Schmidt (Uffizi): “The art, culinary or landscape experience cannot be only virtual”

“During the lockdown we saw that everything, luckily, can also be done online in Italy. Except for the art experience, as well as the culinary and landscape experiences, which cannot be virtual. This is the reason why culture will help to start up Italy again”, said Eike Schmidt, director of the Uffizi Galleries, today at the historic reopening, after the Covid-19 emergency, of the most famous Italian museum, one of the largest in the world, during a global live event. The Uffizi museum has been closed only four times in the last century, for the two World Wars, the Florence flood (1966) and the bomb at the Accademia dei Georgofili (1993).
Schmidt reopened the rooms of the Uffizi and announced the new rules and changes due to the containment of the pandemic that will become “an opportunity to live a new model”. He explained once again the appeal he had launched from Florence to transform the visiting experience from “hit and run” tourism to a slower and more aware flow.
What is the true sense of the Renaissance, if not a second and new rebirth? “Today June 3rd, after almost 3 months of lockdown, the Uffizi Galleries have reopened. You can forget long queues and crowded rooms. It will be a new way to experience the museum, a new sensory experience through the flavor of beauty, the taste of beauty and the love of art”, the message Florence, the cradle of Italian Renaissance, has launched to the world (on the Uffizi Facebook page, one of the most followed worldwide, which broadcast the reopening live).