Uffizi gallery named Italy’s most visited cultural site for first time

With 1,721,637 visitors in 2021, the Uffizi pushed the Colosseum into second place with 1,633,436 visitors, Il Giornale dell’Arte reported on Monday.

In 2020, the Colosseum held the top spot with 1,085,695 visitors.

The Uffizi also outperformed the Vatican Museums, which registered 1,612530 visitors in 2021, and the Pompeii archaeological park, which had 1,037,766 ticket sales.

The news was welcomed by Uffizi director, Eike Schmidt, who said on Monday: “We’re on the way up again.”

Paying tribute to the Uffizi staff, Schmidt cited three “decisive factors” in obtaining the top ranking: the new 16^th-century rooms opened last May; the program of exhibitions; and the museum’s cultural offering on social media.

The Uffizi also staged the most visited exhibition in Italy in 2021, with a show focused on the “arte povera” protagonist Giuseppe Penone, which was part of Schmidt’s efforts to broaden the Uffizi’s appeal.

Housing the family collection of the Florentine political and banking dynasty, the House of Medici, the Uffizi is renowned for many of the best known works of Renaissance maestros including Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio and Raphael.

Under Schmidt, an art historian who has held his role since 2015, the gallery has broadened its scope to include more female artists and those from under-represented social, cultural and racial groups.

The Uffizi is in 20^th place in the list of global rankings which is topped by the Louvre in Paris with 2,825,000 visitors in 2021.