas is holding a money bag and is darkly shadowed and lower than the others. Peter is holding a knife foreshadowing his reaction to Jesus’ arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane and asking John, who is close to Jesus,
if he knows who will betray Jesus. John is the youngest apostle.

Jesus has an upturned hand that will soon be pierced with a nail. No one really knows what happened to the feet of Jesus in the painting. Lake Como is in the background landscape scene.

Thomas is upset and his upturned finger foreshadows his questions about the resurrection of Jesus. James looks stunned, and Philip wants some answers.

Matthew and Thaddeus turn toward Simon the Zealot to see if he knows anything.

Leonardo reportedly used the likenesses of people in and around Milan as inspiration for the painting’s figures. The last apostle he needed was Judas. A prior from the monastery reportedly complained to Leonardo about its delay. Leonardo wrote to the head of the monastery, explaining he had been struggling to find the perfect villainous face for Judas, and that if he could not find a face corresponding with what he had in mind, he would use the features of the prior who had complained.