Tour Details
Duration
3.5 hours
Product Type
Tour
Venues
- Casa Buonarroti
- Museo del Bargello
- Michelangelo's David
- Michelangelo's Bacchus
- Accademia Gallery Florence
Photos & Highlights
- Visits Casa Buonarroti, Bargello and Accademia Gallery, including Michelangelo's Statue of David
- Led by an art historian
Select a date
Tour Description
In this three-and-a-half-hour walk with an art historian, we will follow the career of Michelangelo, discussing his early years and career under the patronage of the Medici family while viewing key works in the Bargello Museum and Accademia Gallery.
This Michelangelo tour in Florence is designed to give us a chance to explore in-depth the work and artistic legacy of Michelangelo, whose impact on the Florentine Renaissance and art history in general cannot be overstated. We’ll begin at the Casa Buonarroti, built by the artist's nephew on the land that previously belonged to Michelangelo, now converted into a small museum of drawings and early sculptures. Here, in this relatively unknown museum, we will spend some time laying out the important themes that resonate through his work. Next, we'll move to the Bargello Museum, a government office building and prison in Medieval times, which now hosts one of the most important sculpture collections in the world. We’ll explore the vast holdings and view several of Michelangelo's works, including the Bacchus. We will also spend some time with the works of other related artists in order to try to develop the context that surrounded Michelangelo's work.
Lastly, we will move on to the Galleria dell'Accademia, which houses Michelangelo's masterpiece and consummate symbol of the Florentine Renaissance, the Statue of David. As we bask in its aura, we’ll examine this important statue and related works and wrap up our tour by discussing Michelangelo's later career in Rome, culminating in the painting of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
This Michelangelo tour in Florence is designed to give us a chance to explore in-depth the work and artistic legacy of Michelangelo, whose impact on the Florentine Renaissance and art history in general cannot be overstated. We’ll begin at the Casa Buonarroti, built by the artist's nephew on the land that previously belonged to Michelangelo, now converted into a small museum of drawings and early sculptures. Here, in this relatively unknown museum, we will spend some time laying out the important themes that resonate through his work. Next, we'll move to the Bargello Museum, a government office building and prison in Medieval times, which now hosts one of the most important sculpture collections in the world. We’ll explore the vast holdings and view several of Michelangelo's works, including the Bacchus. We will also spend some time with the works of other related artists in order to try to develop the context that surrounded Michelangelo's work.
Lastly, we will move on to the Galleria dell'Accademia, which houses Michelangelo's masterpiece and consummate symbol of the Florentine Renaissance, the Statue of David. As we bask in its aura, we’ll examine this important statue and related works and wrap up our tour by discussing Michelangelo's later career in Rome, culminating in the painting of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
FAQ
For more information about Context tours, please visit our FAQs.
Book with confidence — see Context's flexible cancellation policy here.
Where do we meet? Where does the tour end?
We meet at Casa Buonarroti and end at the Galleria dell'Accademia. Your confirmation email will have the exact meeting point details along with a map.
What is the difference between Introduction to Florence with Michelangelo's David and Michelangelo in Florence Tour?
Both tours include a visit to the Accademia Gallery to see Michelangelo's David. Introduction to Florence is a more general tour touching on all aspects of the Renaissance, while the Michelangelo Tour is a deep dive into the artist and his life.
Why do I need to purchase a ticket to Galleria dell’Accademia for my child?
Although admission is free for those under 18, you would have to wait in a separate line upon arrival to prove your child’s age. We typically purchase tickets for everyone on the tour so that we may bypass this line, which can be quite long, and have more time in the museum.
Is the Uffizi Gallery included on this tour?
No, it’s not included. If you’re interested in the Uffizi Gallery, we highly recommend you book our Uffizi Gallery Tour: Crash Course.
What are skip-the-line tickets?
For this tour, your tickets are pre-purchased which allows you to skip the ticket office line upon arrival at the museum. You may still have to wait in a security line or in a line to have your pre-purchased ticket scanned.
Experts
Where You'll Start
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359 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.
We thoroughly enjoyed Michaelangelo in Florence. The small group size made the experience so much more enjoyable and far more interactive. Patricia was an absolute joy, very knowledgable and personable.
I am a total foodie and after the walk ended, Patricia took the time to recommend a number of restaurants in Florence, Lucca and Siena, even checking which ones were closed for August for us. She went above and beyond the call of duty and added immeasurably to the the quality of our eating experiences during the rest of our trip!
Many thanks for a wonderful experience, I will definitely be recommending Context to friends and family.
Elaine
Reviewed on:
Aug 22, 2013
Patricia was fantastic - she kept our personal tour interesting and engaging. We will be asking for her again on our return trips to Florence.
Wende
Reviewed on:
Aug 21, 2013
First off, Siro was very friendly and pleasant. Having been born and raised in Florence, we appreciated his patriotism, as this added to our experience in Italy and Florence as a whole.
Secondly, knowing that I was also interested in the history behind fashion, he also touched on a few points and pointed out a few things that were related to Fashion and that I really appreciated.
Finally, my overall comments. Before I start, I do want to preface that we had two incredible docents in Rome (Simona and Dony) who were phD level docents and who were incredibly passionate, engaging, and philosophical. They were able to take basic comments and history notes and turn it into stimulating discussions on the spot, which could be due to their level of education and ours (Seaver is a physician and I have two masters degrees). We signed up for these tours to interact with folks like this and as expected, it was an incredible experience. Having said that however we probably showed up to our last tour with the same expectations so this prior experience may have skewed or biased our experience in Florence.
Also, having learned so much about Michelangelo in Rome, we were really looking forward to this Florence trip to wrap it all up. This was also the only private tour (since not enough people signed up for this), and sometimes when you pay more for something, your expectations also go up. So please do take the following with a grain of salt and please know that I am only providing this feedback because I think it might be helpful and mean no offense by the following below. I also really liked Siro as a person and will still recommend these tours to our all friends-- dont worry :)
Siro was very pleasant and easy going. Unlike other docents, he spent the first few minutes really getting to know us. He asked a lot of questions about where we were from and how the 4 of us knew each other. This was great, but we were anxious to get the tour and day started. When I asked if he also has his PhD, he joked that he didnt even know what a PhD was and once he found out, he wouldn't be interested in it. Beyond that, he mentioned that the grew up in Florence and worked previously, but I wish he could've talked more about his passion for Florence & the Arts. It would've been nice and comforting if he could've told us how he was qualified to give this tour. I wasnt sure if he fell into the "specialist" category per your website, because I knew he wasnt a "scholar" and didnt have a terminal degree...
Unlike Simona and Dony, he didn't tell us when we could take or not take pictures so we were told by the people in the museums instead. Simona would care so much that she would say something to others who would take pictures inside the Vatican! Now, that is passion for preserving the arts! Little actions like that, says a lot to me about how they feel about the subject matter. Our tours with Simona and Dony, because the were so engaging and interactive, went passed the 4 hrs ( I want to say they were probably 5 or 5.5 hrs long!), while the tour with Siro only lasted about 2.5 hrs vs the 3 hrs. To be fair, he did ask us if we wanted to continue for the full 3 hrs or if we were OK with the 2.5 hrs and we said we were ok.
Aside from small things like that, his knowledge base was good, but not excellent. We felt as if he repeated himself a lot. This tour, was probably not worth all the money we spent and we could've probably have done this without Siro, sadly to say. :( Unlike Simona and Dony who could easily maneuver themselves "off topic" and then back on topic, we felt Siro had almost a script and would read off of it pointing out a few items here and there, but nothing he said we felt couldn't have been read on the description on the side of a piece of art or via an audio tour (should one exist).
Overall, while we really enjoyed Siro's company and found him very pleasant, we were disappointed in quality of the tour as compared to our others in Rome.
I am happy to discuss this further with you all if needed by phone should that be necessary.
Thank you all again! As you can see above, we are thankful for the overall experience but just wanted to provide comments re. our last tour to you all.
Kind regards,
I-Shan & Seaver
I-shan
Reviewed on:
Aug 20, 2013
