Guided tour the Bardini Museum
In this museum you can feel the passion leading the antique dealer and connoisseur Stefano Bardini in acquiring such a broad quantity of works of art. The tour inviterà to get acquainted of his extraordinary collection, from the main masterpieces – as the Charity by Tino da Camaino and the Madonna of the Rope Makers by Donatello – to valuable pieces of different crafts as chests, ceramics, carpets, arms, small bronzes.
Guided tour to the Brancacci Chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine
The convent of Santa Maria del Carmine keeps a real treasure of Renaissance art: that is the Brancacci Chapel, commissioned by Felice Brancacci and frescoed by the great masters Masolino, Masaccio and Filippino Lippi. The tour will help to analyze the scenes of the Stories of Saint Peter, focusing the attention on the stylistic and structural innovations introduced by the young Tommaso, nicknamed Masaccio because of his carelessness – as Giorgio Vasari reports – but become universally known for his revolutionary art.
Guided tour to the Museum
This visit allows to approach the arts of the 20th century, with a specific attention to Italy and Florence: a peculiar focus is dedicated to the Alberto della Ragione Collection – including great masterpieces and promoting the understanding of the main historical events in between the two World Wars – and the bequest of the Florentine painter Ottone Rosai. Furthermore, the several exhibitions and special projects let to explore the variety of the arts of the XXth and the XXIst centuries, typified by a wide variety of languages, themes and researches.
In the atelier: the fresco painting
“Of all the other techniques used by painters, painting a wall is the most skilled and beautiful”. This is how Giorgio Vasari introduces the fresco technique, considered among the most difficult ones because it does not leave room for a change of mind and requires a perfect knowledge of the materials and the pigments used. The atelier allows the visitor to try dealing with the different execution phases of a small fresco that at the end of the activity he/she will bring it home.
The scented story of painted nature
It is difficult to think that Nature has a profound importance in a palace made of stone. And yet, in Palazzo Vecchio Nature is always present, wanted by a Duke and a Duchess who loved so much the land, hunting, fishing, horses and gardens. Here’s a tale that, thanks to the magic of perfumes as well, will give back the memory and the life to the wonderful Nature painted in the rooms of the Palace.
Special tour of the Palace
Palazzo Vecchio is the heart of Florence, a symbol of the city since medieval times to the modern days. Made in 1299 in which it acted as a seat for the governing of citizens, the building started its golden age the moment when the Medici family moved into the Palazzo, transforming it into the beautiful palace of extraordinary richness that it is today. The guided visit pulls you into the imense wealth, extraordinary decorations, masterpieces and even an access to a secret passage through the beautiful camerino of Bianca Cappello, second wife of the Granduke Francesco I de’Medici.
The story of the turtle and the sail
Between his enterprises, the Duke Cosimo had a particular inclination for the turtle with a sail, ever-present in the rooms of his Palace. And that’s a small turtle that tells children an ancient story of children and turtles, of speed and slowness, of prudence and wisdom. At the end of the story children will participate to the “turtle with a sail hunting” in the areas of Palazzo Vecchio.
Life at Court
Today Palazzo Vecchio is a museum, but during the Sixteenth century it was the residence of the Duke Cosimo I de Medici, his wife Eleonora de Toledo and their eleven children. As visitors cross the museum’s rooms they will appreciate the beauty of the Reggia, they will imagine as well the sumptuous banquets in the Sala Grande and the bloomed terraces that seemed gardens feeling as little princes at the daily life at the Medici’s court.