TOURISM

THE "UFFIZI GALLERY"
The UFFIZI GALLERY is one of the gratiest museums in Italy and the world. The Uffizi were intended to house the offices of the famous Medici family (Uffizi = offices). From the beginning, however, the Medici set aside certain rooms to house the finest works from their collections.
Today the Uffizi contains masterpieces by Italian and foreign artists from the 13th to the 18th century, such as Cimabue, Giotto, Masaccio, Beato Angelico, Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Piero della Francesca, Raphael, Caravaggio, along with Rubens, Rembrandt, Dürer, Goya and many others.
The Vasari Corridor (Corridoio Vasariano) that connects the Uffizi Gallery with the Pitti Palace hosts a rich collection of self-portraits by past and present artists. Built by Vasari in 1565, it passes above the Ponte Vecchio, the "Old Bridge" (infact the oldest bridge in the city), with its many jewelry shops.
Address: Loggiato degli Uffizi, 6
Opening times: Tuesday - Sunday from 8.15 to 19.00
Phone: 055 238 8683 / Reservations phone: 055 294 883
Ticket: Euro 8,00 / Euro 4,00 for European citizens over 18 and under 25
Website: http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/musei/uffizi

THE "ACADEMY GALLERY
"The ACADEMY GALLERY ("Galleria dell'Accademia") is one of the best known museums in Florence, because it houses famous sculptures by Michelangelo, including the "David", "The four prisoners" and the "Pieta of Palestina". There are also many paintings collected by the Grand Duke Peter Leopold to help the young Florentine artists, enrolled in the Academy of Arts school which is still next door to the gallery.
Address: Via Ricasoli, 58-60
Opening times: Tuesday - Sunday from 8.15 to 18.50
Phone: 055 238 8609 / Reservations phone: 055 294 883
Ticket: Euro 6,50
Website: http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/musei/accademia

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM "IL BARGELLO"
The NATIONAL MUSEUM "IL BARGELLO" has its setting in one of the oldest buildings in Florence and one of the most beautiful in Italy, which was begun in 1255. Initially the residence of the "Bargello" or head of police spies, from which it took its name, the building's use as a National Museum began in the mid-nineteenth century. What the Uffizi offers in painting, the Bargello offers in sculpture and its courtyard and interiors contain some of the masterpieces of the Tuscan Renaissance. It contains masterpieces by Brunelleschi, Michelangelo, Cellini, Giambologna and Donatello alognwith priceless ivories, enamels, jewels, tapestries and weapons.
Address: Via del Proconsolo, 4
Opening times: Everyday from 8.15 to 13.50
Phone: 055 238 8606 / Reservations phone: 055 294 883
Ticket: Euro 4,00
Website - http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/musei/bargello

THE MUSEUM OF "SAN MARCO"
It is worth visiting the setting of the MUSEUM OF SAN MARCO for its architecture alone. This consists of the former Dominican convent restored and enlarged to its present size for Cosimo the Elder de' Medici by his favourite architect Michelozzo (1396-1472). This building was the scene of fervent religious activity, highlighted by personalities such as Beato Angelico (1400-1450) and, later, Gerolamo Savonarola.
Fra' Angelico was a Dominical monk who later became Prior of the convent and who decorated in a style perfectly adapted to the architecture of the chapter house, cloister and the brothers' first floor cells. The museum offers the visitor an example of a perfectly preserved fifteenth century convent, its rational and harmonious plan based on Brunelleschi's innovations.
Everything is designed to coordinate and simplify the monastic life within its walls as much in its calm cloister as in the light-filled library, one of the finest interiors of the Renaissance. On the other hand, the the museum also contains the works of Fra' Angelico in the form of frescoed interiors and the panels displayed in the large alms-house. The museum also has a very beautiful Last Supper frescoed by Ghirlandaio at the end of the fifteenth century, and, in its first public library of the Renaissance, a fine series of illuminated manuscripts.
Address: Piazza San Marco 3
Opening times: Monday - Friday from 8.15 to 13.50; Saturday and Sunday from 8.15 to 18.50
Phone: 055 238 8608 / Reservations phone: 055 294 883
Ticket: Euro 4,00
Website - More info: http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/musei/sanmarco/

THE MUSEUM OF THE "CATHEDRAL"
The MUSEUM OF THE CATHEDRAL ("Museo dell'Opera del Duomo") houses artworks from the Gothic Cathedral, the Baptisty and the Tower of Giotto (campanile). The most important works in the museum are by Michelangelo ("Pietà"), Donatello ("Mary Magdalen"), Arnolfo di Cambio ("Boniface VIII") and Luca della Robbia ("Cantoria").
Address: P.za Duomo
Phone: 055 230 2885

THE MUSEUM OF THE "HISTORY OF THE SCIENCE"
The MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF THE SCIENCE houses an important collection of scientific instruments in a carefully arranged layout, the proof that Florence's interest in science from the thirteenth century onwards was as great as its interest in art. It was the interest of the Medici and Lorraine families in the natural sciences, physics and mathematics which prompted them to collect precious and visually beautiful scientific instruments along with paintings and other objects of art and natural curiosities; this provided the nucleus for this museum. It is well-known that Cosimo I and Francesco de' Medici encouraged the scientific and artistic researches carried out in the Grand Ducal workshops, but also members of the Medici family in the seventeenth century protected and personally followed physics experiments in the full light of Galileo's method. Very important the original scientific instruments used by Galileo Galilei.
Address: P.za Giudici, 1
Phone: 055 265 311
Ticket: Euro 6,50
Website - More info: http://galileo.imss.firenze.it

GALLERY OF THE "HOSPITAL OF THE INNOCENTS"
The GALLERY OF THE "HOSPITAL OF THE INNOCENTS" is set in one of the best known and most important architectural complexes of the early fifteenth century in Florence. This was commissioned and financed by the Arte della Lana to the designs of Filippo Brunelleschi. The "hospital" aimed to raise abandoned children and teach them some useful trade enabling them to take their place in society. In the buildings of the refectory, cloisters, dormitories, infirmary, nurses' rooms and porticoes, Brunelleschi created a perfect example of rational and harmonious hospital architecture subsequently enlarged and decorated with frescoes documenting the continuing activities of the institution and the favours of the reigning Medici family. After the 1966 flood, the entire complex of buildings was completely restored in an attempt to return to its original fifteenth century appearance. The Gallery is placed in the loggia above the cloister and in the former dayroom of the children above the main portico. The Gallery contains also fine works of a collections made up over the centuries by gifts, bequestes and loans, apart from works, specifically executed for the Innocenti itself.
Address: Piazza SS. Annunziata, 12
Opening times: Everyday (except Wednesday, closed) from 8.15 to 14
Phone: 055 249 1708
Ticket: Euro 2,50

Palatine Gallery
Address: Pitti Palace - Piazza Pitti, 1
Opening times: weekdays 8,30 - 18,50; holydays and Sundays 8,30 - 18,50 Saturdays 8,30 - 22,00
Phone: 055 238 8614 / Reservations phone: 055 294 883
Ticket: Euro 6,00

The Pitti Palace and Monumental Apartments
Address: Pitti Palace - Piazza Pitti, 1
Opening times: weekdays 8,30 - 18,50; holydays and Sundays 8,30 - 18,50 Saturdays 8,30 - 22,00
Phone: 055 238 8614 / Reservations phone: 055 294 883

"Cappelle Medicee"
Address: Via Madonna degli Aldobrandini, 6
Opening times: Monday to Friday, from 8.15 to 17; weekdays, from 8.15 to 13.50
Phone: 055 238 8602 / Reservations phone: 055 294 883
Ticket: Euro 4,00

Dante's House
Address: via Santa Margherita, 1
Opening times: Every day (except Wed.), from 3.30 to 12.30 and from 15.30 to 18.30
Phone: 055 219416
Ticket: Euro 2,50

Cenacolo di Sant'Apollonia
Address: via XXVII Aprile, 1
Opening Times: Every day (except Monday), from 8.15 to 13.50Phone: 055 388 607
Ticket: Free

"Specula" Museum
Address: Via Romana, 17
Phone: 055 222 451

National Archeological Museum
Address: Via della Colonna, 38
Opening Times: Monday from 14 to 19; Tuesday and Thursday from 8.30 to 19; Wed. Friday and weekends from 8.30 to 20
Phone: 055 235 75
Ticket: Euro 4,13

Orsammichele Museum
Address: Via Arte della Lana
Phone: 055 284 944

Della Ragione Modern Art Collection
Address: Complesso delle Oblate, via Sant'Egidio
Opening Times: Wed. to Mon. from 9 to 14; closed Tuesday
Phone: 055 283 078
Ticket: Euro 2,00