Tours proposed by Alessandra Gardin - Florence travel guide
FIRST TIME IN FLORENCE |
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| Let’s take an exciting but leisurely stroll through Florence’s compact medieval-Renaissance core, visiting many of the city’s major sites and monuments. Sights will include the Duomo (cathedral) with Brunelleschi’s awe-inspiring dome, the octagonal Romanesque Baptistery with its glorious mosaic ceiling, the Piazza Signoria (government square) , the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) covered with gold-jewelry shops, the imposing tower-houses of the great medieval families, and the Franciscan Church of Santa Croce (Holy Cross) with Giotto frescoes and memorial tombs of great Italians from Michelangelo and Galileo to Enrico Fermi. |
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FOCUS ON MICHELANGELO - FLORENCE |
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| To increase your knowledge of Michelangelo' s works, I suggest this tour which joins two museums: the Academy Gallery (Galleria dell'Accademia) and the Medici Chapels (Cappelle Medicee). Two museums which are not too far each other and can be both visited in a half day tour. The Academy Gallery is one the most famous museums in the world and one of the most attended by tourists, therefore during high season I recommend to do reservation to avoid long queues (lines). The museum houses some of the most beautiful and famous statues by Michelangelo: the astonishing David, which has become the symbol of the city and was brought inside at the end of the XIX century from the Signoria Square, the Prisoners ( or Slaves), carved in Rome for the tomb of Giulio II and brought to Florence after the artist's death and the famous Pietà from Plaestrina (purchased by the Italian State in 1939) and recently no more considered by Michelangelo, because a careful restoration has pointed out too many incongruities: historical, iconographical and stylistic. The Museum preserves even a collection of plaster models (Gipsoteca), made by Lorenzo Bartolini in the first half of XIX century, which is considered one of the most beautiful and important in the world and which, together with the many medioeval and reinassance paintings, deserves an attentive visit. The tour goes on visiting the Medici Chapels. It is a small museum which is part of the complex of San Lorenzo and has the access right behind the homonymous church. During high season reservation is warmly recommended because of the very many groups of students visiting it. The Medici Chapels is the place where most of the Medici were buried. The New Sacresty, the smallest building, was designed by Michelangelo in 1521 for the tombs of Lorenzo he Magnificent and his brother Giuliano and it preserves the statues called Day, Night, Dusk and Dawn, carved by the artist for the monumental graves of Lorenzo duke of Urbino and Giuliano duke of Nemours. The other building, the astonishing Princes Chapel was commissioned in 1600 by the Medici grand dukes. The inside is decorated with porphyry sarcophagus surmounted by gilded bronze statues (mostly left unfinished) and floor and walls are covered with a semi-precious stone- in lay work (commesso fiorentino), a triumph of jaspers, marble, granite, lapis lazuli and mother-of-pearl as a precious box. Really a must! |
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THE UFFIZI - FLORENCE |
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| Originally built in the 1500s by Giorgio Vasari as the offices (uffizi) of government of the Medici Princes, today the Uffizi Gallery houses one of the world’s most important and beguiling painting collections. The museum preserves masterpieces of the great Italian and European painters from the Middle Ages until the 19th century. We will focus our attention on works of the greatest masters of the Italian Renaissance, including Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rafael, and Titian. If you’re in Florence during high tourism season, you’ll have an opportunity to see one of the interesting temporary exhibitions on the museum’s first floor. Tickets reservations are a must during heavy tourism periods. The tour takes at least 2 hours. |
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PITTI PALACE E BOBOLI GARDEN - FLORENCE |
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| The imposing Pitti Palace, the last residence of the Medici Princes, houses several different museums. The most important is the Galleria Palatina (Palatine Gallery), an unbelievably rich collection of paintings, statues, decorations, frescos, and furniture (tables, chandeliers, vases). Behind the palace, you’ll enjoy a stroll through the splendid Boboli Garden – in effect, an enchanting open-air museum with grotto, ponds, fountains, and statuary. |
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MUSEUM OF THE OPERA DEL DUOMO AND BARGELLO - FLORENCE |
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| If this is not your first visit of Florence, and you want to appreciate the extent of art treasure trove, I will be delighted to take you to two superb but smaller museums: The Museo del Opera del Duomo (Museum of the Works of the Cathedral) and the Bargello Museum (originally the 14th-century palace/prison of Florence’s chief of police, today a national sculpture museum). The first was recently renovated and restored to meet modern museum specifications and provide greater natural light for display of the pieces on display. Here you will see several famous Renaissance masterpieces, including Michelangelo’s Pietà (one of three he did), statues by the early-Renaissance genius Donatello (e.g., the Mary Magdalen),and the original gilt panels of Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gate of Paradise. And you’ll see the history of the construction and decoration of the huge Florence Cathedral through wooden models, drawings, and marble reliefs. The Bargello is a beguiling case of a museum within a museum – a 14th-century prison which was also the palace of medieval Florence’s chief of police, and today preserving important and delightful Renaissance statues from Donatello to Michelangelo, from Cellini to Giambologna as well as a truly rich, impressive collection of medieval carved ivories, bronzes, and glazed terracottas. |
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THE CHURCH OF S.MARIA NOVELLA AND THE BRANCACCI CHAPEL - FLORENCE |
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| Fans of Renaissance painting will not want to miss some of the most famous works of early-Renaissance painters decorating the walls of churches and chapels. We’ll visit the Dominican Church of Santa Maria Novella to admire the newly restored frescos by Ghirlandaio, Filippino Lippi, and Masaccio’s ground-breaking Trinity. Then, just across the Arno, you’ll be enthralled by Masaccio’s masterful series of frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel of the Church of the Carmine. |
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THE MUSEUM CASA BUONARROTI IN THE DISTRICT OF SANTA CROCE IN FLORENCE |
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| Do choose the visit of a museum which is off the beaten routes and enter the house owened by the great Michelangelo’ family. It is a XVII century palace which still preserves its original structure and frescoes with valuable decorations. As in a small precious case we may move through several rooms where we can still appreciate objects and collections belonged once to the Buonarroti family. At the ground floor, around a renaissance style patio, the small rooms show paintings, ceramics and even an important collection of Etruscan finds, from different excavations. At the first floor you find the masterpieces the museum is worth being visited for the Madonna della Scala (or Madonna of the staircase), the Battle of Centaurs, the Fluvial god clay model, the magnificent wooden model of the façade of the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence and, last but not least, the extraordinary drawings made by Michelangelo, the few ones saved by his nephew. Those of you who want to see the less known Michelangelo, please do not miss the marble relieves in the first room. The Madonna della Scala and the Battle of Centaurs dated about 1490-1492 where carved by Michelangelo when he was not yet twenty, being born in 1475! These works, not as world famous as the David, represent a way of getting closer to the great master undoubtedly unusual but surely evocative. The Museum is in via Ghibellina (Ghibellina Street) two steps away from the Church of Santa Croce, the Franciscan basilica where Michelangelo was buried. The visit of this rich church is worthwhile: medioeval frescoes, paintings, Renaissance marble relieves and the monumental graves of some important Italian men such as Galileo, Machiavelli and Rossini. |
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ARTESANS WORKSHOP |
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| Florence is one of the few cities where you can still breath the ancient air of the artisan workshops, where you can still see hand made items. Your personal local guide will take you on a tour made of ancient scents and colours through dark and dusty halls where I am going to show you the craftsmanship in using semi – precious stones (the so called commesso fiorentino / semi precious stone in lay) as they used to do in 1500 for the Medici family. The wood carving and the gilding, the hand made paper, the famous marble paper. I will show you how they make a leather bag, cut and sewed entirely by hand or a little leather box which is shaped in front of you. We will enter the workshops of goldsmiths who really design and make their own jewels, never the same. Besides we will move among laces and embroideries which are still produced just outside Florence. Would you like to see how a real excellent icecream with natural ingredients is made? Just follow me! | ||
JEWISH ITINERARY |
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The history of the Jewish community of Florence dates back to the XIII century, but most of documents belong to the end of XV century and the XVI century, mainly when the Medici family took the power and became the grand dukes of the city. The suggested itinerary proposes to pass through streets, areas, points of the city which were very important for the life of the Jewish community, starting from piazza della Repubblica (Republic square) where the old ghetto used to be, before being destroyed when, at the end of 1800, Florence became the capital of Italy (1865-1871). In order to find palpable remains of the Florentine ghetto it is interesting visiting the ground floor of the San Marco Museum where a little section is dedicated to relieves, coat of arms, stony architraves and doorways with Jewish inscriptions which belonged to the demolished buildings. Besides Florence still preserves a monumental Jewish cemetery on the other side of the Arno river (called Oltrarno) where originally the oldest documented synagogue of Florence used to be. The Jewish tour ends in visiting the Synagogue and the Jewish Museum of Florence. The synagogue is a magnificent building designed and built by the architect Marco Treves in 1882, on an area left by David Levi. The temple is a Sephardic ritual. The inside shows a Moorish architecture with central plan and a middle dome and, on the façade, two lateral towers and little domes. The green domes of the synagogue are visible from any panoramic point of the city. On the first and second floor the small beautiful Jewish Museum develops. With its maps, photographs, ritual items, scrolls and documents the museum recreates the history of the Florentine Jewish community. | |
WALKING TROUGH LAST SUPPERS |
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Your official tour guide of Florence suggests this alternative itinerary which allows to visit religious spaces in a relaxed way, even in a very crowded period, because they are off the beaten tracks. These are places where the relationship between the paintings and the religious buildings of destination is still very strong and we can still appreciate silence and contemplation. This peculiar itinerary consists of visiting some convents and monasteries or ex monasteries where the space dedicated to meals, the Refectory, was decorated with the subject of the Last Supper. The tradition of the Florentine painting shows many famous examples of frescoes, reminding Jesus's last dinner with his Apostles, therefore Cenacoli, (from the latin word cenam which means dinner). The selection of Last Suppers I suggest to visit permits to reach all of them on foot:
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HIGH QUALITY CHIANTI |
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Do choose your official tourist guide of Florence and trust her in organizing a unforgettable day in Chianti. The trip will be well planned and nothing left by chance: a comfortable car (or a mini van if you are more than 2 persons) will take you through the rich hills full of vineyards and country houses. You may visit some of the most beautiful walled villages (borghi) of Tuscany together with some of the most famous little towns tied to wine production. For those of you who like, it will be possible visiting a ceramic factory where a family brand still produce traditional Tuscan items in terracotta. It will be a unique experience! Surely you cannot miss wine tasting: your private professional local guide will take you in hundred year old cellars, smelling grape juice must and nearby modern technology you may still appreciate brick vaulted ceilings and stone structures. It will be a wonderful day dedicated to the beauty of the landscape and to art, but even to scents and flavours: at lunch time your official guide of Florence will take you to a farm where you can taste their wines and the food: exquisite salami, aged prosciutto, country soups with extra-virgin olive oil and fresh homegrown vegetables. A real high quality tour! |
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FIRENZE DA UNA PROSPETTIVA DIVERSA |
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Your authorized tourist guide of Florence suggests an unusual tour of Florence, a very special one, the city from a different point of you: from water level. During summertime, when days are long and warm and the river flows slowly, it is possible getting down along the Arno river by boat. Believe me it is an incredible, breathtaking experience. The city appears close and far at the same time: you see it, you admire it, but you do not have the same feeling: you do not feel the crowd and the typical noice of tourist season. Moving under bridges we can appreciate the historical buildings, the ancient mansion houses, the churches with their domes and their bell-towers. Your official guide of Florence will tell you the history of the city, the story of the families who made the developing of the ancient Florence possible and of those who still live in their ancient palaces. If you want a magic atmosphere I suggest to choose the late afternoon, when sun rays emanate a golden light on Florentine buildings. Believe me you will never regret! |
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