Italy's Ministry of Cultural Heritage said on Thursday that it wanted to “celebrate the feminine world” through a series of projects to mark the day.

Not only will museums offer free entry to women, but they will also aim to highlight works of art by and of women in their collections.

Several cultural heritage sites across the country will hold special events, talks and exhibitions to mark the day, some focussing on specific periods, authors, or regions, and others looking more generally at the representation of women in art.

The above picture shows a depiction of lyric poet Sappho, known as a symbol of female homosexuality as well as for her love poetry, pictured in a fresco from Pompeii.

The women celebrated will include “saints and prostitutes, goddesses and  commoners, intellectuals and artists, actresses and martyrs, writers and poets, mothers, Madonnas and revolutionaries,” the ministry said.

It also encouraged visitors to embark on a “digital treasure hunt” through the country's museums, finding and photographing women featured in their paintings, sculptures and frescoes and to share them on social media.

This work by Gustav Klimt shows 'The Three Ages of Woman'.

You can see the full list of participating museums here.

And if you aren't a woman, or are looking for an alternative to the museums, it's also possible to see a film for two euros at many cinemas across Italy as part of another Mibact initiative, Cinema 2Day, which takes place on the second Wednesday of each month.