Immerse Yourself in Art in Florence

Think Florence and it's impossible not to think art. This birthplace of the Renaissance is home to the Uffizi Gallery, with its plethora of Renaissance masterpieces, and the Galleria dell' Accademia, which houses Michelangelo's David. Art lovers can spend every waking hour in Florence marveling at works by Da Vinci, Botticelli, Donatello and Michelangelo. If the classics aren't enough, visitors can also visit living artisan communities and even try their hand at painting and photography.

Numerous tour operators offer skip-the-line tickets to the Uffizi so you can avoid languishing in long queues. But simply getting to the art faster isn't what art immersion in Florence is about. To kick off your experience, choose a guided tour of the main galleries from Artviva, Viator or other major operators. Then visit some of the unknown art gems on Italy Hotline's "Secret Door to Florence: Hidden Jewels of the City" walking tour. Next, hook up with Viator for a visit to Florence's Oltrarno neighborhood with its living, but centuries-old, craft traditions. When you're ready to exercise your own artistic talents, check out Weekend in Italy's classes in marbled paper making, fresco painting, photography and ceramics. Learn more about the city in our Florence travel guide.

Florence Trip Reviews

Florence by Host Ciao

I will admit that I prefer my religious art in churches, but these galleries have a lot of amazing religious paintings. I don’t use an audio guide because I can pretty much read enough Italian to tell what’s in the pictures. When it gets to be too much, I start to play guess the saints before I read the description. I hope nobody minds. I don’t do it to be disrespectful. Some are easy like St. Sebastian with anywhere from 1 to 20 plus arrows, Lucy with her eyes on a plate, Lawrence with his grate, St. Peter Martyr with the knife in his head, St. Peter with his keys and St. Paul with a sword. Read more!

Editor's Note: IndependentTraveler.com is published by The Independent Traveler, Inc., a subsidiary of TripAdvisor, Inc., which also owns Viator.

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Immerse Yourself in Art in Florence