On a side street around the corner from the Pantheon in Rome’s centro storico, locals again this week spotted a familiar sight: a crowd queuing to get into the church of San Luigi dei Francesi. Even by Roman standards, this is not any old church. It holds the Caravaggio masterpiece The Calling of Matthew—a must-see for any visitor to the Eternal City.

For 10 long weeks, art lovers have been living in a kind of purgatory: a city full of masterpieces—from Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel to Bernini’s sculpture Apollo and Daphne to Marcel Duchamp’s urinal—all off-limits to the public. The Italian government finally eased stay-at-home measures this week, permitting museums to reopen.