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!
Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco freelance writer who heads up Cult of Mac Magazine, our weekly publication available on iTunes. You can find her on Twitter and Google+. If you’re doing something new, cool and Apple-related, email her.
