As the coronavirus emergency is keeping us all at home, it is still possible to travel virtually to Italy and visit some of its outstanding museums, from the comfort and safety of your couch at home.
Here are four that make their collections and rooms available online, with special initiatives in place specifically during these times of lockdown, when all museums are closed to the public.
The Egyptian Museum in Turin, which boasts one of the most important collections of Egyptian antiquities in the world, is offering a virtual tour of its renovated rooms and various artifacts via its website; while on Facebook, the museum’s director, Christian Greco, leads video tours describing the history of the museum’s prestigious collection, pointing out the most significant finds and providing archaeological context, all while promoting the hashtag #LaCulturaCura (Culture cures).
In Milan, the Pinacoteca di Brera, which contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings, allows viewers to admire the masterpieces of its collection in high definition. The high definition allows to identify even the smallest details of the paintings, to appreciate “the technical aspects, the subtleties of the pigments, the traces of the drawing, almost reaching the hearts and feelings of the artists,” says the museum’s website.
The Uffizi Gallery in Florence also offers high definition images of its masterpieces, from Botticelli to Cimabue, with its Ipervisioni virtual program: a series of virtual exhibitions centered around different themes, for example the story of Easter, the #BotticelliSpringMarathon, or Forgotten Florence, accompanied by descriptions and explanations.
The Vatican Museums’s online catalog, while not especially appealing in the way it works, allows you to search for specific works of art or artists for a part of the institution’s museums. More enticing is the possibility to take virtual tours of some its spaces, for example Raphael Rooms, and even of the Sistine Chapel - without the crowds. Now, that’s something you don’t normally get to see!
