Florence

The capital of Tuscany, Florence, needs no introduction. Universally regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in Italy and one of the world’s great capitals of art and architecture, Florence is a living museum, shaped over centuries by some of history’s most celebrated minds. Thanks to its extraordinary monuments and renowned museums, Florence draws millions of visitors each year. Of inestimable value is the artistic, literary, and scientific legacy left by some of the city’s most illustrious sons – and by Tuscany itself. In literature, Florence gave the world Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarca, and Giovanni Boccaccio. In the visual arts, the city is inseparable from the names of Giotto, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo. In political thought, figures such as Lorenzo de’ Medici and Machiavelli left a profound mark, while the fields of geography, astronomy, and physics were shaped by pioneers such as Amerigo Vespucci and Galileo Galilei.

In Florence, it is possible to visit the Uffizi Gallery, one of the most beautiful museums in the world, renowned for its extraordinary collections of ancient sculpture and painting spanning from the Middle Ages to the early modern period. The museum’s holdings of 14th-century and Renaissance painting include absolute masterpieces of world art, with works by Giotto, Simone Martini, Piero della Francesca, Beato Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Mantegna, Correggio, Leonardo, Raffaello, Michelangelo, and Caravaggio. The gallery also houses outstanding examples of European painting, particularly from the German, Dutch, and Flemish schools (source: Uffizi Gallery official website). Equally significant within the panorama of Italian art is the Medici family’s collection of ancient statues and busts. Displayed throughout the corridors of the Uffizi, this collection includes Roman sculptures and Roman copies of lost Greek originals.