National Post (National Edition)
Italy dusts off its Renaissance culture for the big reopening
Foreign tourists may be invited back in June
ROME • For the country that gave the world the sublime genius of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Caravaggio, it will be a symbol of pride and a sign of hope for better times.
After the long, dark night of the pandemic, which has killed more than 33,000 people in Italy, the crucible of the Renaissance is to undergo a cultural rebirth this weekend.
World-class monuments are being readied to give Italians a morale boost for the long weekend marking the Festa della Repubblica, commemorating the establishment of Italy as a republic in 1946.
In Florence, visitors will once again be able to admire Michelangelo’s David, when the Accademia Gallery reopens. Visitors can download an app to make their smartphones vibrate if they stray too close to other people.
The Uffizi Galleries — the repository of Leonardo’s Annunciation, The Birth of Venus by Botticelli and Titian’s Venus of Urbino — are to reopen next week as well.
For now, none of the attractions is accessible to international tourists — foreign visitors are still banned. But the Italian government is working with other EU countries to reopen the continent’s borders on June 15 — which Luigi Di Maio, the foreign minister, hopes will be “D-Day” for resuming tourism.
At the Colosseum in Rome, workers were busy trimming the grass verges and new metal barriers were being installed for its reopening on Monday. On Sunday, the ancient stone amphitheatre will be lit up in the red, white and green of the Italian flag in remembrance of COVID-19 victims.
When the Colosseum and neighbouring Roman Forum reopen on Monday, there will be staggered entry times, and visitors will have their temperatures checked with hand-held scanners. Masks will be obligatory.
When the Colosseum was closed on March 8, it was plunged into “a surreal silence which was hard to accept,” said Alfonsina Russo, the director of the monument.
Its reopening is “a message of hope for a swift cultural and economic recovery for the entire nation.”
A kilometre or so across the city, the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art has reopened, with visitors required to wear masks. Gloves and sanitizing gel are provided at the gallery, which has 20,000 paintings, drawings and sculptures.
Archeological remains in the Circus Maximus, ancient Rome’s chariot-racing track, and the Imperial Forums will reopen, as will the remains of Trajan’s Markets.
Outside the capital, Hadrian’s Villa has just reopened. A maximum of 250 people are allowed to visit at a time.
“We’ve developed walking routes that allow people to safely explore less well known corners of the estate,” said Andrea Bruciati, the director.
In Tuscany, the Leaning Tower of Pisa will reopen on Saturday, with the city taking out national newspaper ads hailing it as “a sign of hope and of the country’s recovery.” The Romanesque cathedral, baptistery and all the other monuments that make up Pisa’s “Piazza dei Miracoli” will also reopen.
Some sites have been open for a while. Pompeii, buried by pumice and ash after the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79, reopened on Tuesday, welcoming just a handful of visitors.
Florence’s Duomo opened its doors to visitors and the faithful last week. The cathedral was overwhelmed by 10,000 bookings in less than 24 hours.
“We had not expected such an extraordinary response,” said Luca Bagnoli, the cathedral’s director.
Making the Duomo accessible to everyone once more was “a sign of hope” for Florence and the whole country, he said. The city has undergone a haemorrhaging of revenue.
Eike Schmidt, the director of the Uffizi, said the gallery had lost 10-million euros in ticket sales.
Dario Nardella, the mayor of Florence, says the city is in dire straits financially, with a deficit of nearly 200-million euros, and accuses the government of doing nothing to help.
“We’ve not had a euro of the money promised by the government,” Nardella told Corriere della Sera.
“I’m infuriated and very worried. I don’t even have the money to pay for the routine maintenance of monuments and buildings.”
He plans to go on a world tour to ask for funds from private benefactors and philanthropic organizations.