The Byron and Risorgimento Museums, together with the Museo delle Bambole (Doll Museum) saw a full house of visitors during the holiday period, surpassing in both numbers and visitor satisfaction the first real test just one month after their inauguration on November 29th.
From 20 December 2024 to 6 January 2025, the total number of visitors was 2,441, averaging 135 visitors per day. Many chose to start the new year at the Museums, with 177 visitors on 1 January despite the opening time at 1 pm. The record was on 26 December with 257 visitors. Visitor flows remained steady throughout the period.
The all-inclusive ticket covers all three Museums, but the general trend, even among tourists mainly interested in one of the three, was to visit them in sequence, often becoming captivated by the diversity of content, experience, and setting offered by all three Museums.
Visitor profiles varied: families and foreign tourists joined numerous visitors from all over Italy. Feedback was particularly positive across all groups. Families appreciated both the Museum contents and the way they stimulated children’s enthusiasm, especially through the multimedia installations, which encouraged their curiosity about the great stories told by the Museums. For foreign visitors—mostly Europeans but also Americans—the Palazzo Guiccioli app proved fundamental, offering an English version supporting the videos and providing content details through QR codes. The Museum’s modernity, digital content, multimedia experience, and the richness of the Risorgimento collections—particularly those related to Garibaldi and Lord Byron—received the highest praise. Visitors were often surprised by the immersive nature of the experience and by the detailed stories about Byron and Garibaldi. Visitors most frequently asked Museum experts, guides, and staff for further information on the Garibaldian Trail and Byron’s love stories, Anita’s story, and the mystery of Byron’s death in Greece.
Alongside the Museums, the Byron Tavern—a not-to-be-missed restaurant in the cellars where the poet hid weapons for his Carbonari friends—and the cozy L’Incontro Café, with its bar and wine bar, were also extremely popular. Together, they complete an extraordinary cultural and food-and-drink itinerary that attracts not only first-time visitors but also those who frequent Palazzo Guiccioli regularly for their walks in the heart of Ravenna.
The Museums are open every day from Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am to 6 pm. The standard ticket for all three Museums costs 10 euros, with discounts available for residents, seniors over 65, students, young people aged 12 to 26, and teachers.
Ravenna, January 7, 2025
