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Italy's free museum Sundays are making a comeback

The Local Italy
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Italy's free museum Sundays are making a comeback
Pompeii is among the sites you can visit for free on the first Sunday of each month. Photo: Carlo Hermann/AFP

Italy's popular free museum Sundays scheme, which was scrapped under the previous government, is being reinstated starting this weekend.

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Many Italian museums will be free again on Sundays starting from October 6th, as a popular government scheme curbed by the last culture minister is reintroduced, the Italian culture ministry announced on Thursday.

This means all state-run museums and archaeological sites will once again be free to enter on the first Sunday of the month.

The scheme applies to world-famous sites and monuments including the Colosseum, Pompeii, Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia, the Reggia di Caserta and Trieste's Miramare Castle.

Michelangelo's David at the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP

The offer does not apply to sites which are run by local authorities, rather than by the state.

Over 15 million visitors have taken advantage of free museum Sundays since they were first launched in 2014, by then culture minister Dario Franceschini.

But last year a new culture minister, Alberto Bonisoli, scrapped the scheme and replaced it with a more complicated system of 20 free museum days spread out throughout the year.

Bonosoli said the change was necessary as  free museum Sundays caused long queues and overcrowding at the country's most popular attractions

However, the original free Sundays scheme is now being reintroduced after Franceschini got his old job as culture minister back in the new Five-Star-Democratic Party coalition government.

The culture ministry has said that visitor numbers would now be capped at some sites as free Sundays are reintroduced.

Fr a complete list of the attractiond you can visit for free, see the official Culture Ministry website.

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