[superasn]

In addition to being costly it also gets very crowded. Went to Amsterdam and couldn't see the Anne frank museum due to a huge line of tourist. Then went to italy's main square, couldn't get inside the Basilica. Then we went to Louvre, same thing. I just don't have patience to stand in line for hours, so it is kind of my fault. Still, I think it's best to avoid the main tourist attractions because they are generally all booked by tour operators and each groups now contains hundreds of tourists.

[fovc]

If it makes you feel any better, the Anne Frank house has absurd lines year-round

[IkmoIkmo]

Hehe, yep, they even made a documentary retelling the Anne Frank stories from experiences of all kinds of different people who're standing in line to get a ticket. (many of them having stories of their own).

They're working on it btw, expanding opening hours, allowing you to buy tickets online and skip the queue and expanding the museum itself.

[jaclaz]

Italy is a state, it has not a "main square" or a "Basilica", a number of cities in Italy may have those, maybe you meant Rome?

[superasn]

Yes, sorry. That was a slip of tongue. I don't remember the exact city but iirc there was a bridge of sigh and many glass factories around this Basilica. Googling it, it looks like Venice.

[jaclaz]

Yes, bridge of sigh and glass manufacturing, definitely it is Venice.

And more or less the same bad news as the ones about Amsterdam, Venice has a continuous flow of tourists, all year round, the "offpeak" in Venice is more or less perfectly overlapping with the cold, rainy winter period where there is less people visiting (but not that much less).