Go Behind the Scenes at One of the World's Most Beautiful Theaters With an Insanely In-depth Virtual Tour

Exploring the world's coolest destinations via livestreams and virtual tours has become the new normal. Though all of the virtual offerings are unique — like hiking in Bryce Canyon National Park, touring a few stunning museums, and taking a walk down the Great Wall of China — this latest tour may be the coolest yet.

On May 7th, La Scala Theatre in Milan unveiled its online offering with Google Arts & Culture. This in-depth tour series makes the entire space, and its collections, more readily available than ever before.

In part one of the tour, theater lovers, travel enthusiasts, and those simply eager to learn, can step on the actual stage of the iconic theater to check out the view shared by opera singers, ballet dancers, and members of the chorus or orchestra.

Part two brings virtual visitors on a behind-the-scenes tour to show off just how much work actually goes in to creating a production. This includes tours of the costume and prop departments, rehearsal rooms, and interviews with set designers.

Part three brings visitors beyond the stage to showcase a rare glimpse into the theater's rich history. As La Scala Theatre and Google Arts & Culture explained, the tour comes with more than 259,000 images and 16,000 documents to explore. Fans can also check out 12 stunning digitized opera costumes, brought into full high-resolution view thanks to Google's Art Camera. There are more than 40 digital exhibitions, a well as a "deconstructed opera" that brings together musicians and artists into a joint opera video-performance recorded live from their homes across Europe while in quarantine.

And that is all truly just the beginning of this spectacular virtual offering. But, if all this information seems overwhelming, we suggest kicking things off by watching the virtual opera take place from inside the performer's homes. It will not only inspire you but will also kickstart your desire to want to know everything you can about these spectacular performers and their home theater.

Then, when the time is right, start planning your trip to Milan to see it all in person and have a totally new appreciation for what you're seeing when you get there.