With this guided visit we propose to explore the most famous sites of the city alongside one of its small lesser-known treasures, the Museum of the Duomo (Museo dell'Opera del Duomo) that houses some absolute masterpieces, which still remain off the mass tour itineraries. In addition to placing each of the sites and works of art in its proper historical and artistic perspective, and helping you understand their richness and meaning, we will uncover some of their inedited and fascinating aspects. The first part of the tour will be dedicated to the masterpieces of Donatello and Michelangelo and the area of the Duomo. The second part will be dedicated to the palaces, streets and piazzas, where will also have the chance to stop for a gelato.

Michelangelo's last Pietà and Donatello's Magdalene at the Museum of the Duomo
The theme of the Pietà and the contemplation of death in the lifeless body of Christ supported in the arms of the Madonna accompanied Michelangelo's own life and death. His first beautiful Pietà that today stands in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome made him famous at age 24, and he returned to the theme 50 years later to sculpt another more dramatic Pietà intended to be the funerary monument for his own tomb. In fact, it didn't work out that way and Michelangelo had time to sketch out a last Pietà (the Rondanini Pietà) that he was still working on at nearly 90 years of age when death carried him off. The work that awaits us is an extraordinary offering of spirituality and art, sorrow and resistance that not by chance required years of labor by this tormented and aloof genius. The dead body of Christ, mostly nude, falls vertically from above as if he has just been removed from the cross. Encountering the supporting arms of Nicodemus, the Madonna, and Mary Magdalene, the figure opens and offers itself, as it collapses and succumbs. In the abandon of death as depicted by Michelangelo, the emaciated body of Christ reaffirms the centrality of Christ in the world, in the space created by the artwork, and in his remaining suspended in a delay of death, a resistance, a promise perhaps of eternity. The aged Nicodemus, bent forward with the weight of the years and with the body of Christ, has the face of Michelangelo, intense and impenetrable in the ample hood that hides his neck, forehead, hair, and the beard that weighs down his cheeks. The Madonna supports from below the arm and shoulders of her son. She no longer has the beauty of 50 years earlier and the marble that depicts her face shows the torments of her sorrow. It has not been overly polished and made to seem transparent to the light as has, by contrast, the figure of Christ, touched by immortal beauty in which the light seems to emanate from the figure rather than be reflected by it. But by the inscrutable will of the fall of Christ's body, his figure and that of the Madonna converge to form a circle in whose sublime contact persist the memory of an indissoluble embrace. To say that this work is moving is to say very little.

There are many subjects to expand on, among them why the 80-year-old master then living in Rome, hurled himself upon own statue breaking a knee and an arm. It was not a case of senile dementia but rather an action to be understood in the context of the gathering clouds of the Inquisition hanging over Rome after the election of pope Paul IV Carafa that made Michelangelo even fear for his life and not just for the destiny of his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, which a few years later would see many figures put on unwanted underwear.

The Museum of the Duomo contains other masterpieces as well, including the intense Prophet Abacuch (c. 1423) by Donatello. Affectionately rechristened by the Florentines as Zuccone, from the popular expression zucca meaning a bald head, the figure has great dignity and interior force that does not retreat, just like as in the biblical texts when he interrogates God on the presence of evil in the world why it triumphs. His face, marked with scars and suffering, imperturbably scrutinizes us with immense eyes, as he advances wrapped in threatening drapery.

The Magdalene also by Donatello (c. 1455) is a life-size wooden sculpture that is likewise capable of touching the heart and unleashing the mind with its intense expressivity. The Mary Magdalene that we encounter no longer has the physical beauty in which she formerly traded. Instead Donatello exaggerates the deprivation of the body, with wiry angular lines, emaciated flesh, and matted hair, removing all traces of sensuality to give the figure an intense spirituality. The suffering that inflicts her is palpable in Donatello's masterful representation but the strength is undeniable as well, as we see in her gnarled bony hands that remind us of roots and earth, as she prays to heaven.

After this journey designed to enter into the art of Donatello, Michelangelo and the Italian Renaissance, we will then penetrate the spaces of the city where they both lived.

The Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiore
We begin at the Duomo, or cathedral, the heart of the oldest quarter of the city. We will consider topics such as the various phases of construction of the present duomo and the destruction of the oldest church, Santa Reparata, which lies beneath and whose foundations preserve Early Christian mosaics of the 4th-5th century that we will see, the financial support from the various guilds above all that of the wool workers, and the competition with the enemy city of Siena. And, the great undertaking of the dome, a massive construction, over 140 feet in diameter, which remained unrealized for 125 years, will bring us to one of the daring adventures of the Italian Renaissance. The work that began in August, 1420 was brought to a successful conclusion thanks only to the technical ability, the creation of mechanical devices, and the brilliant architectonic intuition of Brunelleschi. It marks a milestone in the history of architecture since domes of comparable size, such as the Pantheon in Rome (2nd century AD), had not been built since antiquity.

The Baptistery Doors
Another enterprise that takes us back into the climate of the Renaissance is the competition announced in 1401 by the Merchants' guild, one of the most powerful, for the decoration of new doors for the north entrance of the Baptistery. In competition were the goldsmith Ghiberti, and Brunelleschi (still 20 years away from his successful bid for the dome project). Upon defeat Brunelleschi left Florence for a journey to Rome with his friend Donatello, where they dedicated themselves to the study of ancient Roman architecture and sculpture, as was then the passion among writers and artists of the age. We will discuss in detail the reasons why Ghiberti's designs for the Baptistery doors prevailed, the characteristics that earned them their fame, his interest in accentuating volume, three-dimensionality, and perspective in the biblical episodes he sculpted, particularly in a subsequent commission for another set of doors in 1425, where the gothic style of the late Middle Ages was definitively abandoned. We will see his adoption of a technique called stiacciato—which Donatello will perfect—in which background is suggested by using lower relief for distant figures than for those in the foreground.

After a break for a good traditional gelato in one of the romantic streets of the neighborhood we will continue the visit

Orsanmichele and Palazzo Davanzati
The various merchant and trade characteristics that survive in the Florence of today are only a memory— street names like via Dei Calzaiuoli, refering to the makers of the calze or typical knitted pants in vogue at the time—of the fervor of commercial activity that animated Florence from the 1300s onward. The Florence of the Merchants will be explored with discussions of the seven Major Guilds (the wool guild, the silk guild, the furriers, the doctors, the herbalists, the judges, and the notaries), the interests of the entrepreneurs and of the professionals supporting their activity. These themes will come out in our explanation of the various phases of the beautiful Orsanmichele. The building today is a church but it once also housed the market and granary, and it witnessed the construction—at the expense of the most important guilds—of statues for the facade, realized by great artists such as Donatello who carved the splendid St. George. Such works were intended to promote the image of the guilds and their social role well beyond the borders of Florence. Moving on to Palazzo Davanzati, we are presented with a palace that shows a new typology for the palazzo. Its innovations will be readily visible as it stands directly across the street from the house-tower type of architecture typical of the middle ages. The spaces and architectonic elements are organized according to new interests in rational measures, and new desires for light, spacious volumes, and demonstrations of social and civic importance. The ground floor was dedicated to commercial activity, the upper floors for living space, a grand gallery crowned the palace, and the family crest was displayed at the entrance. This plan was repeated again and again and it will help us understand the private as well as the public life of the great merchant families of Renaissance Florence.

Piazza and Palace of the Signoria
It is the republican heart of the city that during the years of the Republic was erected as the symbol of the city's democracy, the political center of the city as differentiated from the religious one. We will interest ourselves principally in the construction of the imposing Palace of the Signoria (or lords), in the various magistrates, headed by the priors who resided there thus necessitating the adoption of the medieval fortress style of architecture so that these public officials could be protected from the dangers of possible revolts or famines. The Loggia of the Lanzi will take us another step into the sculpture of the Renaissance with the beautiful David by Benvenuto Cellini, great friend of Michelangelo, and the tumultuous Rape of the Sabines by Giambologna. The piazza, among other events, was the site in which the culminating phases of the drama of Savonarola—the Dominican Friar who preached apocalyptic sermons against the worldly excesses of his time, radically expressing the disquiet and conflict between the new morality and the more rigid Christian morality—were played out, including the final episode in which he was burned at the stake in 1498. Toward the middle of the 16th century, with the latest achievement of political dominion over Florence, the Medici family moved into the Palazzo of the Signoria. Many rooms were decorated during their residency.

Ponte Vecchio
With this bridge— reconstructed in 1345 after a terrible flood destroyed the previous one, which had stood there since the end of the 12th century—we come back again to our central theme of the Florence of the merchants. Here, for centuries, there were fish-sellers, butchers, and leather artisans. It is only since the end of the 16th century that these shops were substituted for the more dignified and less malodorous goldsmith shops and jewelers. But at this point it is better to let ourselves be carried by the slow course of the river and its memories so that we can savor the emotion of a journey of the mind and heart into the culture and art of magical Florence.