National Gallery of Ancient Art in Barberini Palace

Business Hour

Monday: Closed
Tuesday: 8:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Wednesday: 8:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Thursday: 8:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Friday: 8:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Saturday: 8:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Sunday: 8:00 AM – 7:00 PM

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Jenny Helen 2016-09-24

We had a *really* unfortunate experience here recently. My partner and I were very excited about going and the place looked so beautiful from the outside. We went in and bought tickets (7 euros each, which was reasonable but I felt they could amend the price while over half of the building is closed for renovations). We were given two white tickets for the 'free' area but no actual tickets for the main place. I did question this with my partner as we started up the stairs but assumed because it was quiet they trust that everyone coming will have paid their entry fee. When we got to the first level and tried to go in the man asked for our tickets. I showed him what we had been given and he explained that we had the wrong tickets. I explained (in as good Italian as I was able) that we had both paid. He sent us back down, so - thinking at this stage it would still be simple - we went back to the main desk and I attempted to explain (in Italian) to the lady that she hadn't given me tickets. She started to look quite annoyed, spoke in fast italian and finally after some persuasion printed out two more 'free' tickets (bearing in mind this was the same lady who had taken our 14 euros about 10 minutes earlier). We saw they said 'free' on them and pointed this out, but she said something else quickly in Italian and basically sent us away. We went up and showed these to the man at the door, at which point he started to get annoyed and told us we needed tickets with 7 euros marked on them. We tried - again - to explain what had happened, but rather than calling down to check with his colleague at the desk he just told us to go downstairs again. At this point I was getting really wound up and flustered with the experience so my partner went in to investigate further. When he got the the desk he realised another Brit (who spoke fluent Italian) was having the EXACT same problem with tickets! We were told to go to speak to the supervisor who said we could go up in the lift with her and so 'bypass' the guard. This was far from ideal - partly because it seemed ridiculously unprofessional but also because I'm quite claustrophobic in lifts but this seemed our only option so we did so. We then spent an edgy hour looking around the - to be clear, often WONDERFUL - art on the first floor, whilst dreading the idea that the door man who'd refused us entry would be around every corner! I've never had such an awkward visit to a gallery in my life. Frankly, though the building and grounds are glorious, I was appalled by the customer service of the lady on the main desk. I was also completely baffled with why she refused to give us correct tickets. She was well aware we'd paid! So even if she genuinely thought we'd lost the tickets (which we definitely hadn't), why wouldn't she just print us more, or explain to her colleague upstairs. Really, really unimpressed. Our only genuinely bad experience of hospitality in the WHOLE of Italy. This was such a shame as this Palazzo houses some spectacular paintings.
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