Castles · Tour
Where Michelangelo Learned to Carve, Under a Pupil of Donatello
The story of the family that ended up standing for the whole city, and the obstacles, betrayals and wins along the way, walked through the places it happened in. Several of the locations used for the television series The Medici are on the route. The people get treated as people: Lorenzo the Magnificent, Cosimo the Elder, Piero the Unfortunate. And so do their enemies, since the walk takes in the palaces of the Strozzi, the Albizzi and the Pazzi, which were built to compete with the Medici and largely failed. The Palazzo Medici is the anchor, a defining piece of 15th-century architecture, with the Chapel of the Magi and the frescoes Benozzo Gozzoli painted in it. The route also includes the place where Michelangelo learned to sculpt, working under Bertoldo, one of Donatello's pupils. Almost nobody stops there.
What's included
- Guide services
Itinerary
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Via Camillo Cavour, 3, Firenze
We meet in front of the main door of the Medici Palace, 15 minutes before the start, with a sign reading THE MEDICIS GROUP TOUR: Lorenzo The Magnificent, The Dynasty, The Palace and the TV Series.
Palazzo Medici Riccardi
The first Medici palace, home to Cosimo the Elder and Lorenzo the Magnificent, and the workplace of Donatello, Michelangelo, Paolo Uccello, Benozzo Gozzoli and Botticelli. The Renaissance house where the whole thing started. Around 1444 Cosimo the Elder, the patriarch of the family, commissioned Michelozzo to build a palace on the via Larga, now via Cavour, close to the church of San Lorenzo. It was the first Renaissance building put up in Florence. The floors are clearly separated and rusticated, with an enormous cornice over the roofline, arched windows along the front, and a partly closed loggia at the corner. In 1517 the building was altered: the loggia was closed and the two kneeling windows were added, to Michelangelo's design. Lesser members of the family went on living here until 1659, when Ferdinando II sold it to the Riccardi marquises.
Via Camillo Cavour, 1, Firenze
Good to know
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- The guide service may be provided in two languages.
- Up to 15 travelers per booking.
- Mobile or paper ticket accepted
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- Guiding available in: de, en, it, fr, es.
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