The historical theatres are currently scheduled for 2026, so it’s time for a deeper look. Here’s my “visitor” experience in 2025.
First of all, bad news for Tsunami and probably others who ticked it as visited: the nomination has since been reduced from 62 to 18 and Urbino is no longer among them. Also interesting is, that from the 18 theatres, 4 are actually not in the Marche region. Bagnacavallo and Sant’Agata Feltria are in Emilia-Romagna, Amelia and Spoleto in Umbria. Spoleto is now your best change for an accidental tick, in case you visited the city centre as well, while visiting the Longobards component of Basilica di San Salvatore.
Having family in Italy, I luckily saw two more places. My accidental visits (from the outside) include Bagnacavallo, Pesaro and Spoleto. During my last visit in May 2025 I set myself the goal to visit the interior of at least one of them. I did not succeed. The problem with these theatres is that they are still active theatres and not museums. Your safest option to see one from the inside would be to book a ticket for a play (in Italian, of course). I am not a big fan of plays, so I researched for guided tours.
Bagnacavallo They post the dates for guided tours on viviravenna.it, but only for the same month. There are usually 2 or 3 tours per month, so you need to be really lucky. I never got an answer to my e-mail request.
Pesaro Pesaro was Capitale italiana della cultura in 2024 and they opened the theatre for regular guided tours in summer 2024. That is also all you will find, when you look for guided tours.
Fano They seem to open the theatre every second weekend of the each month for the whole day (excluding the typical extended Italian lunch break).
Urbania That one seemed to be the only one open for visits. It’s only 30mins from Urbino. But when I arrived there, the whole main square, that surrounds the theatre, was closed for restauration and the theatre not even approachable. Work set to be don in September 2025, but I would not count on that.
I hope, that if this becomes a WHS, these theatres make them properly accessible to visitors, not just theatre crowd. Currently it’s a real hassle.