FLORENCE THE CRADLE OF THE RENAISSANCE
FLORENCE THE CRADLE OF THE RENAISSANCE 5 days
Type: 5 private guided tours with a private guide expert of Renaissance and art historian
No other place can match Florence in terms of quantity and quality of primary works of art, many of which are still located in the original contexts for which they were made or in museums a short distance away. Giotto Brunelleschi Donatello Masaccio Piero della Francesca Botticelli Michelangelo Raffaello Leonardo: these are some of the artists and architects you will meet on this journey to discover the city where the Renaissance was born. Florence is today a vibrant city, famous for its creative activities related to fashion, design, restoration, craftsmanship: yet the past is omnipresent and the urban center and the countryside are still today as in past centuries inextricably linked. Although the number of visitors has increased incredibly in Florence in recent years it is possible with the help of our planning to organize the trip outside the periods of maximum tourist flows to explore the city enjoying its art, its charm and its beauty.
The tour includes: 5 private guided tours with an expert art historian guide + reservation service and purchase of museum tickets or FirenzeCard
ITINERARY
Day 1: Brunelleschi Tour. Visit to the Museo degli Innocenti. The first hospital in the world dedicated to the care of abandoned children and children was designed by Brunelleschi in 1419. It is the first building built in the new Renaissance style. The rest of the tour will be dedicated to the discovery of the other amazing Brunelleschi creations in Florence: the church of San Lorenzo with the jewel of the Old Sacristy and the museum of the Opera del Duomo where you will learn more about the great masterpiece of the Dome of Santa Maria del Flower.
Day 2: Medici tour. Visit to Palazzo Medici -Riccardi first residence of the Medici family in Florence with the magnificent chapel frescoed by Benozzo Gozzoli. We will then continue with the New Sacristy with the Medici tombs sculpted by Michelangelo and the Laurentian Medicean Library designed by the same artist to contain the codes and volumes owned by Lorenzo the Magnificent. The visit of Palazzo Vecchio will allow you to deepen the sixteenth-century phase of the rise to power of the Medici and the birth of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
Day 3 Renaissance painting tour. Visit to the Dominican Church of Santa Maria Novella with its important fresco cycles: the Trinity of Masaccio, the Tornabuoni chapel by Domenico Ghrirlandaio, the Strozzi chapel by Filippino Lippi and those by Paolo Uccello from the Green Cloister. Unmissable visit to the unrivaled Uffizi Gallery, the largest collection of Italian Renaissance paintings in the world.
Day 4 Tour of Renaissance sculpture. The Bargello Museum will take you to discover an extraordinary collection of sculptures by Donatello, Desiderio da Settignano, Luca della Robbia, Verrocchio, Michelangelo and others. Visit to the Accademia Gallery to admire Michelangelo's sculptural masterpieces: David and the Prisoners
Day 5 Tour of the Oltrarno. The day will be dedicated to the discovery of the Oltrarno district which preserves extraordinary monuments and works of art of the Renaissance, as well as refined artisan shops. Inside Palazzo Pitti, the Medici palace, in the Palatine Gallery you will visit a collection of amazing paintings that includes beautiful paintings by Raphael and Titian. The Boboli Garden is one of the first examples of an Italian garden with a formal layout, avenues, caves, fountains and ancient statues that climb up the hill among the olive trees. In the afternoon, a visit to the Brancacci chapel with Masaccio's frescoes will allow you to get to know the most important pictorial cycle of the art of the early Renaissance. Afterwards we will be welcomed in a craft shop to discover the ancient wood carving technique and we will end the day admiring Michelangelo's youthful wooden crucifix in the beautiful church of Santo Spirito, Brunelleschi's latest project.