Italy’s cultural institutions have united to offer a vast program of initiatives under the hashtag #laculturanonsiferma (culture can’t be stopped), launched to encourage Italians to stay home and help contain the spread of coronavirus in the country.
Here are some of the ways Italians can feed their hunger for arts and culture during the lockdown.
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Publishing company Condé Nast Italia is offering readers free digital magazines across each of the company’s brands: Vogue, GQ, Wired, AD, La Cucina Italiana and Traveller.
To get your free editions, follow the instructions given on the magazines’ websites and use the associated apps free of charge.
You can also follow the video courses of the La Cucina Italiana Cooking School for free.
Readers can also access the Vogue Italia archive completely free of charge.
The Vogue Archive is a digital fashion archive, inaugurated in 2013 to mark the 50th anniversary of Vogue Italia.
A valuable repository, the archive holds the entire history of the magazine and features, photographs, articles, advertising campaigns and much more.
Meanwhile, many Italian publishing houses are offering free e-books in exchange for signing up to their newsletters.
Mondadori is also giving three months’ complimentary access to its magazines, including titles such as Grazia, Icon Design, and Focus Junior, to those in the areas hit hardest by the virus.
Many libraries across Italy have also opened up their online databases filled with free e-books and publications.
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Milan’s Cineteca is allowing access to the hundreds of classic Italian films in its archives for free via its website, while those after a more contemporary flick can head to the Ischia Film Festival’s website.
Italians can also enjoy virtual opera performances: the Rossini Opera Festival is streaming recordings of past productions and Venice’s Teatro Fenice is providing content on its YouTube channel of clips from past productions as well as behind-the-scenes footage.
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Several art galleries are running free online commentaries by art experts and curators on their cancelled and postponed exhibitions.
La Triennale in Milan has even drawn inspiration from Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron, in which those who escaped the plague in Florence in 1348 told stories to pass the time.
In the digital version, a different artist is invited to share a personal story every day at 5:00 pm.
Meanwhile, famous Italian musicians such as Gianna Nannini and Fedez have decided to perform live concerts via social media, using the hashtag #IoSuonoDaCasa (I play at home).
