Simone Verde, the director of the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, Italy, arrived a few minutes late for an interview earlier this month, apologizing profusely. He\u2019d been at the museum until 3:30 a.m., overseeing workers as they rehung Botticelli\u2019s \u201cPrimavera\u201d and had grabbed a few hours of sleep before returning to supervise the finishing touches on the newly revamped Botticelli rooms.<\/p>\n
Botticelli\u2019s depiction of an allegory of spring and his \u201cBirth of Venus\u201d are arguably the two top draws at the Uffizi, one of the world\u2019s most visited museums. Verde was anxious to ensure that the installation of the works \u2014 now nestled in new made-to-measure cases that swing open to allow for easier inspection \u2014 went off without a hitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been working incredibly hard,\u201d Verde said, greatly exaggerating his native Roman accent, which is usually imperceptible.<\/p>\n
Of late, there have been many long days, especially on Mondays, when the museum is closed to the public and the chatter of tourists \u2014 5.3 million last year \u2014 is replaced by a cacophony of the drills, hammers and saws at some 25 worksites in the Uffizi and two other landmarks that Verde oversees: the Palazzo Pitti across the Arno River and the 81-acre Boboli Gardens.<\/p>\n
Just over two years into a four-year mandate, Verde\u2019s curatorial vision has been gaining ground. He aims to present the sites as living encyclopedias of museum history, to give visitors a sense of how \u2014 and why \u2014 the collections came together over the centuries. Each phase reflects the interests and priorities of their time, he said, adding that knowing their history helps understand the history of museum collecting.<\/p>\n
The restored Botticelli rooms are a case in point. When they were last reorganized a decade ago<\/a>, the curator at the time opted for a more contemporary presentation, encasing the principal paintings in oversized niches in a white-walled gallery.<\/p>\n Verde has returned to a more traditional hanging that reprises elements from the Uffizi\u2019s past. The walls are now painted in what he called Renaissance gray, and a darker baseboard recalls the wood paneling that was in the gallery until the 1950s. Brass protective barriers reprise those designed during a modernist installation<\/a> in the first half of the 20th century.<\/p>\n Elsewhere in the Uffizi, there are similar touches. New wooden benches that line the second-floor corridors are modern copies of the stone benches that the building\u2019s architect, Giorgio Vasari, fashioned for the courtyard. Here, the brass barriers imitate ropes cordoning off sculptures, reprising 19th-century tastes.<\/p>\n There are also some 21st-century touches. New museum labels include a QR code \u2014 a first for the Uffizi \u2014 providing in-depth information, and digital monitors explain Botticelli\u2019s connection to the Medici family that once ruled Florence.<\/p>\n The Museums Special Section<\/p>\n In Verde\u2019s vision, the palace where the family once lived, Palazzo Pitti, is an integral part of his mandate, though the museum often plays second fiddle to its more famous neighbor. \u201cHistorically, they are the same collection, part of the same history,\u201d Verde said.<\/p>\n Cosimo I de\u2019 Medici, the Duke of Florence, bought the palazzo in 1550<\/a> for his residence and soon commissioned Vasari to construct a new building for the city\u2019s administrative offices, which today is the Uffizi Galleries. (\u201cUffizi\u201d refers to \u201coffices\u201d in Italian.)<\/p>\n Visitors to Florence often don\u2019t know that for three centuries the Pitti was home to three successive dynasties: the Medici, Habsburg-Lorraine and Savoy. Verde said he hoped to give the site its due. \u201cYou have no idea how much money we\u2019ve spent on the Pitti, but I think we\u2019re beginning to see the results,\u201d Verde said.<\/p>\n This includes the renovation of the palazzo\u2019s suite of royal apartments,<\/a> one of the first projects he tackled when he arrived.<\/p>\n In their time, Florence\u2019s Habsburg-Lorraine rulers selected some 500 pieces from the Medici collections and hung them in a ceremonial gallery in the Pitti called the Galleria Palatina, which they opened to the public. Several of its rooms are being renewed, a sprawling warren of scaffolding-lined worksites behind closed doors.<\/p>\n A project to renovate the \u201cVasari Corridor\u201d connecting the Pitti and the Uffizi was completed in December 2024<\/a>, and the revived thoroughfare now helps redistribute visitors between the sites.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not easy running crowd control at Italy\u2019s second most visited attraction. (The Colosseum is the first.) Last year, a visitor backed into a painting<\/a> while taking a selfie. Those are now technically verboten, even though Verde said guards usually turned a blind eye \u2014 though they are stricter about a ban on selfie sticks.<\/p>\n The Vasari corridor is lined with dozens of ancient Roman busts that once languished in the museum\u2019s storerooms. \u201cThere are only seven left to place,\u201d said Verde, who through renovations aims to also amplify the exhibition space of both museums. Prized tapestries and royal furnishings will also see the light of day again, he said.<\/p>\n The Boboli Gardens, at the back of the Palazzo Pitti, are also getting a makeover. \u201cManaging a historical garden is like managing a collection \u2014 it\u2019s a living museum,\u201d Verde said.<\/p>\n Hundreds of trees and \u201cthousands of other plants\u201d have been replanted at the Boboli under the watchful eye of Gianni Simonti, the chief gardener. Architectural features including a 16th-century amphitheater<\/a> and a small island at the center of a human-made lake are being restored to their prime.<\/p>\n Before arriving in Florence, Verde spent almost five years at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, and another seven revamping a cluster of museums<\/a> in Parma, Italy. He seemed to be enjoying overhauling new his ward, made easier by the income that comes with managing such a popular site. The Uffizi made 68 million euros, about $78 million, in ticket sales last year, and Verde can also draw on other sources, including loan fees and donations.<\/p>\n