Florence’s Uffizi gallery named Italy’s most visited cultural site for first time

Institution's huge popularity follows years of innovation under German-born director Eike Schmidt

Florence's Uffizi gallery has become Italy's most visited cultural site for the first time following years of innovation under the German-born director Eike Schmidt during which it has even branched out into contemporary art.

Once a slow-changing bastion of tradition, it was announced on Monday that the institution famous for its Renaissance masterpieces had last year leapt past Rome's Colosseum, the ruins of Pompeii, the Vatican Museums and other well-known sites in terms of visitor numbers, attracting 1.7 million visitors last year, according to Il Giornale dell'Arte. The Colosseum was second with about 90,000 fewer visitors.