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Full Day Medici tour overview

This tour combines Medici Bankers and Medici Dukes for a full day comprehensive tour on the history of the Medici family.

Thanks to their wealthy banking activity, the House of Medici became the richest and most powerful family in Italy. Later on, they also dominated the holy city of Rome, with two Popes in the early 16th century. The Medici Popes paved the way to the family to become a dynasty: Dukes of Florence and then Grand Dukes of Tuscany, the Medici dominated Florence until 1737.

Full Day Medici tour starts at the San Marco Museum, once a Dominican convent built with the exclusive sponsorship of the Medici Bank. We will discover the architecture designed by Michelozzo and the collection of Renaissance paintings and frescoes by Fra Angelico, a friar who embraced the new trend in arts, leading to the dramatic evolution of religious art. You will hear the story of Antonino Pierozzi, the friar who dared to take position against Cosimo the Elder, but also the story of Girolamo Savonarola, the friar who ruled Florence after the fall of the wealthy bankers.

The second stage of the Tour is in Palazzo Medici Riccardi, home of the Medici in Florence. You will be stunned by the difference between the austere facade and the magnificent chapel inside, decorated by Benozzo Gozzoli with the famous Journey of the Magi fresco, a symbol of the power of the Medici.

We will then visit the Basilica di San Lorenzo, the parish church of the Medici, completely re-built by Filippo Brunelleschi, again sponsored by the rulers of the Renaissance. His masterpiece, the Old Sacristy, contains many of the tombs of the Medici bankers.

With a short walk, we will then reach the Medici Chapels, where lie the bodies of the Medici Dukes. This amazing museum features the magnificent Chapel of the Princes, decorated by mosaics of semiprecious stones, something you won’t see anywhere else but in Florence, but also the tombs of Lorenzo and Giuliano de Medici in the New Sacristy, a room designed by Michelangelo which contains seven statues by the master of sculpture. You will hear the story of Michelangelo hiding from the Medici family, after helping the Republic of Florence to resist against the return of the rulers.

We take a break for lunch, before moving, as the Medici family did, to Palazzo Vecchio.

In 1540, the Medici Dukes left Palazzo Medici to move to Palazzo Vecchio, the ancient town hall, symbol of the political power in Florence. We’ll see the apartments of Cosimo de Medici and Eleonora di Toledo, the Duchesse, decorated by Giorgio Vasari and his workshop, together with the huge Hall of the 500, to celebrate Cosimo and his family. We will also see the Studiolo di Francesco I, the heir of Cosimo, who was more interested in science and alchemy than in politics. Not all of the rooms in Palazzo Vecchio were changed by the Medici Dukes, some of them still have the original decoration of when Florence was a free Republic, we’ll have a chance to see the room from where Machiavelli worked as chancellor and also the death mask of Dante Alighieri, the most famous Italian poet.

Highlights

• Fra Angelico – Tabernacolo dei Linaioli
• Fra Angelico – Annunciation
• Domenico del Ghirlandaio – Last Supper
• Benozzo Gozzoli – Journey of the Magi
• Donatello – Pulpit of the Resurrection
• Andrea del Verrocchio – Tomb of Piero de Medici “The Gouty”
• Filippo Brunelleschi – Old Sacristy
• Opificio Delle Pietre Dure – Chapel of the Princes
• Michelangelo – New Sacristy
• Michelozzo – Palazzo Vecchio Courtyard
• Giorgio Vasari – Hall of the 500
• Giorgio Vasari – Studiolo di Francesco I
• Michelangelo – Genius of Victory
• Bronzino – Deposition
• Unknown – Dante Alighieri death mask
• Donatello – Judith and Holofernes

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Tour features

Tour Schedule

Additional info

How is our Full Day Medici Tour different?

Well, this is an easy question: not many (if any at all) offer a Full Day Medici tour in Florence. This is very strange when you consider that almost everything in Florence Italy has something to do with the House of Medici. Any Florence Day Tours you will attend during your stay will include a mention of the Medici family, but this tour, in particular, is focused on the history and the biographies of the members of the family ruling the city. We think the Medici are so important that we offer two half-day tours: Medici Bankers and Medici Dukes. The traveler who wants to have a complete experience can join the two half-day tours into this complete Full Day Medici Tour.

Private tour

This is a private Full Day Medici Tour. You won’t join any large or small group of tourists, it’s meant for you, your family and/or your friends. The Florence Tour Guide will be at your service for the duration of the tour, assisting you in buying skip the line tickets for the Museums and explaining to you whatever you want to know.

Fair price

Is our Full Day Medici Tour expensive for you? First of all, you are saving € 30 by joining two half-day tours together. Any agency will price a private 6 hours Florence Walking Tour no less than € 800. Here you can hire directly a local genuine Florence Tour Guide, so you save any agency or middlemen fees, which means paying up to 60% less. The tour is certainly expensive if you travel alone, but it’s as low as € 66/person for a family of five, and if you travel with another family of friends, it gets even lower: much less than any 6-hour Florence Day Tour offered online and much better than any shared group tour.

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