Venice, that's who visits the museums: Venetians! Long lines for temporary reopening

There could not have been a drier and at the same time more spontaneous reaction to the position of the mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro: "We can’t throw money away," he said at the beginning of the year in justifying the decision of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia to keep the institutes closed until April. And the reaction has been the spontaneous reaction of Venetians, who in the first of these few days of opening two venues for Carnival went to the museums in large numbers, creating long lines while waiting to get in.

Yesterday was the first day of reopening for the Doge’s Palace and Correr Museum: it will be repeated today and then again on Monday and Tuesday. There were 500 citizens who went to see the museums on yesterday’s day: and since movement between regions is prohibited during this period, those 500 people who queued yesterday to enter the museums are probably all from Venice and the surrounding area. Part of the queue is also thanks to the work done by the City Council opposition, which called on the citizenry to show how museums are not just a tourist attraction, but are everyone’s heritage. Indeed, Councilman Giovanni Andrea Martini of the Tutta la Città Insieme civic list organized a mobilization, asking Venetians for a very simple action: to go and visit museums, to show interest in culture, solidarity with its workers and love for the city’s historical and artistic heritage.

“We cannot simply think about budget balances,” Martini said, “we need to think about the growth of the city not only as a function of tourism but as a function of civic consciousness.” Yesterday’s day, according to Martini, was a demonstration of “how citizens love their Museums. Now it is necessary that the opening is not limited to Carnival days and that interest is created for a proximity tourism that can guarantee work and quality.”

So now the hope is to convince the Foundation to go back on its decision: the museums will in fact reopen permanently from April 1, although a few extra openings have been scheduled for March. “The museums were not opened for tourists, if anything, for visitors from the region,” the Foundation’s president, Maria Cristina Gribaudi, tells ansa. “It was an important signal, a reopening for Venetians and Venetians, with extended hours. We are reasoning that we can open, the moment the Dpcm changes, on weekends also while waiting for the reopening between regions. And that should be in the first days of March; also, on the 25th of the same month the celebration of the 1600th anniversary of Venice begins and we will definitely be operational. The April 1 date was perhaps a bit exploited; the mayor had given it as a precautionary measure. I talked to some hoteliers who had reservations.”

The Foundation now lets it know that it is working to obtain funds and partnerships to get more financial support to get away from the logic of just ticketing. “We are at the beginning of a year with many unknowns because of the health emergency,” says director Gabriella Belli, “and caution is important. If we had not had the Mibact relief, we would have had a negative signal of 7 million euros. What will happen in 2021? We want to leave a well-managed heritage of the city.”

Venice, that's who visits the museums: Venetians! Long lines for temporary reopening

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