A new iPad app lets you put your hands all over some of Italy’s most stunning art works.
Company Centrica puts hi-res images of Florence museum the Uffizi, including Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” and Michelangelo’s Tondo Doni, into an app called UffiziTouch.
Though it won’t substitute a trip to Florence (sadly, you won’t be able to munch on a panino col lampredotto afterwards), you’ll see some things you can’t at the actual Uffizi.
Notably the “depositi” or basement holdings, hundreds of works that are occasionally brought out for special exhibits. With the app, you can also check out the Vasari Corridor which runs over the Ponte Vecchio and is generally only open once in a blue moon with reservations.
You can also organize your viewing by periods, masterpieces or rooms so you can get a good look at those Caravaggios all at once.
Centrica developed a touchscreen system for the Uffizi and the app uses the same 100 megapixel photos it took them four years to create.
The app is offered at a launch price of $5.99 for the month of May.
To win a promo code, let us know in the comments the most beautiful thing you’ve seen or touched on your iPad to date.
Keep it clean, make us laugh and you’re halfway to winning. Contest closes May 19.
UPDATE: Janet Logan is our winner. Thanks to all for playing!
58 responses to “Touch Top Italian Art on Your iPad [Cult of Mac Giveaway]”
Well, the best looking App that I’ve seen so far is the National Geographic’s stunning “50 Places of a Lifetime.” IMHO.
Where’s my Promo Code?
WOW!!!!!! I need this app, loved the Uffizi been there a few times and i walk the galleries with love in my eyes…. Id have to say the most beautiful thing ive seen on my ipad would be my mum who passed away a few weeks ago… 2 days before we used it for facetime…. it is one of the best inventions ever
Hello Nicole my name is Conner and I’m almost 11.
I home shcool and I’m learning about italian art so this app would be really helpful for my mom and my 7 siblings and i. This app looks truly beautiful and amazing.
This app would come in so much use for us and we would love to see all the Italian art work for school.
We would love to win a copy of this app and would use it all the time.
Thanks so much for writing for this great website that I can come to every day.
And If I win my eamil is connerhollister@aol.com
The Bing app is just so amazing! Yes it’s made by Microsoft but if you look beyond that you’ll see the best user interface ever for a search engine and it has everything all in one place, stunning.
The iPad 2 went on sale just a week before my first trip to Florence. I wasn’t able to snag one on launch day, so I placed an order and flew off to see the Uffizi in person.
The most beautiful thing I saw this spring was Raphael’s “Madonna of the Goldfinches” at the Uffizi. The second best was my iPad when it arrived a month later (and a week ahead of schedule!).
Great idea. I will get it now. thanks :D
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The first time I played Scrabble on the iPad was, to quote the commercial, an Aha moment. As a child who grew up playing the game, this was just nice, almost surreal.
the ipad itself
the most beautiful thing you’ve seen or touched on my iPad to date: a pdf of my final mortgage payment
The best looking thing I’ve seen in my Ipad is my awesome reflection in the glossy surface whenever I’m outside of course…lol.
But kidding aside, Sword and Sorcery is one pretty rad Ipad experience: http://www.swordandsworcery.co….
A picture of my kids of course! App looks awesome btw.
My Wife’s ass…Right after our first kiss and man and wife
Work network from home.
Sorry … no funny quip from me, but I would like to win!
A Photoshopped picture of my fiancée as a Tudor lady.
Apple’s Maps application. Something awesome about being able to travel the world with the swipe of a finger.
the Louvre app for iPhone and iPad. Video with commentary in several languages of notable pieces in the collection. A nice souvenir of my visit to the real thing.
David, you are lucky :). We have a demo web site where we show Centrica ability in high-resolution digitisation as well as the efficiency of our XLimage software. Please enjoy at the following address http://gallery.xlimage.it/clos…§ion=beniculturali.
With Uffizi Touch app you can view the same quality for this work of art….and for other 1100!!
the most beautiful thing i have touched on my ipad…were the letters J-E-E-Z in Words With Friends as I placed the J on a triple score then laid out the E and E with the Z finally falling on the Triple Word score…BOO-YAH!!! a 126 point word!!!! how YOU doin’!!! i even took a screen shot of it so let me know if you wanna see it!!!
I have seen many beautiful things on the iPad. Right now, I’m playing with Reactable, and it has a certain beauty – the responsiveness and intuitiveness of the program, as well as its innovative approach to control of sound, is beautiful, even though its rather puzzling to look at.
Alexa
The most wonderful and delightful was the pictures of my grandkids.. my grandkids are more beatiful and SMARTER than yours ! I have an iPad to prove it !
The most beautiful thing I’ve seen on my iPad is a photo of my daughter holding her brand new baby.
most beautiful thing i have seen on my ipad?
my travel-insurance-arranged flight details to return home to australia, after breaking my leg in paris last month.
paris is fabulous: but with a broken leg…..there is no place like home.
The most awesome iPad see and touch experience I have had is drawing with the Brushes App. I love how I can touch a mechanical device and delineate a visual thought. I would love to be inspired by the Uffizi collection.
The most beautiful thing I’ve seen on my iPad are all the wonderful apps that brings the world to this wonderful device!
You see that lovely close up detail?
What it’s missing is the Centrica logo,
ruining any close examination of the
art with their hideous watermark.
DO NOT EASTE YOUR MONEY.
Shame on the Uffizi for this travesty.
You see that lovely close up detail?
What it’s missing is the Centrica logo,
ruining any close examination of the
art with their hideous watermark.
DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY.
Shame on the Uffizi for this travesty.
APPLE SHOULD PULL THIS FLIM-FLAM
app unless they show their real “close-ups.”
The most beautiful thing that is on my ipad is a picture of my family
Congratulations Janet, I hope that you are inspired by the app and by all the works of art of Uffizi Gallery!