Italy's streaming platform for Italian culture becomes a reality.

Italy launched ITsART - an ambitious streaming project known as the 'Netflix of Italian Culture' - on 31 May.

The online platform gives access to Italian culture - both free and paid - ranging from art and music to dance and theatre, commissioned by Italy's culture ministry.

• Italy to create 'Netflix of Italian culture'

The project's "virtual stage" will offer "Italian entertainment and culture, live, recorded, free and for a fee, in Italy and around the world," stated culture minister Dario Franceschini on 27 May.

Offering live and on-demand content, in Italy and abroad, the platform will have 700 programmes available within the first few weeks of its launch.

• Italy steps closer to creating 'Netflix of Italian culture'

Highlights will include Riccardo Muti’s concerts, orchestra rehearsals and opera performances on the piano; Claudio Baglioni’s concert-show In questa storia che è la mia at Rome's opera house; and Giuseppe Verdi’s La forza del destino directed by Zubin Mehta at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

The streaming platform, first announced during Italy's covid-19 lockdown last spring, will feature content produced by the most important Italian cultural institutions, including archaeological sites, museums, academies and theatres.

• ITsART: Italy's 'Netflix of Italian Culture' has a name

It will also offer "a wide range of films and documentaries, thanks to our collaboration with the leading film production companies," reads the ITsART website.

ITsArt is divided into three sections - stage, places and stories - within which cultural venues will present their projects and productions.

The platform launched in Italy and the UK on 31 May before becoming accessible subsequently from other countries.

Da oggi #ITsART, il nuovo palcoscenico digitale per vivere la cultura italiana, è disponibile senza abbonamento e ovunque tu sia. Scopri i contenuti esclusivi, gratis e a pagamento su https://t.co/FX9CQFePnM#arte #cultura #streaming #italia pic.twitter.com/1Aq8Z9dZB5

— ITsART (@itsart_it) May 31, 2021