From the Colosseum to the Egyptian, culture restarts

At the Colosseum,

which reopened its doors today, the director Alfonsina Russo welcomed visitors - almost two hundred already at lunchtime - with a concert by the students of the Academy of Santa Cecilia.

, which started with a free week, the enthusiasm is such that the reopening is already sold out with an average of 1300 bookings per day.

first groups in line were excited at the idea of ​​finally enjoying the great exhibition dedicated to Michelangelo.

    In fact, if the curtains still cannot be raised and you get nervous discussing the audience of the Sanremo Festival, in the museums there is a flourishing of hope and initiatives, of new paths and exhibitions that find the light after more than one hundred days of dark.

This happens at Maxxi, the national museum of 21st century arts, which has rearranged its collection by displaying works by Schifano, Kounellis and Accardi with "senzamargine".

    And which together presents various exhibitions, from the portraits of the soul by Giovanni Gastel to the architecture of Lina Bo Bardi or those of Luois Kahn photographed by Roberto Schezen.

    In the capital all the most famous structures reopen, from Palazzo Barberini to the Borghese Gallery, from Gnam to the Etruscan museum of Villa Giulia, which also - happily active on social networks - has never lost contact with its public.

    The sites of Abruzzo and the Marches are trampling, the Miramare Castle rekindles the lights in Trieste with all its history and legend linked to the charm of Princess Sissi.

is the case of the magnificent complex of the Pilotta in Parma or the Arian Baptistery in Ravenna, but also the museum of the Abbey of Montecassino or the Museum of Roman Ships at Lake Nemi , the archaeological area of ​​Ostia Antica, the Rocca Roveresca di Senigallia, the Forte di Gavi, the museum of oriental art in Venice.

At the Colosseum, where, as the manager Federica Rinaldi reminds us, visits can be booked preferably online but always day by day (a trick introduced by many institutions to avoid problems and disappointments in case the pandemic trend forces to close) there are several news to discover , first of all

made in the 17th century on the arch of the Triumphalis gate towards the Roman forum.

Meanwhile, the Vatican Museums are also reopening in Rome, with the first tourists returning to be amazed under the vaults of the Sistine Chapel.

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The reason?

Protest for the rule that requires newly reopened museums to remain closed on weekends, a choice that has aroused controversy and discontent almost everywhere in Italy, also thinking about the enormous economic losses that every place of culture, from archaeological sites to museums to exhibitions , has had to suffer in this pandemic year, with visitors and takings reduced by as much as 70 percent.

A choice of the government that even the mayor in Padua, excited today by the reopening of the city's treasures starting from the Scrovegni Chapel, considers "inexplicable", so much so that the letter to the mayor minister and councilor think they are writing it together: "Absurd not think again - they say - on weekends there would be the same security and booking criteria as on other days ".