Italy: Vatican Museums to reopen in May with stricter rules

Rome: The Vatican Museums are scheduled to reopen on 3 May, with a promise to enforce strict rules designed to curb the spread of covid-19.

The planned reopening comes amid expectation that museums in Italy may begin to reopen following the current coronavirus restrictions.

The Vatican has underlined that “punctuality, masks and social distancing” are required to visit the Museums and the Vatican Gardens which will also reopen for visits.

Visits to both the Vatican’s museums and gardens will be strictly via online booking with visitors given a specified time-slot that they must respect.

Restrictions will be “enforced by security personnel,” reports Vatican News, with staff authorised to remove visitors who fail to respect the rules.

The re-opening follows the museums’ third closure since the start of the covid-19 pandemic.

In March 2020 the Vatican Museums closed for almost three months, due to the coronavirus emergency, reopening in June.

In November the museums were shut for a second time, remaining closed for 88 days – their longest closure since world war two.

After reopening on 1 February, the Vatican Museums then closed again – along with every museum in Italy – on 15 March.

In February the Vatican Museums faced allegations of over-crowding however the claims were rubbished by the museums’ director, Barbara Jatta, who said she was there herself and that the “situation was by no means so dramatic.”