I had read that buying regular-price (€8) tickets to view The Last Supper were hard to get. We will be in Milan April 1-4 and that being Easter week, I figured it would be even harder. I checked the official website, Vivaticket, (http://www.vivaticket.it) beginning in late December. Tickets went on sale for March beginning December 2nd.

Since they open sales one month at a time, it seemed logical that April tickets would be available in early January. They choose apparently random dates near the beginning of the month to open sales.

I kept checking several times a day throughout the entire month of January. Then in early February, they still had not opened sales for April. Finally, about a week ago they posted that tickets for April would be available beginning February 19.

Does that mean right at midnight? That wouldn't be hard to check since that time is 3:00 pm on the 18th for me. No luck then and throughout the evening. The phone line for tickets opens at 9:00 am in Italy, or midnight for me. Guess I'll stay up late.

Midnight comes and still no April tickets. I refresh the page every few minutes and at 12:20 am I decided this would be the last check before I gave up.

Amazing! April tickets... My first choice of dates was Thursday, April 2 and by the time I was at the calendar page, every one of the 16 timeslots was sold out except for the first at 8:15am. I fumbled around trying to translate some of the Italian - even though they have an English language page, the most important words are only in Italian.

I refreshed the calendar page and amazingly, three more time slots were available. I was successful in getting two tickets for 11:00 am. Within a short time later, the entire month was sold out except for a few times with only single tickets.

I'm looking forward to seeing it, especially on Maundy Thursday, the day depicted in the painting.

Good luck to all those trying to get tickets without paying the inflated price of the tour operators that scoop them up first.

Bravo, Jerry. As you say, persistence rewarded.

I hope that you enjoy your trip and seeing the Last Supper.

It is difficult to score non-tour tix. Well done.

We had a very good guide when we saw the LS. She knew a great deal about the history and details of the painting and was able to answer lots of questions. I really felt it enhanced the experience.

vincenzo: was that with a tour operator? Which, if may ask?

tusc: It was Viator. We were in Italy and headed to Milan for a short visit there, and decided we'd try to see the LS. The only way we could get tix on short notice was through Viator, which included tours of other attractions such as Sforza Castle. The whole thing was pretty well done, and as I said, the guide was very good.

If you have longer lead time, you might be able to get the same thing by contacting a local travel agency in Milan. As I said, we were a bit rushed, so the quick online booking with Viator worked well for us. Plus, we had used them before for, for instance, the back-door tour of the Doges Palace, and we liked their tours.

We used our hotel concierge to get us tickets since our trip to milan was a last minute addition. we were also told not to buy tickets for the last day of your trip since strikes can happen (and did while we were there) so all of those affected will have to try for standby or open slots the in the following days...which were not available when we were there in September I am sure Easter week would be even worse! Try to read up on the WW2 bombing and destruction in and around Milan. The wall with the fresco was miraculously untouched!

I had a similar experience yesterday morning, trying to book tickets for the only day that would work with our schedule, and the only option for 3 tickets was 8:15. I grabbed them but had major problems getting through the booking process online and then they weren't available anymore.

Long story short, I finally figured out how to actually call the Viva Ticket office, using the Viber app, and was able to book three tickets with English guide, for 9:15. Total for the three of us: 34 euros.

I'd seen a lot of posts suggesting that there are more options available if you call the ticket office, and now I'm adding mine to the list!