FLORENCE COMBO TOUR : ACCADEMIA GALLERY & WALKING TOUR

Tour Highlights

• Visit the stunning Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral
• See the Signoria Square with its replica of the Michelangelo’s David
• Walk over the famous Old Bridge
• Learn from a professional guide who will show you the city's hidden treasures
• Accademia Gallery skip-the-line ticket, don't waste your time queuing for the whole day
• The home of Michelangelo's original sculpture David
• A passionate and art-lover local guide

Description

Join an amazing journey through the most famous squares and streets of Florence with and informative, friendly, and engaging guide. Walk to the stunning Florence Duomo, the Old Bridge, and the Signoria Square with its replica of Michelangelo’s David. After this first 2 hours, explore the Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze, an art museum best known as the home of Michelangelo's sculpture David. It also has other sculptures by Michelangelo and a large collection of paintings by Florentine artists, mostly from the period 1300-1600, the Trecento to the Late Renaissance. It is smaller and more specialized than the Uffizi, the main art museum in Florence. It adjoins the Accademia di Belle Arti or academy of fine arts of Florence, but despite the name has no other connection with it.

Itinerary

From the point of the meeting, the guide will give you an insight of the history of this Renaissance city and how this incredible cultural movement of the Renaissance transformed not only Florence but eventually the rest of Europe.

The guide will start off with Piazza Della Republica, the main square of Florence that marks the center of the City. After a little talk of history & the changes of Piazza Republica since its origin, you will walk straight to the marvelous piece of art, the Piazza Della Duomo. A showstopper of Filippo Brunelleschi, Giotto, Arnolfo & Francesco Talenti.

Walk passing the Duomo Square the guide will lead you straight through the old buildings and some of the historical landmarks of Florence to Palazzo Vecchio, where the David’s’ sculpture (the original is in the Galleria dell'Accademia) by Michelangelo is placed outside the Palazzo Vecchio as a symbol of the Republic's defiance of the tyrannical Medici.

Afterward, as you walk past the Palazzo Vecchio, the guide will explain you about the Uffizi Gallery, one of the greatest museums of the world, and then you will reach the most famous old bridge of Florence known as “Ponte Vecchio”.

Your next stop is Palazzo Pitti, the enormous palace of Florence's largest architectural monuments of Filippo Brunelleschi and the household of Pitti Family, later of the Medici’s’.

Finally, the guide will talk you through the artists, architects, thinkers and political figures who led to the Renaissance and born on the fertile soil in and around Florence, within the same century till your final stop to “La Strega Nocciola” for a delicious gelato offered by us Star Florence.

Next appointment is at Accademia Gallery.

The locally qualified guide will introduce you to this museum revealing all the secrets about David, and the other masterpieces hosted in it. After that quick detour, the guide will lead you to the Hall of the Colossus to see the works of art of Giambologna’s “Rape of the Sabines”, Cassone Adimari, Domenico Ghirlandaio’s solemn “St. Stephen between St. James and St. Peter”, then onto the main Hall of the Prisoners to learn more about the unfinished statues by Michelangelo “Slaves”, and the friendship and mutual influence with artist like Fra’ Bartolomeo, Pontormo, Granacci, etc..

Later, the guide will spend time at The Tribune, sharing all the information of the world-famous statue of Michelangelo “David's Statue” and the Tribune Left Wing "Allori’s Coronation of the Virgin Mary".

Finally, the guide will also introduce you to the Gipsoteca Bartolini the plaster casts of the Reclining Venus, Arnolfo, Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Monaco, Documentation center on the first floor.

The tour takes about an hour, the perfect amount to see the highlights inside the museum without feeling overwhelmed. You can also return to anything you might want to see again, including the David, after the tour ends.

Meeting Point

Via dei Brunelleschi (In front of the Hard Rock Café)