The museums of Florence

Renaissance painting 101, a cornucopia of Old Masters (Giotto, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, etc.), plus Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Allegory of Spring. One of the world's top galleries... ... » more

So much more than just Michelangelo's David (but, yes, that is here), this fine arts academy houses works by Botticelli, Giambologna, and Andrea del Sarto as well as several more Michelangelo sculptures that are, to many, more interesting than the David: a group half-finished Slaves that showcase the master's carving technique... ... » more

What the Uffizi is to paintings, the Bargello is to sculpture: Donatello, Michelangelo, Giambologna, Ghiberti, Desiderio da Settignano, Agostino di Duccio, Vecchietta, Michelozzo, Luca della Robbia, and many more. ... » more

A half dozen museums (including a killer painting gallery called the Galleria Palatina that acts as a kind of "Uffizi: Part II," covering the late Renaissance and baroque eras) and the lovely landscaped Boboli Gardens. ... » more

[CLOSED UNTIL NOV, 2015] A wonderful little museum hidden behind the cathedral and home to all sorts of works that used to decorate it: to sculptures by Donatello and Michelangelo, Ghiberti's original panels from the Gates of Paradise, and the secrets behind Brunelleschi's revolutionary dome. ...» more

Florence's Town Hall since medieval times, the bits not being used by city government are a testament to the Medici Grand Dukes and their talent for self-aggrandizement (also, the most overlooked Michelangelo sculpture in town). ... » more

The church of San Marco itself is no great shakes—dark and moody, with only a few minor works—but the attached monastery was decorated by its most illustrious resident, the great Renaissance monk and painter Fra' Angelico. It was also later the base of operations for ruling theocrat Girolamo "The Mad Monk" Savonarola... ... » more

Not really a museum (though it hosts many temporary exhibits), but a nice stopover in the main Medici family palace, famous for the chapel with a vibrant, 360-degree fresco by early Renaissance great Benozzo Gozzoli depicting the Procession of the Magi but populated by Medici and other famous Florentines of the age... ... » more

This embarrassingly rich collection is often overlooked by visitors in full-throttle Renaissance mode. It conserves Egyptian artifacts, Roman remains, many Attic vases, and an important Etruscan collection. Parts of it have been undergoing restoration and rearrangement for years and are closed indefinitely, including the garden. ...» more

Wonderful, often-overlooked museum dedicated to the history of scientific inquiry, especially its early flowering in Renaissance Italy—which is to say, there's a whole lot of Galileo memorabilia, from the telescopes he used to discover the moons of Jupiter (which helped bolster his blasphemous theory that the Sun, not the earth, was at the center of our solar system; this got him in deep trouble with the Inquisition) to his shriveled middle finger (what would an Italian institution be without a holy relic of some sort?) A visit makes a great break from all that art... ... » more

Michelangelo's nephew and his descendents, now filled with a few of his earliest, teenaged works. Not a hugely important sight, but an interesting window into the development of the artist as a young man... ... » more

A medieval town home in Dante's old neighborhood (not his actual house) with a tiny museum dedicated to the great poet; honestly, only scholars and confirmed literature nerds will be at all interested... ... » more

Incredible private collection that includes the largest display of Japanese arms and armour known to Europe. The museum was partially rearranged in past decades to try and make some sense out of 57 rooms stuffed with over 50,000 items. More recently, however, the city has come to appreciate this rare example of a private 19th-century museum and is busily setting it all back the way Stibbert originally intended. ...» more

Of the city's several small once-private collections, the one formed by Englishman Herbert Percy Horne and left to Florence in his will has perhaps the best individual pieces. The best works are a St. Stephen by Giotto and Sienese mannerist Domenico Beccafumi's weirdly colored tondo of the Holy Family... » more

Europe's oldest foundling hospital, opened in 1445, is still going strong as a convent orphanage, though times have changed a bit. The lazy Susan set into the wall on the left end of the arcade—where once people left unwanted babies, swivelled it around, rang the bell, and ran—has since been blocked up... » more

In the 16th century, Florentine craftsmen perfected the art of pietre dure (misnamed "Florentine mosaic"), piecing together inlay of cut pieces of precious and semi-precious stones. The Medici founded this institute devoted to the craft in 1588, and while the collection in this museum is small, the pieces are uniformly excellent... » more

Italy has very few zoos, but this is the largest zoological collection, rooms full of insects, crustaceans, and stuffed birds and mammals—everything from ostriches and apes to a rhinoceros. The last 10 rooms contain an important collection of human anatomical wax models crafted between 1775 and 1814 by Clemente Susini for medical students... » more

The Casa Guidi is the Florence home where from 1847 English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning lived with her husband, Robert, moving in just after their secret marriage. One of her msot fmaous poems was "Casa Guidi's WIndows," and she died here in 1861... » more

Inside is a small museum of 14th-century works collected by the Compagnia Maggiore di Santa Maria del Bigallo, a lay confraternity (a medieval good-works association/brotherhood—something like the Shriners). Also get in to see the 1342 Madonna della Misericordia by the school of Bernardo Daddi, which features the earliest known cityscape view of Florence, which includes the original facade of the Duomo as envisioned by Arnolfo di Cambio... » more