A pilot project with Google Indoor Street View: a 360° tour of “Paolo Orsi” Museum (Syracuse, Italy)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to offer a preview of the pilot project in progress at the “Paolo Orsi” Regional Archaeological Museum of Syracuse, in Sicily (Italy). Thanks to a free partnership with Google Business Photos/Street View Indoor, we managed to map the entire museum, the only archaeological museum in South Italy that can be visited online on a 360° tour on a Google platform. Also a dozen archaeological finds have been selected which can be clicked as points of interest from the museum windows and explored, taking 360° virtual tours. They are provided with descriptive sheets, and could be also available in audio mode. In this way, the “Paolo Orsi” Museum is also an unicum on Google map with 360° virtual tours with integration of captions and full description of artworks. The aim of the project is, finally, is to begin to bridge the gap of Sicilian Cultural Heritage’s visibility on the web.