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. The Birth of Venus by Botticelli was probably painted by the Florentine painter after 1482, following his return from Rome where he had contributed to the decoration of the lower part of the Sistine Chapel. Most scholars believe that Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici commissioned this famous work to decorate the Villa of Castello near to Florence. Together with Primavera and Pallas and the Centaur, this painting represents one of the first examples of mythological themes in Renaissance painting. The Annunciation is one of the few paintings by Leonardo da Vinci remaining in Florence. It comes from the Monastery of Monteoliveto near Florence and was probably painted by Leonardo between 1475 and 1480. In the past many scholars disputed the attribution to Leonardo believing it to be the work of Verrocchio or Ghirlandaio. However, following the discovery of some preparatory drawings by Leonardo with details of the painting, it is considered one of his masterpieces. Titian, one of the great masters of the Venetian Renaissance, was also an excellent portraitist. The knight of Malta in the Uffizi Gallery, probably painted between 1510 and 1515, perfectly represents the painter’s incredible technique, creating the illusion of the soft velvet of the jacket, but also suggesting the character of the sitter.