
Italian museums offer dog-sitting services to visitors
Italian museums have decided to offer an innovative dog-sitting service to increase visitor numbers.
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Several Italian museums are offering a solution to the age-old conundrum facing dog owners – should they go out without their beloved pet or simply stay home with their four-legged friend?
Instead of making this decision, owners could leave their pets with dog wardens at four museums in Rome for free, it says. CNN.
Source: CNN https://t.co/XMUePZaog7
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This service, launched by Bauadvisor, was first presented last week in Rome, at four famous cultural sites: the Ara Pacis Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, MAXXI and Castel Sant'Angelo, writes "Artnews".
During the first day, 40 dog owners used the service, and the service can be booked online and will be available at 15 tourist locations across Italy, once a month, until April 2026.
Dog owners will be able to leave their pets with trusted and trained guardians at the museum entrances, where the dogs will be able to walk and get food while their owners enjoy sightseeing.
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Florence will also begin offering this service from February 7, and the Uffizi Galleries in Florence and the National Archaeological Museum in Naples have announced the start of the service in September.
According to Dina Gasperini, director of Bauadvisor, dogs who use this service are exposed to less stress than when they are left at home. Bauadvisor first offered this service two years ago, and it is now available in 300 locations in 60 cities.
An hour of sitting costs 10 euros, and the most popular destination was Mantua, where around 800 dog owners booked sittings each month to enjoy visits to the Palazzo Ducale and Palazzo Te.
While the service has become popular, the question remains whether it will expand to other European cities. In museums like the Louvre in Paris and the Tate in London, dogs are only allowed if they are guide dogs, but Gasperini believes that dogs should be allowed in museums. While this is not yet possible, this service represents the perfect compromise for dog lovers.