Eike Schmidt, the dynamic curator of the Uffizi Museums in Florence, assured foreign press journalists in a recent meeting in streaming that the programme of events and exhibitions that have been postponed due to the Covid-19 crisis are simply on hold and will go ahead as soon as the situation permits. Referring in particular to the major Raphael exhibition in Rome which features several works from the Uffizi collection, he said that the Uffizi loans would be left on hold for as long as it takes and that the three specialized exhibitions planned by the Uffizi in Florence this year have merely been suspended and will go ahead as soon as possible. The Slow Tourism project, introduced in 2018, will be maintained, offering incentives through one single ticket to favour longer and more specialized visits through themed itineraries and encouraging visits to the five lesser known attractions that come under the Uffizi umbrella. These include the fascinating collections of Palazzo Pitti, the Opificio delle Pietre Dure (a global leader in art restoration), the National Etruscan Museum (one of the oldest in Europe), the Egyptian Museum (second in Italy after the celebrated Egyptian Museum of Turin) and the historic Boboli Gardens, the first example of the formal Italian Garden, created by the Medici. Meanwhile, the Uffizi, along with many other Italian museums, has organized viewings of its treasures online. Schmidt is convinced that virtual tours will whet the appetite for when visitors can finally travel again. "They can never substitute the real thing" he said.
Info: www.uffizi.it
