Thanks to a new project from Google, it’s now possible to visit Florence’s famed Uffizi Gallery without ever leaving the comfort of your home.
Using the same technology that has previously been applied to Google Street View, anyone with an Internet connection can take a 360-degree tour of 17 world famous museums, including the Uffizi.
Almost every room in the Uffizi is available. Virtual visitors can view the museum’s floor plan and select the rooms they wish to see. From the room-level, art lovers can get up close to many of the works using a super-resolution zoom. The zoom feature allows you to see down to brush-stroke detail.
Google explained in a company blog post that their goal was "to help museums make their art more accessible—not just to regular museum-goers or those fortunate to have great galleries on their doorsteps, but to a whole new set of people who might otherwise never get to see the real thing up close."
While it's hard to replace a trip to Florence with a trip online, it's great to know that everyone in the world can now appreciate works like Botticelli's The Birth of Venus.
Click here to take a virtual tour of the Uffizi Gallery on the Google Art Project.
