Description
Florence keeps an exceptional artistic heritage which is a marvelous evidence of its aged culture. Cimabue and Giotto, the fathers of Italian painting, lived in Florence as well as Arnolfo di Cambio and Andrea Pisano, renewers of architecture and sculpture; Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio forefathers of the Renaissance operated in Florence, Lorenzo Ghibertiand the Della Robbia worked in Florence, Filippo Lippi and Beato Angelico were based in Florence; Sandro Botticelli,Paolo Uccello made of Florence their home and the universal genius of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarrotiare surely the 2 names to which Florence is more commonly associated to.
Their works, together with those of many other generations of artists up to the artists of our century, are gathered in the several Florence museums of the town: the Uffizi gallery, the most selected gallery in the world and main Florence museum, the Palatina gallery with the paintings of the “Golden Ages”.
The Bargello national museum, once the political building of Florence with the sculptures of the Renaissance, the museum of San Marco with Angelico’s works, the Academy gallery, the chapels of the Medicis once the rulers of Florence,Buonarroti’s house with the sculptures of Michelangelo, the following Florence museums: Bardini, Horne, Stibbert, Romano, Corsini, The Gallery of Modern Art, The museum of the Opera del Duomo, the museum of Silverware and the museum of Precious Stones. Florence boasts many other great monuments and landmarks of its artistic culture: the Baptistry with its mosaics and the the incredible Paradise golden door; Florence Cathedral with its sculptures, the medieval churches with bands of frescoes; public as well as private palaces: Palazzo Vecchio, Palazzo Pitti, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Palazzo Davanzati; monasteries, cloisters, refectories; the “Certosa“.In fact the Florence is so rich in art that some first time visitors experience the Stendhal syndrome as they encounter its art for the first time.
We invite you to join us in a marvelous discovery trip of the treasures of Tuscany. Our itinerary includes: Medicean Villa of Castello, Medicean Villa La Petraia, Medicean Villa Demidoff and Pratolino Park.
Our Driver/guide will pick you up at your hotel to head towards some of the most enchanted Villas and gardens in and around Florence. These are some of the 18 villas The Medici family, the so called “royal family” of Florence built during their political ruling as their summer residences. The Medici were the reason that such a magnificent scientific, artistic, philosophical, political Movement called Renaissance took place to make this city the craddle of Western civilization during the 14th and 15th hundreds.Leaving such a mark in the history of culture that still today millions of people come to visit Florence and wonder how has it been possible for such a number of geniuses to create so much beauty.
Villa of Castello.
Bought in the late 15th century by the Magnificent Laurence. It is today the site of the office of the Italian Language heritage. It is not open to pubblic visits but our main destination is the outstanding italian garden.
The most beautiful of them all. It is a terraced one, climbing up the hill for a number of three levels built in the early 16th century under the supervision of Niccolo’ Tribolo . Some of the wonderful statues include “Hercules and Anteo”and the bronze statue of “the Appennine” by the 15een hundred artist Bartolomeo Ammannati. It is half way to the top of the garden that the highlight of the garden is situated. The “Animals grotto”by Tribolo and Vasari. A very richly decorated fountain inside the mount. It is made up of such advanced, water games created to entertain you Today as it did hundreds of years ago. Not too far from here is another magnificent villa: La Petraia. Built in the 13een hundreds for the Brunelleschi family it became a Medici residence in the 15een hundreds.We will visit the Fortress like villa and its gardens. If you decide to make it a full day, it is now time for lunch. We will take you to an exquisite trattoria (casual home made kitchen restaurant) under the cypresses and olive trees shade. For you to experience what kind of simple Peasant food the people back in the past centuries just like today fed upon to make a meal Much more than just a way of nourishment.
Villa La Pietraia
Villa La Petraia is one of the Medici villas in Castello, Florence, Tuscany, central Italy. It has a distinctive 19th-century belvedere on the upper east terrace on axis with the view of Florence. In 1364, the “palace” of Petraia belonged to the family Brunelleschi until in 1422 Palla Strozzi bought it and expanded it by buying the surrounding land. In the first half of the sixteenth century, the villa became the property of the Salutati, who then sold the villa to Cosimo I de’ Medici in 1544, who gave it to his son, Cardinal Ferdinando in 1568. Then from 1588, there was a decade of extensive excavation works which transformed the “stony” nature of the place (hence the name in Petraia, that is full of stones) into dramatic sequence of terraces dominated by the massive main building. It is traditionally attributed to Bernardo Buontalenti, even though the only documented certainty is the presence on site of Raphael Pagni.
The Villa remained in the ownership of the Medici family until their extinction, when it passed to the Grand Dukes of Habsburg-Lorraine. Leopold II laid out the Romantic style garden park to the north, but otherwise few changes were made. From 1860 the estate came into the ownership of the House of Savoy, becoming one of Victor Emmanuel II‘s favourite residences. During this time the central courtyard was given a glass roof and an aviary was constructed.[1] The Villa was transferred to the Italian state in 1919 and is now a museum.
It is now time to return to Florence not forgetting to take one last picture of this garden of Eden.
