Italian monuments attracted a record 60 million visitors last year

Rome, May 14 - Italy's main tourist attractions attracted more than 60 million paying visitors for the first time last year, which is more than the population of Italy, DPA wrote.

The Roman Colosseum topped the list with 14.7 million visitors, followed by the Uffizi Gallery in Florence (5.3 million visits) and the Archaeological Park in Pompeii (4.3 million). Tourists from Italy and abroad thus contributed more than 382 million euros (over 9.5 billion crowns) to the Italian budget.

Compared to the previous year, the total number of visitors increased by almost two million. Total revenues increased by 68 million euros (1.7 billion crowns), partly due to more expensive tickets.

The Colosseum alone, an almost 2,000-year-old arena in the center of Rome, brought the state more than 100 million euros (roughly 2.5 billion crowns). Most other monuments also recorded an increase in sales.

"This is the historically best result of state museums and archaeological parks," commented Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli. According to the statistics of the Italian Ministry of Culture, the exact number of paying visitors in state museums and archaeological parks was 60.8 million last year, which means an increase of 5.3 percent. Revenue from tickets sold increased by 23 percent, the ministry said in a statement.

Italy has roughly 59 million inhabitants and more than 400 state museums. The statistics of the Italian Ministry of Culture do not include data on admissions to the Vatican museums, including the Sistine Chapel, which was recently the site of the election of the new Pope Leo XIV. The Vatican Museums would take second place with more than six million visitors last year, adds DPA.

WT.24