Four and a half million euros (about $4.8 million), the largest payment from a private individual ever made to a Florentine museum: benefiting the Uffizi Galleries. This immense act of sponsorship was made by U.S. patron Veronika Atkins. The huge sum will be used to fully restore the amphitheater of the Boboli Gardens, as part of the wide-ranging 'Boboli 2030' Medici green revitalization program.

The operations will kick off in the coming months, and will last between two and three years. Double objective, that of protection, i.e., to restore to the best conditions the many and various architectural, sculptural and vegetal components of this evocative but very delicate space; and that of enhancement, i.e., to ensure at the same time, the recovery of its original vocation to host performances, and in particular opera music.

"Thanks to the generosity of Veronica Atkins," comments Galleries Director Eike Schmidt, "one of the key projects of the Boboli 2030 initiative will see the light of day: the Boboli Amphitheater-which in its architectural form recalls the glories of ancient Rome-will recover its function as an open-air theater. Soon we will again see the best singers perform in the vast basin surrounded by greenery, to gather the applause not of a select few but of the entire large audience that will join in the stalls and on the steps for a unique and unrepeatable experience."

Veronica Atkins is among the world's best-known sponsors and patrons in the field of music: in recent years her support for the Uffizi Galleries has been growing. Through the Friends of the Uffizi Galleries, he has funded the restoration of the Terrazzo of Maps at the Uffizi, the Florentine museum's Valois tapestry series, and the Sala di Bona in the Pitti Palace. Last October, she gave one of the world's best pianos for concerts in the Sala Bianca of the former Medici palace. On that occasion she was awarded the Keys of the City of Florence by Deputy Mayor Alessia Bettini. She is Managing Director on the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Opera of New York, is President of the Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Foundation, and supports many other prestigious cultural organizations. "The Boboli Amphitheater project," adds Atkins, "brings together my three greatest loves: nature, art and music. I can't wait to attend the premiere of the opera that will resound in this unique and magical place at the end of the restoration."

The amphitheater was originally conceived in purely vegetal forms by Eleonora da Toledo, who commissioned sculptor, architect and stage designer Niccolò Tribolo to build it. The first theatrical use was at the wedding feast of Margherita de' Medici to Odoardo Farnese in 1628. A first recovery took place in the 1930s, when it was also used to revive opera. It was in this very space, in fact, that L'incoronazione di Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi was staged in June 1937, with set design by Giovanni Michelucci. In 1960 and again in July 1965, Franco Zeffirelli chose it to stage Jacopo Peri's Eurydice. But the Amphitheater was also used in the summer of 1983 to play a Calcio Storico match between the Whites and the Greens that has remained in the annals of the event and in the hearts of all Florentines, including the writer of these notes, with great nostalgia for the unique and fascinating setting in which the contest between the two colors took place.