Culture, MiBACT launches Grand virtual tour of cultural heritage

“Art you ready?”, the campaign by the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (MiBACT), created to keep the interest in Italian cultural heritage alive during these days of closure to the public, is coming back. For the traditional first Sunday of the month, which normally provides free admission to all state-run cultural sites, the Ministry. led by Dario Franceschini, is organising special tours: virtual tours of theatres, archives, museums and libraries, which have been gathered together for the occasion, on the Ministry’s website www.beniculturali.it/virtualtour.

The numerous digital tours combine to create a real “Gran virtual tour” of Italy’s beautiful heritage, many organised thanks to the many years of collaboration between MiBACT and Google Arts & Culture, who have come together in the Wonders of Italy section (available on g.co/meraviglieditalia of the Google platform). The journey covers the whole peninsula, which will also be the focus of a social media campaign for the whole day of Sunday, April 5th.

Everyone is invited to participate, using the hashtags #artyouready and #granvirtualtour, with the most varied contents, from simple but effective screenshots captured during virtual visits, to traditional photos taken during visits in the past and stored on smartphones or old photo albums, to continue on the theme of the previous Sunday in a real “second edition” of Art you ready, which was demanded so much on social media.

So, in order not to lose the habit of the first Sunday of the month appointment at the museum, as part of the national campaign #iorestoacasa (#Istayathome), the Ministry is giving Italians the opportunity to enjoy, from home, the rooms of some of the most important national places of culture, the masterpieces in the museum exhibitions, the rooms of several opera houses (genuine monuments of music), by going through the foyers, the stalls and onto the stages, to enjoy the wealth of heritage, which is kept in the archives and in the monumental libraries.

This is only a taste of the beauty in Italy, which you will eventually be able to visit in person, an invitation to refresh your memory of places you have already been to, and to find new ones to write in the list of upcoming trips to discover, or rediscover, Italy’s extraordinary cultural heritage.