Firenze

Florence has been adored, as it still is today, by the world’s greatest poets, and has always been the destination of intellectuals, artists and travellers. How enchanting to follow its itineraries of streets, squares, churches and museums, magnificent witnesses to the history, legends and atmosphere which for centuries has charmed guests of this marvellous land of light and art. Famous all over the world as the cradle of the Renaissance, home to the fine arts and literature, Florence preserves the most brilliant examples of Italian culture, like Michelangelo’s David, Brunelleschi’s spectacular dome and the ancient Ponte Vecchio over the Arno River. Visiting Florence means plunging into the rooms of Palazzo Pitti and the Uffizi Gallery, embarking on an extraordinary journey among works by Giotto, Raffaello, Botticelli, Rembrandt, Caravaggio and many others. Florence is also the birthplace of Dante Alighieri, who found there the inspiration for his immortal Divine Comedy, and the city which witnessed the expression of genius of matchless artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci. Their works, along with those of many other generations of artists including the masters of our own century, are collected in the museums of the Uffizi complex, the most highly-selective picture-gallery in the world; the Galleria Palatina, with paintings from the “golden centuries”; the Bargello, with its Renaissance sculptures; the Academy; the Medici Chapels and Buonarroti’s home, with its sculptures by Michelangelo; the Bardini, Horne, Stibbert, Romano and Corsini Museums; the Gallery of Modern Art; the Cathedral Museum (Opera del Duomo); the Silver Museum and the one housing Precious Stones. Famous monuments mark the stages of the great Florentine artistic civilisation, the city having been declared a World Heritage Site.