The map represents a floor plan of Teatro Strehler, specifically the balcony and the surrounding spaces, located on the first floor of the building.

Conventional signs

• The solid lines are walls;
• the checkered areas are the seats;
• the multiple thin arrowheads are stairs and ramps;
• the small crossed boxes are elevator shafts;
• the hollow shapes in solid line are the outlines of furnishings;
• the filled raised surfaces are areas that are inaccessible to the general public or obstructions from structural elements;
• the dotted areas are the toilets;
• the diagonally-striped areas are the cloakrooms;
• the cross marks the position of this panel.
   

Exploration
In the upper left corner of the map you will find the words “T. Strehler: Balconata” (meaning “Balcony” in Italian) in large print and in braille, while in the upper right corner is the QR Code linking to this guide.

Now place both hands on the lower edge of the map and locate, toward the middle of the panel, several raised squares grouped in pairs: these are the columns of the entrance portico, aligned with the side of the building running along the bottom of the panel.

If you start from the two rightmost pairs and move your fingers upward, you will encounter a large raised polygon. This area contains some offices and the Historical Archive. From the leftmost pair, instead, move your fingers to the left: you will soon find a “spike” protruding beyond the lower perimeter of the building, which contains the outline of a display stand.

If, from here, we keep following the outline of the building toward the left, just beyond the vertical line of a walkway, we will find the multiple thin arrowheads of a staircase. These are the stairs leading to the ground floor. Let us move past them to the left, reaching the outer wall of the building, which here turns upward at a right angle. We will soon encounter more arrowheads pointing downward, marking the start of the staircase.

If from these last arrowheads we move our fingers upward and slightly to the right, crossing the hollow area of the balcony foyer, we will find a cross marking the position of this panel: this is where we are presently located.

Returning to the arrowheads and moving instead upward in a straight line, we may find several hollow small rectangles: those on the left are benches, behind which are two floor-to-ceiling windows; the longer one on the right is the counter of the cloakroom. Just to its right, we find a small diagonally-striped area representing the cloakroom itself.

Continuing upward and following the outline of the building as it bends to the upper right, we may find the small rectangles of more benches, an elevator represented by a small crossed box, and finally a dotted area: these are the toilets. All around them, to the right and then in a slanted up-and-down profile, there is a large raised area not accessible to the public, containing several offices.

Now let us return to the cross marking the position of this panel. We can locate it just below the cloakroom, or slightly upward and to the right of the staircase, as we did earlier.

From here, move your fingers upward to the right, beyond a wall, and you will find a wide checkered area. Scan it with both hands, and you will recognise its almost crescent-like shape. This is the balcony, bordered on the right and upper left sides by thin lines representing the railings. Among the various checkered surfaces of the seating sectors, you will find the arrowheads of stairs leading up to the various rows.

The balcony, of course, opens up onto the stalls, the stage, and the backstage areas: these, being on floor -1, are not portrayed here. The space they occupy is left blank, but we may follow its outline, bordered by offices and other service areas not accessible to the public, along the right half of the panel.

Let us retrieve the cross once more and follow the wall separating it from the balcony seating, moving downward diagonally to the right. We will pass two gaps in the line (two access doors), and then, against the wall, we will find the hollow small rectangle of another bench.

We will then reach a vertical raised rectangle, which is part of the building’s structure; moving past it to the right, we will find another cloakroom, portrayed in the same diagonally-striped surface.

Just below the cloakroom, we can find the wide hollow rectangle of its counter; below and all around it, the small rectangles of several benches are arranged throughout the space; on the external walls behind them, there are more floor-to-ceiling windows.

Upward to the right of the cloakroom, nestled between the balcony and the first inaccessible area that we identified, we may find two more points of interest: the small crossed box of another elevator and, to its right, a hollow rectangular space. This last one is the stairwell of an emergency exit.