Museums in Italy are testing an unprecedented add-on amenity to boost visitor numbers: as of Sunday, January 12, four major cultural sites in Rome—including the MAXXI, the Museum of the Ara Pacis and Castel Sant’Angelo—began offering dog-sitting. Owners can book the service online, letting them roam the galleries freely while trained minders walk, feed and entertain their four-legged companions.
This innovation comes via a London-based startup, Bauadvisor, that launched two years ago with paid dog-sitting services for €10 per hour at 300 cultural sites across nearly sixty cities. As part of its Italian “roadshow,” the service is currently free and set to make its next stop in Venice, where the Guggenheim Collection, Museo Correr, Museo Ca’ Pesaro and Museo Ca’ Rezzonico will host the program this Sunday. The following day, February 3, Bologna joins in with the Collezioni Comunali d’Arte and Museo Civico Archeologico. The Uffizi Galleries in Florence and the National Archaeological Museum in Naples will debut their programs later in the year, on September 7 and October 5, respectively.
On its inaugural day in Rome, forty dog owners reportedly took advantage of the service. “This project means owners can enjoy culture without being separated from their pets for long, and dogs will suffer less stress than they would if left at home,” Dino Gasperini, director of Bauadvisor, told The Times of London, positioning the initiative as a significant step toward improving pets’ wellbeing. On its website, the startup bills itself as a “community” promoting a new “six-legged tourism” while also offering legal advice and additional pet-friendly services alongside dog-sitting.
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Since its launch, the service has gained serious traction in Mantua, Lombardy, where 800 dog owners book it each month to explore the city’s historic sites, including Palazzo Ducale and Palazzo Te. This latest expansion into Italy’s premier museums will serve as a crucial test run, gathering data and feedback that could determine whether the service spreads beyond the Alps.
Pet-friendly museums aren’t entirely unheard of. In 2023, the National Museum of Contemporary Arts in Athens marked World Stray Animals Day by welcoming visitors with their dogs. In the U.S., museums remain firm on the service-dogs-only policy, though exceptions are occasionally made during openings and special events.
