Our local guide will meet you upon your arrival in Florence, either at the Santa Maria Novella train station at your arrival track from Rome (the Eurostar train takes 1.5 hours), or at a set meeting point between the guide and your private driver, which we can arrange for you. From there we will begin our voyage through the Italian Renaissance, through the great political, social, and economic changes that contributed to this unique period in the history of art.

We will start at the Piazza Duomo with the splendid Baptistery, rebuilt in an octagonal plan in the 12 th century with is beautiful mosaics and with the famed doors of Ghiberti, the great goldsmith whose masterpieces bring us immediately back to the passionate movements and revolutions of art that characterize the end of the 14 th century and the beginning of the 15 th century. In fact, he was granted the commission only after a fierce competition in which also participated the great Donatello, no doubt knocked back due to the highly innovative nature of the models he presented to the selection committee. The Duomo, with the fantastic history of its cupola, remained open to the sky and incomplete for centuries before Brunelleschi added his genius and his bold techniques to raise the greatest dome erected since the days of the Pantheon. We are in the golden age of the city, in the time when the banks, fabrics, and the Florentine arts are the most famous in all of Europe.

We will then admire one of the most famous figures of Florence in the Galleria dell'Academmia. U nder Michelangelo's direction during his last year of life, the Academmia today houses some of the master's most splendid sculptures. David, the young legendary hero who is about to kill the giant Goliath, has the strength of beauty, cunning and a penetrating, long-reaching gaze. It is an unequalled masterpiece of equilibrium, harmony and beauty that could only be conceived by a man struck by divine grace. A man like Michelangelo, who also created grace in the hours of torment spent labouring on the unfinished statues of the “prisoners.” Disturbing and modern works of art that were, among other things, a source of inspiration for the sculpture Rodin.

From there we will go across the luxurious Via dei Calzaiuoli (avenue of the shoe makers), arriving at Piazza della Signora , the political heart of the Renaissance city. The piazza and the old palace saw the rise of an autonomous power to that of the church, as well as republics, fights, and the affirmation of the Medici family, the grand patrons of the arts. The various rooms of the building recount the story of the different moments in the life of the city and of the Medici family, who at times made it their own residence. It was in this square that the monk Girolamo Savonarola delivered his impassioned and severe admonitions, and here, too, where he met his atrocious death- burned at the stake.

After a good lunch with a superb glass of Tuscan wine, we will be ready to visit the Uffizi Galery and meet the many artists that gave the city its great artistic fame. The masterpieces of Giotto, Masolino, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo inspire ideas, emotions and immortal stories in all who ponder them. A great journey into the changes that brought the artists and the people of the Renaissance to see God and themselves in a different way. Changes that gave new emphasis to humanity, its gestures, expressions and actions, both intrinsically human and yet divine. In these paintings, the Madonna becomes increasingly beautiful and human with the baby Jesus tenderly embracing her.

From there we will head to Ponte Vecchio , a romantic location from which to appreciate the beauty of Florence, with its enchanting view of the river and of the city that so many artists have loved and painted. Passing by the Palazzo Pitti , that of the rival family to the Medicis, we will appreciate the 18th century gardens of the architect Boboli . An immersion in the elegance of the gardens and in their classical memories to complete a great voyage through time, through humanity and through art.