MANN, explained

For eight years I guided groups here, and the most common question I was asked on the stairs was about the mosaic they couldn't find. The second was why they had paid more than the ticket price. I'll answer both, in order.

How much does it really cost to get in?

Twenty euros for a full-price ticket, two for a reduced ticket, free for under 18s regardless of passport. The reduced ticket is not the generic 'EU 18-25' you see around: it also includes Switzerland and Uruguay due to reciprocity, and those with a residence permit.

The number that matters for those choosing online is another: the museum's online booking fee is zero. Textually, from their page: 'with booking fee €0.00'. Booking on tickets.museoarcheologiconapoli.it costs the same as paying at the counter, and it's optional: mandatory only for groups and school parties.

This is where the correction I want to make twice comes from. Almost all Italian blogs, and even automatic search engine overviews, still write that the ticket costs about €22 and is valid for two consecutive days. That system existed, it started on March 4, 2023, with the Lucio Dalla exhibition, and it ended. Today you pay €20 and enter only once. The updated price list is here, with the maths for the annual pass: €25, five more than this single entry.

The Alexander Mosaic cannot be seen

Half the people who come here do so for one thing, and that thing isn't here. The Alexander Mosaic — 5.82 by 3.13 metres, over a million tesserae according to the museum, from the House of the Faun in Pompeii — has been under restoration since 2021 and, in their words, 'is not visible'. At the end of October 2023, it was flipped face down, because the second phase of work is on the back and the tesserae are covered by planking. The damage was caused by the iron frame Vittorio Spinazzola used to mount it vertically in 1916: it has oxidised.

And now you can't even see the restoration site

Until now, there was one consolation: two viewing points from which you could watch the restorers at work. They are inside the Mosaics collection, and that closes from September 16 to November 30, 2026. From that date, the mosaic is neither visible nor observable during restoration, and the entire gallery closes with it. No reopening date has been published, and you won't find one here either.

One detail, before you trust what you read: the official page for the Mosaics collection still presents the mosaic as the culmination of the visit, without a word about the restoration, while the notice on the homepage says the opposite. The museum contradicts itself. Here I've listed the dates.

What is open on the day you visit

The museum is undergoing reorganisation and energy efficiency works, and publishes a collection opening schedule that changes every few weeks. The current one is valid from August 7 to September 21, 2026, and should be read before you go, not after: it's on the official website and almost no one links to it.

An example. The plan guarantees the Farnese 'limited to rooms 1-7, 25-29', while the official printable map lists it as 'rooms 1-8, 11-16, 25-29' without indicating anything: the Toro is in 16 and the Ercole in 11, so anyone relying on the map is counting on two things they might not find. And, since the opposite is circulating: the Toro is not under restoration, its room is simply outside those guaranteed.

In the same list: Epigrafica closed, Gemme Farnese only Saturday and Sunday, Numismatica and Magna Grecia not guaranteed, Villa dei Papiri open only from 10:00 to 18:20. For non-guaranteed rooms, the museum advises asking at the ticket office before entering, and warns that a closed section 'cannot result in a refund of the ticket already purchased'. The updated list.

The trap of free days

Entry is free on the first Sunday of the month, April 25, June 2, November 4, and March 8 if you are a woman. It seems like a clever choice, and almost always it isn't: on those days, for safety reasons, the Egyptian collection, the Gabinetto Segreto, and Magna Grecia are closed, which are the three things the casual visitor came for. And tickets cannot be booked; they must be collected at the ticket office. Twenty euros on any given Thursday buys an entire museum; zero euros on a Sunday in February buys half a museum and a queue. When it's worth it, and when it's not.

Which of the six options, and why

Three of the six things you can buy online are not visits: they are different ways to buy the same entry. The €3.99 smartphone audio guide does not include the ticket. The ticket-plus-app package for €26 is six euros more than at the counter, and those six euros buy you home booking and cancellation up to 24 hours beforehand: everyone decides for themselves. The Campania Artecard for €27 has the lowest rating on this page, 3.0, and is only worthwhile for those who travel a fair bit: activation cannot be cancelled. The six compared.

Then there's the sixth option, and I won't pretend to be impartial about this one. The two-hour tour with a real guide, currently €42 as of writing, has 4.8 out of 605 reviews. In 125 rooms with few captions, where part of what you're looking for might be closed, having someone choose what to look at changes the day more than any app: it's twenty-two euros more than at the counter and it's worth it, if you're only coming here once. Two warnings from its reviewers: for groups over 14 people, radio guides are needed and some groups didn't get them, and closed rooms remain closed even for guides. I've compared it here with the official CoopCulture tour, €8 without entry.

How to enter

If a ticket is all you need, it costs €20 at the counter and the same on the museum's website. If you prefer to book from home and be able to cancel, the online options start from €3.99 for the audio guide only and €26 for the packaged ticket. If you want to understand what you're looking at in a museum with 125 rooms and few captions, the two hours with a guide are the only thing that really changes your visit. All of them have free cancellation up to 24 hours beforehand.

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