Tourists from the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, France, Canada and Australia flocking to Milan for the 2026 Winter Olympics are discovering that one of the city’s most coveted cultural experiences, Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, has been temporarily taken off their itineraries. With public access to the mural suspended for several days during the Games while Olympic VIPs and dignitaries are ushered inside, the closure is rippling far beyond the cloistered refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie. The incident is sharpening questions about how Italy is managing its cultural treasures during a once in a generation tourism boom, and what it all means for airlines, tour operators and long haul travel demand into 2026 and beyond.
A Sudden Closure at Italy’s Most Exclusive Ticket
For many visitors, securing a viewing of The Last Supper is the anchor around which an entire Milan stay is built. Access is normally tightly controlled, with timed entries, small groups and advance reservations often required months ahead. During the opening days of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, that already rare experience became effectively impossible for the general public as police cordons went up around Santa Maria delle Grazie and the church refectory was closed to ordinary ticket holders for roughly three and a half days. Would be visitors from around the world, including organized tour groups, found themselves turned away in the street despite having carefully booked their slots long before the Olympic flame arrived.
The closure has underscored the tension between security and spectacle. Italian authorities have cited the need to protect high profile guests and safeguard a fragile world heritage site as justification for the temporary shutdown. Yet the lack of clear advance communication has angered many travelers who had assumed that, in a city built on fashion, design and culture, its single most famous artwork would be accessible even at peak global attention. Instead, as convoys whisked dignitaries through Milan’s narrowed streets, tourists were left photographing church facades from behind barricades, learning only on arrival that years of restoration and stringent climate controls did not shield them from last minute schedule changes.
What makes this disruption particularly sensitive is the mural’s symbolic status. Painted between 1494 and 1498 directly onto the refectory wall, The Last Supper has survived environmental decay, historic misuse of the hall and wartime bombing. It is both a spiritual touchstone for Catholic visitors and a bucket list item for culture focused travelers. To arrive in Milan at the very moment the world is celebrating athletic excellence, only to be told that one of humanity’s most revered artistic achievements is temporarily reserved for a privileged few, has quickly become a storyline that extends beyond the art world into the broader politics of Olympic hosting.
Olympic VIPs Inside, Long Haul Tourists Outside
The optics of this particular closure are hard to ignore. While ordinary tourists queued fruitlessly behind police lines, a select group of Olympic VIPs, senior politicians and invited guests were reported to have been ushered in for private viewings. Among them were high ranking officials from abroad who combined bilateral meetings with Italian leaders and appearances at the opening ceremony with a carefully choreographed cultural stop in front of Leonardo’s masterpiece. In practice, this created a two tier system of access that jarred with visitors who had crossed oceans and paid premium airfares precisely for experiences that cannot be replicated elsewhere.
For travelers from the UK, US, Germany, France, Canada and Australia, the perception of being locked out while dignitaries walked in carries particular weight. These markets form the backbone of Italy’s high spending, long haul visitor base and have been central to the surge of interest in the Milan Cortina 2026 Games. Data from travel and payment analysts show a sharp rise in flight bookings to northern Italy in the months leading up to the Olympics, with US and UK travelers especially prominent among ticket purchasers and hotel guests. Many of these visitors are not simply in town for a single event, but are building multi day itineraries that blend alpine venues with city breaks in Milan, Venice and beyond.
The Last Supper episode raises uncomfortable questions about how these valuable guests are prioritized when demand collides with limited capacity at heritage sites. Tour operators specializing in art and culture have long warned that an overemphasis on VIP hospitality during mega events risks alienating precisely the independent, culturally motivated travelers that destinations like Italy rely on in shoulder seasons. Being bumped for a delegation of officials or corporate sponsors can feel particularly galling when flights, hotels and internal transport are all priced at Olympic premiums.
Pressure on Milan’s Infrastructure and Visitor Experience
The disruption at Santa Maria delle Grazie is not occurring in isolation. Milan is the principal international gateway for the 2026 Winter Olympics, funnelling much of the global traffic into a Games that are geographically dispersed across 22,000 square kilometers of northern Italy. Organizers, city authorities and transport providers have been racing to scale up infrastructure, from security perimeters around key venues to expanded flight schedules and augmented rail services. That intense operational focus has inevitably placed stress on everyday city life and on the classic sightseeing circuit that visitors expect to enjoy between competitions.
In the streets around The Last Supper, travelers have reported detours, heavier police presence and public transport diversions adding friction to their plans. Similar strains are visible across Milan’s central districts, where Olympic branding jostles with scaffolding, temporary barriers and redirected tram lines. While such disruptions are common in Olympic host cities, Milan’s status as both a Games hub and a year round cultural magnet magnifies the potential for awkward clashes between security priorities and visitor expectations.
The challenge for Italian authorities is to strike a workable balance. The Last Supper requires stringent conservation measures, including low visitor throughput, climate control and regular closure periods. Layer on top a major security operation for world leaders and sports officials and the equation becomes even more complex. Yet travelers from far flung markets do not easily accept that once in a lifetime cultural experiences can be suspended with minimal warning. The episode is already feeding into a broader conversation about how Milan communicates with prospective visitors, manages crowding at its signature attractions and coordinates messaging among museums, city tourism agencies and Olympic organizers.
Airlines Riding a Wave of Demand Into Northern Italy
For airlines, the temporary closure of a single heritage site may appear marginal compared with the extraordinary surge in demand that Milan Cortina 2026 has triggered. Carriers across Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific region have been steadily expanding capacity into Milan’s airports, as well as into Venice, to capture a once in a generation spike in winter sports tourism. Industry data indicate that international seat capacity to Milan during the Olympic period has increased by around six percent compared with the previous year, with long haul routes growing nearly twenty percent as airlines upgauge aircraft and add frequencies.
Germany has emerged as one of the leading European feeders into Milan, with double digit growth in seat supply on routes linking key hubs and secondary cities to northern Italy. France and the UK have also seen significant capacity increases as flag carriers and low cost operators alike chase demand from fans, families and general tourists seizing the opportunity to combine Olympic viewing with Italian city breaks. From North America, the United States and Canada figure prominently in booking data, accounting for a large share of international ticket spend on travel into the host region.
Australia, though geographically distant, features strongly in the premium leisure segment, with well heeled travelers stitching together long itineraries that may include stopovers in the Middle East or Asia before connecting into Milan or Venice. For these passengers, the overall value proposition of a 2026 Italy trip rests on more than sports alone. The prospect of exploring Renaissance masterpieces, alpine villages, wine regions and UNESCO listed cities is central to their decision to travel. Any perception that headline attractions may be unavailable at peak periods could influence how this lucrative audience structures future European journeys, potentially encouraging them to avoid major event windows.
Hotel Rates, Rail Networks and the Race to Capture the 2026 Boom
The Olympics are already transforming northern Italy’s tourism economy, with accommodation prices and transport capacity rising in tandem. Studies by tourism analytics firms have documented nightly hotel rates across host destinations increasing by well over one hundred percent during the core Olympic weeks, particularly in high demand resorts such as Cortina d’Ampezzo and key alpine valleys. Milan, as the main international gateway, has seen its own pricing spike, with upscale city hotels capitalizing on the influx of media, corporate hospitality guests and affluent spectators.
Alongside air travel, rail is emerging as the backbone of regional mobility during the Games. High speed services make it possible to travel from Milan to cities like Verona and Venice in a matter of hours, enabling spectators to base themselves in one urban center while day tripping to events or cultural sites further afield. Rail operators have reported growing demand in the run up to the Olympics and are adding capacity and extended schedules to accommodate expected flows between the various competition clusters and major tourist cities.
This combination of soaring hotel prices, fuller trains and busier airports reinforces the sense that 2026 is a pivotal moment for Italian tourism. For government planners and industry stakeholders, the goal is to convert the short term spike associated with the Olympics into a sustained uplift in visitation over subsequent years. That strategy depends heavily on ensuring that visitors during the Games themselves leave with overwhelmingly positive impressions of both the sporting spectacle and the broader travel experience, from cultural access to mobility and value for money.
Reputation Risks and the Battle for High Value Visitors
The decision to restrict public access to The Last Supper during the early days of the Olympics illustrates just how fragile that reputation equation can be. Word spreads quickly when travelers feel sidelined in favor of VIPs, especially in an age where social media posts about blocked streets and shuttered doors can travel almost as fast as live coverage of medal ceremonies. For national tourism organizations and airline marketing teams that have invested heavily in positioning Italy as both welcoming and authentic, such stories are an unwelcome counterpoint.
Visitors from wealthier long haul markets tend to be particularly vocal when expectations are not met. UK and US travelers, accustomed to booking top tier cultural experiences well in advance, can be unforgiving when last minute changes undermine carefully crafted itineraries. German and French tourists, many of whom know Italy well from repeat visits, may weigh their Olympic experiences against previous, more relaxed trips to the country. Canadians and Australians, who often face long flights and sizeable budgets to reach Europe, are keenly attuned to whether marquee experiences justify the investment.
To mitigate potential fallout, Italian authorities and cultural institutions will likely need to refine how they communicate closures and special security arrangements around sensitive sites. Clear, multilingual information on official channels, proactive updates to tour operators and transparent explanations about conservation or safety needs can all soften the blow when access must be curtailed. Equally, demonstrating that local residents and ordinary tourists retain meaningful access to national treasures, even in the shadow of the Olympic rings, can help reassure future visitors that major events do not automatically translate into exclusion.
What Travelers Should Expect for the Rest of 2026
For would be visitors planning trips later in 2026, the Last Supper episode serves as both a cautionary tale and a planning prompt. The first takeaway is that Milan and the wider northern Italy region will remain exceptionally busy throughout the year, as the halo effect of the Olympics lingers and international interest in the host destinations stays elevated. Airlines are likely to maintain a higher baseline of capacity on key routes into Milan and Venice compared with pre Games periods, while hotels and short term rentals will continue to test pricing power as long as demand remains strong.
The second lesson is the importance of flexibility. Travelers from the UK, US, Germany, France, Canada and Australia who wish to see The Last Supper and other high demand sites would be wise to build in alternative dates within their itineraries, securing timed entries early but also budgeting an extra day or two in Milan in case of unforeseen closures. Working with reputable tour operators or travel advisors who receive direct updates from Italian cultural authorities can further reduce the risk of disappointment, since professional intermediaries are often notified of schedule shifts before individual travelers.
Finally, the episode highlights how intertwined cultural heritage and transport planning have become in the context of mega events. Airlines and rail operators are not just moving spectators between stadiums and ski slopes; they are enabling access to cathedrals, museums, vineyards and historic towns that form the emotional core of many journeys. As Italy rides a powerful wave of Olympic driven tourism into 2026, the choices made in Milan’s refectories and in airline scheduling departments will together determine whether this moment is remembered as a golden age of discovery or as a cautionary note about the costs of success.