FLORENCE IN DEPTH

• Encounter the Italian Renaissance with an expert, from Giotto and Masaccio in Florence’s churches and chapels to its continued impact on the modern city

• Discover the beauty of Florence during the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance, at less-visited sites such as San Miniato al Monte and Fra Angelico’s San Marco

• Explore select Tuscan towns, situated in picturesque landscapes, at San Gimignano, Pienza and Iris Origo’s Val d’Orcia

• Get to know Florence neighbourhood by neighbourhood, from Michelangelo and the Medici at San Lorenzo to artisans still working in workshops in Oltrarno, the ‘left bank’ of the river Arno

• Enjoy the benefits of long-stay travel, including time for independent sight-seeing and a program timed for lower visitor numbers

A note on the itinerary: Florence’s wealth of artistic treasures requires constant conservation. We have made every effort to indicate ongoing restoration projects in this itinerary, but some on-the-ground adaptation, due to changing schedules, may be required.

MONDAY 03 NOVEMBER – ARRIVAL (D)

The tour commences at 4.00pm in the lobby of our hotel in Florence. After meeting tour leader Dr Nick Eckstein and our tour manager, we have an orientation of our neighbourhood. In addition to practical locations, such as the supermarkets and small shops in which we can purchase our breakfast supplies, we also begin to gain an understanding of the city as a collection of neighbourhoods. Calling in at a well-preserved church, we also begin to see how the great artworks of medieval and Renaissance Florence were understood in their original locations. There is a talk before dinner in a local restaurant. First of 12 nights in Florence.

TUESDAY 04 NOVEMBER – MEDIEVAL TOWER SOCIETIES

Medieval cities in central Italy are characterised by a culture of political striving that resulted in a distinctive urban fabric, that of the so-called “tower societies”. Today we explore this historical moment with a trip to San Gimignano, a World Heritage-listed town that is principally known for the defensive medieval towers that punctuate its skyline and draw comparisons to modern skyscrapers. Visitors to San Gimignano are often unaware that some of Tuscany’s best fresco painting of the Middle Ages and Renaissance can be found in its palaces and churches. In the Collegiata, we find an excellent example of the biblia pauperum or “Bible of the poor”, and, at the Palazzo Comunale, now San Gimignano’s Civic Museum, fine works on both sacred and secular themes. (NB: at the time of publication, Benozzo Gozzoli’s frescoes in Sant’Agostino are not on view, due to a lengthy conservation project.) We return to Florence in the late afternoon, for an evening at leisure.

WEDNESDAY 05 NOVEMBER – THE CITY OF GOD #1: FLORENTINE MONKS & FRIARS

Today we uncover the ways in which medieval Florentines understood their city to be under a divine mantle of protection. We commence with a transfer to San Miniato al Monte, an evocative church that surveys Florence from a panoramic vantage point atop one of the many surrounding hills. Its façade is an excellent example of the Tuscan Romanesque style, a clean work of geometric beauty, and its interior preserves excellent works in mosaic and fresco that span a period of over four hundred years. After a break for coffee at Piazzale Michelangelo, one of Florence’s best-known viewpoints, we continue to Santa Croce. The late thirteenth-century building project for this monumental Franciscan complex was actively sponsored and funded by the government of Florence, in recognition of the significant social welfare work undertaken by the order in this quarter, which was closely associated with the wool industry. The large numbers of poor and disenfranchised workers who crowded into this basilica were rewarded with glimpses of the groundbreaking fresco cycles commissioned by their wealthy neighbours, such as the banking dynasties of the Peruzzi and Bardi. Santa Croce is one of the best places to understand the impact of Giotto’s style and technique on subsequent generations of Tuscan painters, for example, but it also houses significant works of sculpture and architecture by Donatello, Brunelleschi and the Della Robbia family. Over time, Santa Croce also became the resting place of some of the city’s most significant figures. In the afternoon, we continue to the Bargello Museum, a national museum of sculpture with countless significant works of the Middle Ages and Renaissance: Donatello, Verrocchio, Michelangelo, Giambologna and Cellini are all represented here. There is time to explore the museum independently, after looking at a number of works together with Nick. Later this evening, there is a talk.

THURSDAY 06 NOVEMBER – POWER & POLITICS IN THE PIAZZA

The civic and sacred heart of Florence is contained in a small area that also corresponds to its earliest inhabitation. This morning, we explore a number of sites that develop this theme, together with a local guide. Commencing in Piazza della Signoria, we understand the nexus of power and politics in locations such as the Loggia dei Lanzi, which would become an outdoor museum of sculpture under the Medici grand dukes. Continuing into the Palazzo della Signoria or Palazzo Vecchio (“old palace”), as it became known when the grand dukes transferred their residence across the Arno river to the newer Palazzo Pitti, we learn about Florence’s republican system of government in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, as well as the dramatic changes it underwent with the transition to a Medici duchy. Afterwards, we visit Orsanmichele, a medieval grain market transformed by a miracle-working image, the Black Death and the Florentine government. By the second half of the fifteenth century, sculptors from Lorenzo Ghiberti to Donatello and Verrocchio had transformed it into the ‘laboratory of Renaissance sculpture’ for which it is still celebrated. The afternoon is at leisure, before we meet for an evening talk.

FRIDAY 07 NOVEMBER – DISTRICT OF THE RED LION: PALACES & PATRONS

Medieval super industries such as wool production and international banking underpinned the economic foundations of Florence’s cultural renaissance, and today we begin to meet some of the significant figures of these family companies on a walking tour of medieval and Renaissance palaces. From the grandiose building projects of the Medici’s sometime rivals, the Strozzi family, to the elegant designs of Leon Battista Alberti for the Rucellai family, domestic architecture offered these patrons an opportunity to make a public statement about their ambitions, priorities, culture and sophistication. Florentine palaces were of course also a place of residence for extended family groups, with their construction accommodating mod cons such as private cisterns, dumb waiters, and even indoor toilets – as we discover at Palazzo Davanzati, a museum of the medieval Florentine home. In the afternoon, we continue to Santa Maria Novella, a large Dominican complex that preserves significant works of art, including Masaccio’s great Trinity (NB: at the time of publication, scaffold visits are possible), a painted crucifix by Giotto and monumental fresco cycles by Paolo Uccello, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Filippino Lippi and others. There is a talk tonight.

SATURDAY 08 NOVEMBER – CITY OF GOD #2: CIVIC RELIGION IN EARLY RENAISSANCE FLORENCE

Today we get to the heart of faith and politics, and their fascinating intersection, in Renaissance Florence. Commencing in Piazza di San Giovanni Battista, we gain an understanding of how the buildings of Florence’s cathedral square – baptistery, bell tower and cathedral – were planned and grew up in a close relationship. From at least the time of Dante to today, they have almost been seen as the ‘passport’ of Florentine civic identity; the great poet, for example, referred to the baptistery with great affection as il mio bel San Giovanni. Together with a museum guide, we enjoy a private visit of the terraces of Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral, an extraordinary tour that offers a special perspective on Brunelleschi’s building project, before we continue inside the massive structure that represents one of pre-modern Europe’s most innovative works of construction. After lunch at leisure, we continue to the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, where numerous significant artworks from sites within the cathedral complex have been moved inside for their conservation. These include Ghiberti’s gilded bronze Gates of Paradise for the baptistery, Michelangelo’s moving late Pietà, Donatello’s astounding gilded wooden sculpture of Mary Magdalene, and many more. There is time to explore the collection at your own pace, before an evening at leisure. (NB: at the time of publication, the interior mosaics of the baptistery are undergoing restoration. Please also note that no lift is available for the private visit to the terraces of Florence cathedral: you will need to climb many stairs.)

SUNDAY 09 NOVEMBER – THE DISTRICT OF THE GREEN DRAGON & THE BRANCACCI CHAPEL

We begin the day with a talk by Nick on the Brancacci Chapel and its frescoes by Masolino and Masaccio, a monument of Western European art. Reflected in these frescoes are the men and women of the District of the Green Dragon, a fascinating neighbourhood where the rich and poor lived cheek by jowl and came together for local festivities, charitable undertakings and religious celebrations. We begin to glimpse them at the basilica of Santo Spirito, an elegant Brunelleschian church where altarpieces by artists such as Filippo Lippi reflect very local concerns. At the Brancacci Chapel, a small space that was redecorated in the fifteenth century thanks to local patron Felice Brancacci, the cycle of frescoes by Masolino and Masaccio explores both the life of St Peter and the everyday concerns of the neighbourhood congregation. At the time of publication, the lengthy restoration project of the frescoes continues and so we enjoy a privileged viewing perspective from the technicians’ scaffolds. After time for lunch, we continue our explorations of the Oltrarno quarter, still a location for jewellery designers, restorers of antique furniture and neighbourhood shops and markets. The atmosphere of this district is still distinct, as it was in Masolino and Masaccio’s day. This evening, we meet for a talk.

MONDAY 10 NOVEMBER – RISE OF THE MEDICI & THE DISTRICT OF THE GOLDEN LION

Today, we continue our exploration of Florence by neighbourhood and through significant figures, discovering the District of the Golden Lion. It was particularly associated with the Medici family before their rise to the Grand Duchy, as they built their family palace alongside the basilica of San Lorenzo, one of the city’s oldest churches. We commence at the Palazzo Medici, a stylish fifteenth-century palace designed by architect and family favourite Michelozzo, and the location for the display of paintings and sculptures that we now admire in the Uffizi and Accademia galleries. Still in situ is the Chapel of the Magi, a jewel-box frescoed entirely by Benozzo Gozzoli with a lavish procession of the Magi and of the Medici and their retainers. After a break for coffee, we continue to the Museo di San Marco, located within a monastic complex that housed figures from artist Fra Angelico to the great theologian and preacher Girolamo Savonarola. It is one of the most tranquil spaces in central Florence. After lunch, we uncover another site of Medici power, the basilica of San Lorenzo and Old Sacristy, where family members were buried in a Renaissance monument bearing the hallmarks of great artists, including Brunelleschi, Donatello and Andrea del Verrocchio. The late afternoon and evening are at leisure.

TUESDAY 11 NOVEMBER – PIETY & CHARITY IN RENAISSANCE FLORENCE

Today, on foot and by taxi, we visit a number of sites that are emblematic of the systems of social welfare in medieval and Renaissance Florence. In pre-modern Europe, mutual aid was often provided by lay groups with an organising spiritual principle. These confraternities of men and women raised money for or offered practical medical and legal assistance to those experiencing poverty, imprisonment or bereavement. Confraternities’ operations and priorities were carefully calibrated to the local context, so that even the “shamefaced poor”, or middle-class people who had fallen on hard times, were provided for. Confraternal headquarters could be beautifully decorated, as we discover at the Chiostro dello Scalzo, frescoed in an elegant monochromatic style by Andrea del Sarto. Together with his contemporary Rosso Fiorentino, Andrea is also responsible for a groundbreaking fresco cycle at the nearby church of Santissima Annunziata. There is time for lunch at leisure near Brunelleschi’s Loggia degli Innocenti, before an optional visit with Nick of the Museo degli Innocenti, a fascinating museum that explores a fifteenth-century project for ameliorating the lot of Florence’s orphaned boys and girls. The evening is at leisure.

WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER – MICHELANGELO IN FOCUS

The cultural flourishing of fifteenth-century Florence sponsored the emergence of some of Western Europe’s most fascinating figures. Michelangelo, a protégé of Lorenzo the Magnificent, grew up within the Medici household and – like his mentor – mastered the fields of poetry and architecture, as well as his better-known accomplishments in painting and sculpture. Today, we track the Florentine career of Michelangelo together with a local guide. Commencing at the Accademia Gallery, we understand his youthful achievement of the David in conjunction with his technique and philosophy of art, as seen in his Prisoners. We then continue to a nearby sculpture workshop, in order to understand the technique of Florentine mosaic or pietra dura, before continuing to the Medici Chapels in San Lorenzo to see the apotheosis of this sculpture style. Alongside the chapels lies Michelangelo’s New Sacristy, the location for his powerful unfinished sculptures of minor Medici grandees, and an opportunity for Michelangelo to celebrate the active and contemplative dimensions of a ‘Renaissance man’ in his celebrated Night and Day, Dawn and Dusk sculptures. After an afternoon at leisure, we meet for a talk.

THURSDAY 13 NOVEMBER – IDEAL CITIES & THE CULT OF THE INDIVIDUAL IN SOUTHERN TUSCANY (L)

Today, we turn from urban Florence to more regional manifestations of the Renaissance. Travelling into southern Tuscany’s scenic Val d’Orcia, we arrive in Pienza. Originally known as Corsignano, this one-horse town was thrust onto the international stage in the fifteenth century, when native son Aeneas Silvis Piccolomini, now Pope Pius II, decided to re-design his birthplace as a model of Renaissance urban design. He ‘encouraged’ many of his cardinals to follow suit, and Pienza is therefore now one of the most perfectly preserved examples of a Renaissance ideal city. After lunch together in a country restaurant, we encounter a modern individual who similarly transformed a southern Tuscan locale. Iris Origo, an Anglo-American heiress and biographer, came to live in the Val d’Orcia in the 1920s. Together with her agronomist husband, she transformed local agricultural practices in the then-degraded landscape at the same time as, together with architect Cecil Pinsent, she created an extraordinary garden. Her La Foce garden is an outstanding modern reinvention of the classic Italian parterre, as we discover on a private tour. Returning to Florence, the evening is at leisure.

FRIDAY 14 NOVEMBER – ART OF RENAISSANCE FLORENCE (D)

Now that we have explored the political, economic, cultural and social developments of the Florentine Renaissance, we turn our attention today to its monuments of art, as preserved in the Uffizi Gallery. In recent years, its exhibition spaces have been extended and renovated, allowing the breadth of this collection of medieval and Renaissance art to be displayed as never before. We survey key works by Cimabue, Giotto, Piero della Francesca, Botticelli and more with Nick, before time to continue our independent explorations – new rooms have been dedicated to Bronzino, Leonardo, Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi. In the evening, there is a farewell dinner at a local restaurant, an opportunity to discuss our tour highlights.

SATURDAY 15 NOVEMBER – DEPARTURE

Tour arrangements conclude this morning. Florence is well-connected by high-speed train departures to other destinations in Italy. Our partners at Mary Rossi Travel would be pleased to advise on any aspect of your pre- or post-tour travel arrangements.

Residence La Contessina 3* Florence, 12 nights

https://www.lacontessina.it/

This central apartment-style hotel is ideally located for our itinerary, doing away with the need for coaches or vans and allowing us to undertake the majority of our tour on foot.

Rooms are simply decorated, with traditional, heavy wooden furniture. Some have mezzanine-style studies, but sleeping quarters and bathrooms are located on the ground floor. Impromptu socialising is possible in the outdoor courtyard, located at the centre of the complex. The courtyard also offers a quiet outlook.

Each apartment-style room includes a kitchenette, and self-catering is easy due to the hotel’s proximity to the central covered food market at San Lorenzo.

Please note that breakfast is not included in the tour package.

NB: hotels of a similar standard may be substituted.

• 12 nights’ accommodation at a 3* apartment-style hotel

• 3 lunches or dinners

• All ground transport, guided tours and entrance fees to sites as mentioned in the itinerary, and tipping

• Talks by and expertise of an expert Australian tour leader throughout

• Practical assistance of an Italian-speaking local tour manager throughout

A $1,000pp deposit is required at the time of booking to hold your place on tour.

We will invoice you for final payment for the tour, due on 20 August 2025.

When you book on one of tours, we ask you to accept our terms and conditions. You can read our terms and conditions here.