Following Michelangelo footsteps

In the atmospheric setting of the Bargello museum, a medieval palace used as a prison during the 16th century, we will stop in front of several of the earliest works by Michelangelo. The museum also hosts Donatello’s masterpiece, the bronze David, as well as the David by Verrocchio, another outstanding Renaissance work commissioned by the Medici and recently restored. On leaving the Bargello we stroll down the road to look round the imposing church of Santa Croce, where Michelangelo and other distinguished Italians are buried. We will then visit Casa Buonarroti, a Florentine palazzo where the family Buonarroti lived, a place to remember and celebrate the greatness of Michelangelo and where to admire two famous marble relief pieces, sculptured by Michelangelo in his early years: the Madonna della Scala, which clearly shows the passion of this artist for Donatello and the Battle of the Centaurs that echoes the admiration of the artist for classic art. We will then visit the Galleria dell’Accademia where we can admire the original of Michelangelo’s David and his unfinished Prisoners. The tour culminates with the Medici chapel, a family mausoleum, famous for the New Sacristy built by Michelangelo, where you will have the opportunity to admire the statues of the Dukes Lorenzo and Giuliano, the allegories of Dawn and Dusk, Night and Day and the group of Madonna and Child, sculpted by Michelangelo for the Medici.