Virtual Tours of Italian Museums

For a few months institutions, public and private museums and art galleries have been providing their visitors with the chance to explore their collections and exhibitions comfortably from home. From podcasts to virtual tours, up to videos, playlists, special activities, themed focuses on art, architecture and more, you’ll be spoilt for choice.

The Pinacoteca di Brera (Brera Art Gallery), for example, has launched a new initiative: BreraPlus+, a new online platform that enriches the experience of the gallery with new multimedia content, special programs, concerts, live streaming, events and much more. On the art gallery’s official website, visitors can discover 669 works of art thanks to “The Collection Online” section.

Not only virtual tours but also special visits to the current contemporary art exhibitions hosted in the spaces of the foundation are part of the online offer by Fondazione Prada. The foundation’s website, as well as the official Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Vimeo and YouTube accounts, become the ideal stage to share ideas and explore new ways to experiment with culture.
An online section, for example, enables visitors to discover the two featured exhibitions – “The Porcelain Room” and “Storytelling” – and their artworks online. Moreover, the “Finite Rants” online project features 8 different visual essays – which change monthly – commissioned to artists, filmmakers, intellectuals and researchers to test the efficiency of this instrument to express the author’s thought through images and visual communication.

Though Milan’s most known design museum (Triennale di Milano) is closed, its Triennale Decameron programme is still active. Daily at 5pm artists, designers and architects can be seen and heard live on the official Instagram account (@triennalemilano). Moreover, the official website (see below) enables visitors to enjoy interviews, podcasts and highlights on the world of art and culture, as well as videos and images from the historical archives of the Triennale. Other online activities are held on the official Facebook and YouTube accounts.

The second largest Egyptian Museum in the world after the one in Cairo – the Museo Egizio in Turin – can be enjoyed thanks to special guided tours. Led by the museum’s director – Mr. Christian Greco – and available for free on the official Youtube account, the 8-minute tours help visitors discover insightf
ul highlights on the featured findings. A new focus is issued every Thursday and Saturday in March and April. Other multimedia contents can be found on the official Instagram account (@museoegizio).

The MuseoCity association, together with Google Arts&Culture has introduced a new way of visiting the precious museum in Florence and its sections thanks to a selection of high-resolution images of the featured works, which include masterpieces by great Italian masters such as Giotto, Simone Martini, Piero della Francesca, Beato Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Mantegna, Correggio, Leonardo, Raffaello and Michelangelo. Moreover, the brand-new IperVisioni (HyperVisions) section on the official website (see below) allows guests to enjoy special ad hoc exhibitions creating a dialogue between art from the past and the various cultures of the world.

The various halls of the Vatican Museums in Rome – which include 26 sections and museums-within-the-museum, among which the Stanze di Raffaello (Raffaello’s Rooms) and the Sistine Chapel – can be admired thanks to 360-degree virtual tours. The tours are available online on the official website (see below) and also enable visitors to enjoy a close-up view of the thousands of works of art part of the Popes’ collection gathered through the centuries. Videos and other multimedia contents can be discovered on the official YouTube channel.

Always thanks to the collaboration between MuseoCity and Google Arts&Culture, the cultural and artistic gems of the Capodimonte Museum near Naples can be admired online straight from home. The online Google Art&Culture platform gathers over 536 works of art hosted in the museum and on its adjacent park. Over 203 paintings can be seen and analysed close-up thanks to the Art Camera technology, while the special Street View tool enables visitors to enjoy 14 themed stories and virtual tours of the masterpieces hosted in the museum and in the alleys of the Real Bosco.

Virtually strolling through gardens, discovering historical dwellings and their precious objects is now possibile thanks to FAI – Fondo Ambiente Italiano. The Italian National Trust has indeed powered its brad-new #Italiamimanchi online project enabling visitors to enjoy some of its most widely-appreciated properties thanks to live streamings on the official FAI account on Facebook, Instagram and on the official YouTube channel.