Close-up Florence walking tour and Pitti Palace

Learn why Florence became the birthplace of Renaissance on a 90-minute walking tour of the city’s historical center and a 120-minute tour to Pitti Palace. Enjoy the Uffizi courtyard, the Golden Gates of Paradise and the masterpieces of Raphael and Rubens. This is the ideal tour for art and history lovers alike, made all more the better by your knowledgeable tour guide and coveted skip-the-line access.

On this visit to Florence’s historic center, get to know the city’s origins and more than 2,000 years of Florentine history. You’ll be fascinated by what you see and hear as you walk through the city of Dante, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and other important figures.

At the Piazza della Repubblica your guide will tell you about the city’s Roman origins before you head toward the religious center, where you’ll see the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Baptistery of St. John and Giotto’s Campanile. You’ll walk past an ancient oratory that’s situated adjacent to the house of Dante Alighieri, and then walk through some of the less crowded streets of Florence towards the Ponte Vecchio. Finally, you’ll enter the Piazza Signoria through the Uffizi courtyard. In this main piazza and civic center, you’ll come upon the impressive Palazzo Vecchio and see close-up the famous statues of the Loggia dei Lanzi.

Enjoy skip-the-line access for a fully guided tour of the Palatine Gallery (Galleria Palatina). This is a private collection at Pitti Palace which will take roughly two hours to complete. This private collection is made up of a vast group of paintings owned by the Grand Duke and are displayed in the official staterooms on the first floor of the Pitti Palace. You'll explore the various rooms in the palace including the Planetary Rooms. These rooms were designed by the great Baroque painter Pietro da Cortona and create an overwhelmingly stunning environment of frescoes and stucco. You'll soon find that this beautiful setting provides the perfect background of the superb exhibition of paintings from the Medici collection, including masterpieces by Raphael, Titian, Rubens and VanDijk.