Tour Details
Duration
3.5 hours
Product Type
Tour
Venues
- Medici Chapels
- Museum of San Marco
- Palazzo Medici-Riccardi
- Magi Chapel
Photos & Highlights
- Experience Florence through the eyes of the Medici family
- Led by an expert art or social historian
Select a date
Tour Description
The name Medici immediately brings up images of power, intrigue, and artistic flourishing during the Renaissance.
During this Medici tour in Florence, led by an art or social historian, we'll follow along in the footsteps of the Medicis, visiting several key sites that the family has owned or sponsored, tracing their history from the republic to the duchy, from wealthy merchants to rulers of a kingdom.
We begin from the roots of the Medici family history, with Cosimo the Elder in the 1430s, visiting the quiet Convent of San Marco - the first example of the Medici’s great patronage of the arts and one of the first public libraries in the world. Proceeding with a visit to the museum, which hosts the greatest works of Fra Angelico, we will see the monks' former private cells, including the cell made specifically for Cosimo's own meditation.
From there, we will proceed to the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, the seat of Medici power in Florence for over a century, and make a special visit to the Chapel of the Magi, decorated by Benozzo Gozzoli, considered a Renaissance fresco masterpiece.
To conclude the tour, we will reach San Lorenzo Square, home to the iconic unfinished church, and enter the Medici Chapels to explore the pinnacle of the Medicis' art patronage and view the work of Michelangelo in the family’s chapel he designed, featuring the tombs of Lorenzo il Magnifico and his brother Giuliano.
This walk will provide you with a deep understanding of the Medici family's connection to the city of Florence and how the relationship between political power and art has played such an important role in the formation of Florence as we know it today.
Experts
- You have been to Florence, or you are a first-time visitor and want to better understand the connection between the past and the present of the city
- You are intrigued about the Medici family's past.
- You want to venture off the beaten path with a thorough exploration of the less-traveled routes.
- Church and Museum of San Marco
- Palazzo Medici Riccardi
- Magi Chapel
- Medici Chapel
Tickets
You are pre-paid for the tour and the entrance tickets.
Additional Trip-Planning Resources
- For more information on planning your travels to Florence, take a read through our Context Stories.
Do you reserve headsets for this tour?
Depending on your group size, we may be required by the venue to order headsets, in which case you’ll see a “Headset Fee” added to your order.
Is this tour wheelchair-friendly?
This tour can be adapted for clients with mobility difficulties or who use wheelchairs, with the only exception being the Magi Chapel.
Book with confidence — see Context's flexible cancellation policy here.
Where You'll Start
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282 Reviews
Reviews can only be left by Context customers after they have completed a tour. For more information about our reviews, please see our FAQ.
When one parts from Florence, one must have heard about the Medici. Yet,, this tour not only educated us about the Medici their power and influence, but it also brought us to sites we were unlikely to visit, comprehend, and marvel at. Deepest gratitude for the patience, the answers, our docent provided as all as the fortune to have been exposed to to Michelangelo's secret room.
Naama
Reviewed on:
Apr 14, 2015
It all worked and in fact Spiro gave us so much in-depth information that the walk could easily have been 4 or 5 hours. He was very knowledgeable. Please tell him we bought and read the Medici banking book before we left Florence and it greatly enhanced our understanding of everything we saw. Also, he had asked me about the third Mary in one scene and I gave him slightly wrong information - could you please tell him that the third Mary is Mary the wife of Cleophas, the MOTHER of James (not SISTER) as I had said. Thanks!
Melody
Reviewed on:
Apr 2, 2015
I really loved this tour. As I walked around the city in the days after the tour, I realized how much it was grounding my understanding of Florence overall. I also noticed things (such as the Medici coat of arms) that I might not have taken note of otherwise. The tour inspired me to buy and read a history of the Medici family. Cornelia was wonderful! The tour was very focused on the art and the Medicis' patronage of the arts. I would have liked to have had even more historical context!
Alain
Reviewed on:
Jan 4, 2015
