One Day Tours in Florence

THE ENTHUSIASTIC TRAVELER in FLORENCE

UNKNOWN MICHELANGELO

 

In this half-day tour, we will discover Michelangelo through his less known masterpieces, the only memories of his early years. The first place we’ll visit is the Augustinian Church of S. Spirito, a magnificent, simple Renaissance Church that still houses the wooden Crucifix he sculpted at the age of seventeen. With a nice walk we will reach the beautiful Piazza Signoria, where, just behind the famous David, there is a profile sculpted on the wall that the legend says Michelangelo carved on a dare with his back-turned. And a few minutes walking from here you will find Casa Buonarroti, our final sight. It is one of the most extraordinary Florentine museums, a palace built by Michelangelo’s descendants around the figure of the genius and that houses two famous marble relief pieces, his earliest known works, the Madonna Della Scala and the Battle of the Centaurs.

*Prices do not include entrance fees into museums. Entrance fee to the Casa Buonarroti is 6,50E. This includes the “skip-the-line” reservation fee. 
Pick-up is at your Hotel. Reservations will be confirmed with payment at the time of booking with check or pay-pal. Your tour is fully refunded if canceled 30 days in advance.

 

UFFIZI GALLERY

 

This is one of the most famous museums of paintings and sculpture in the world. Its collection comprises several universally acclaimed masterpieces of all time. You have the possibility to choose *one title below for a half day tour. *RENAISSANCE GENIUSES which we will visit include: Botticelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael & Titian. *A BOOK OF ART: from Medieval to Renaissance ending with Baroque paintings. *VIP OF RENAISSANCE: portraits painted by Piero Della Francesca, Pollaiolo, Botticelli, Raphael, Titian… *ONE SUBJECT: same subject painted by different masters in different styles: Annunciation by Simone Martini, Botticelli, Leonardo, Adoration of the Magi by Gentile da Fabriano, Filippino Lippi, Botticelli …

*Prices do not include entrance fees into museums. Entrance fee to the Uffizi is 16,50E. This includes the “skip-the-line” reservation fee. Pick-up is at your Hotel. Reservations will be confirmed with payment at the time of booking with check or pay-pal. Your tour is fully refunded if canceled 30 days in advance.

 

RENAISSANCE Part 1

 

Florence is a place where you can breathe Renaissance air everywhere. Big squares, that, after centuries of narrow spaces, open up to the city and show a new sense of order and clarity. One of the most famous public buildings at the beginning of the fifteenth century is the Hospital of the Innocents. Brunelleschi built it as an orphanage, and is perfectly suggested by the glazed blue terracotta roundels with reliefs of babies designed by Andrea Della Robbia. Another team of Renaissance artists gave birth to the religious complex, placed on the square nearby. S. Marco Convent which was designed by Michelozzo under the patronage of the reach banker Cosimo il Vecchio de’ Medici and decorated with frescoes by the Dominican monk and painter Fra’ Angelico and his pupil Benozzo Gozzoli. S. Marco is also the area where the Medici family had a garden full of Roman statues, a school for young artists, where they could touch and study classical art. Here is where the Magnificent Lorenzo de’ Medici met a boy, called Michelangelo, whose masterpiece David, is now housed in the Gallery of the Academy which is our last stop.

*Prices do not include entrance fees into museums. Entrance fee to the San Marco Church is 4,00 E and the Accademia is 12,50 E. This includes the “skip the line” reservation fee at the Accademia. Pick-up is at your Hotel. Reservations will be confirmed with payment at the time of booking with check or pay-pal. Your tour is fully refunded if canceled 30 days in advance. This tour is done in the A.M. ONLY.

 

RENAISSANCE Part 2

 

Wondering in the city of Florence it is easy to see how the medieval religious and civic architecture changes into a more modern feature. The Piazza Santa Maria Novella is a perfect example of how a medieval square can become an example of Renaissance architecture and still remain a lively social meeting point. The Church was under the patronage of the Strozzi Family, one of the most important banking families of Florence, who lived nearby and whose palace was meant to show their prestige. The richness of the city was not only represented by the civic buildings. The religious center is full of masterpieces that must be read as a religious and political message. The Gates of Paradise, as Michelangelo called the doors of the Baptistery made by Ghiberti, the Dome of the Cathedral where Brunelleschi showed all his skill, and the San Lorenzo Church, one of the symbols of the heritage that the Medici Family have left to the whole world.

*Prices do not include entrance fees into museums. Entrance fee to the San Lorenzo Church is 4,50 E. This includes the “skip-the-line” reservation fee. Pick-up is at your Hotel. Reservations will be confirmed with payment at the time of booking with check or pay-pal. Your tour is fully refunded if canceled 30 days in advance.

 

MICHELANGELO AND THE MEDICI FAMILY

 

This half-day tour is focused on the connection between the powerful Medici Family and one of the most important artists of all time, Michelangelo. The visit starts with the Medici Chapels, incorporated in the vast complex of the Basilica of San Lorenzo which, being the parish church of the Medici family, was richly decorated. It is here that members of the family were buried from the mid-15th century onward. In particular, the Medici Chapels are famous for the New Sacristy, which Michelangelo designed for the tombs of the family, creating one of the masterpieces of architecture and sculpture of the Italian Renaissance. Then, we will continue with the Library, commissioned by Pope Clemente VII of the Medici’s to host the valuable collection of manuscripts of the family. The Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana was designed by Michelangelo. He personally directed the work between
the years 1523 and 1534. The access, called vestibule, is dominated by the large serene stone staircase, and at the end of it, a large portal introduces us to the vast reading room. It is one of the few sixteenth-century halls in the world to have been preserved almost intact. The same wooden benches were made according to the Michelangelo’s drawings and had the dual function of the lectern and custody. The codes were horizontally stored in the lower shelves and were freely available secured to the benches by chains.

*Prices do not include entrance fees into museums. Entrance fee to the Medici Chapels is 11,00Euro. Pick-up is at your Hotel. Reservations will be confirmed with payment at the time of booking with check or pay-pal. Your tour is fully refunded if canceled 30 days in advance. This tour is done in the A.M. ONLY.

 

FLORENCE: THE CITY OF MERCHANTS

 

Between the thirteenth and sixteenth century the merchants that dominated all the aspects of everyday life in Florence, were very important. They lived in rich and elegant palaces, had stalls in large markets, and belonged to the craft and trade guilds that not only had the political control on the Governments but also took upon themselves philanthropic duties that made them important patrons of the arts. So it will be very easy for us to pass from the visit of the Palazzo Davanzati, an original medieval merchant’s house, to the Loggia of the New Market with its Wild Boar Fountain, nicknamed “Porcellino” by the Florentines, and up to Orsanmichele, originally built as a grain market and converted into a church in the fourteenth century. This was the special chapel of Florence’s powerful guilds, and they didn’t miss the chance to show off, commissioning statues of their patron saints to the greatest sculptors such as Donatello, Ghiberti, Verrocchio. Finally, the tour will take us to the Ponte Vecchio, the only bridge survived the bombings in the war, where we will find the traces of the old Butcher’s Market.

*Prices do not include entrance fees into museums. Entrance fee to Palazzo Davanzati is 2Euro. Pick-up is at your Hotel. Reservations will be confirmed with payment at the time of booking with check or pay-pal. Your tour is fully refunded if canceled 30 days in advance.

 

FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI, A GIANT OF RENAISSANCE ART

 

The first modern Architect and Engineer, Filippo Brunelleschi is considered the founding father of the Renaissance. His masterpieces are still dominating the city. The tour starts in Piazza SS Annunziata, where we will admire the Loggia of the Children’s Hospital of the Innocents, considered the first innovative Renaissance building. But if you turn your head you are immediately captured by the magnificence of the Cathedral’s Dome and it draws you to the Duomo Square. It will be incredible to understand how he built this magnificent dome without any scaffolding. From here, it will be easy to reach the Church of S. Lorenzo, where the ambition of the Medici Family was fulfilled by the revolutionary ideas of Brunelleschi.

*Prices do not include entrance fees into museums. Entrance fee to the San Lorenzo Church is 4,50Euro. Pick-up is at your Hotel. Reservations will be confirmed with payment at the time of booking with check or pay-pal. Your tour is fully refunded if canceled 30 days in advance.

 

DANTE, MACHIAVELLI & POLITICAL SYMBOLS

 

Piazza Della Signoria is the political center of Florence and the sculptures that ornate the square are meant to remind everybody about the qualities that rulers had to possess, the wisdom of David, the brave heart of Perseus, the intelligence of Judith. If the stones of the squares could speak, you could hear them telling you about medieval intrigues between Guelphs and Ghibellines and their most famous victim, Dante, who took revenge in his poem describing his enemies’ torments in the Inferno. The religious fundamentalist Savonarola, ruling Florence for 4 years, organized here, his famous Bonfires of the Vanities and was imprisoned in the tower of Palazzo Vecchio before being executed. The massive Palazzo Vecchio still fulfills its original role as a Florence’s Town Hall since the thirteenth century, and you can still see where Machiavelli worked as the Secretary of State of Florence, and the Duke Cosimo the Medici lived before moving to the new and more comfortable residence, Palazzo Pitti. The political-administrative offices were instead in the Uffizi building,used by the Duke Cosimo also as a passageway to leave Palazzo Vecchio quickly and move on to Pitti Palace. We’ll follow the corridor from outside and before reaching the beautiful Duke’s residence, we’ll see where Machiavelli lived and died.

*Prices do not include entrance fees into museums. Entrance fee inside the Palazzo Vecchio is 10Euro. Pick-up is at your Hotel. Reservations will be confirmed with payment at the time of booking with check or pay-pal. Your tour is fully refunded if canceled 30 days in advance.

 

The tours listed above are all half-day tours. Put two of these together for a full day. Ask us for pricing!