Museums and palaces may be closed, but the online world is more open than ever. Many cultural institutions in Italy are coping with the nationwide lockdown by opening their virtual doors to the public, offering alternative ways to see their art and architecture and to savor the culture through online tools, such as virtual tours, YouTube videos, engagement with the audience via their social media channels, the Google Arts & Culture platform.
In Rome, one of the year’s most awaited exhibit, the one devoted to Raffaello for the 500th anniversary of his death, which is currently on view, but closed due to the Italian government’s lockdown decree, can now be enjoyed online, thanks to a series of videos posted regularly on the Scuderie del Quirinale’s YouTube channel (Scuderie del Quirinale is the location of the exhibition). It looks like it’s only in Italian, but you can turn on automatic English subtitles.
Watch below 'a walk through the exhibition'.
We’ve already told you about some of Italy’s outstanding museums you can visit from home; one of them is the Vatican Museums. Their 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! Thus, you can admire up close the extraordinary frescoes by Perugino, Ghirlandaio, Signorelli, Botticelli, and of course Michelangelo.
The Capitoline Museums, which contain ancient Roman statues, inscriptions, and other artifacts, a collection of medieval and Renaissance art, and collections of jewels, coins, and other items, can be toured online thanks to Google Art Project. You can see works from Artemisia Gentileschi, Tintoretto, Caravaggio, accompanied by captions.
But that’s not all: thanks to Google Art Project, you can see all 15 museums that are part of the Musei Civici di Roma (Civic Museums), such as the Ara Pacis, Trajan’s Markets, the Museo di Roma in Trastevere, which documents life in Rome in the early 20th century, and more. Click here, it's fantastic!
The Teatro dell’Opera di Roma is making available some of its concerts from past seasons on its YouTube channel; opera concerts such as Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Tristan und Isolde, can now be enjoyed online. Make sure you also check its Facebook page, with content posted daily.
Hear and watch Madama Butterfly below.
