Percentage change in visitors to State museums in Italy 2020, by month

In 2020, the number of monthly visitors to State museums and similar cultural institutions in Italy declined sharply over the previous year, due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In March 2020, the Italian government put in place a national lockdown to contain the spread of the virus. During the lockdown, cultural institutions were closed, thus resulting in a 100 percent drop in March 2020 over the same month of 2019. As the lockdown was gradually eased in May, this scenario improved during the summer, though a significant year-on-year decline was still recorded between July and September. As the number of COVID-19 infections rose again in October, the government imposed new restrictions. In December 2020, the number of visitors to State museums and similar facilities then fell by 94.8 percent over 2019.