The Uffizi Gallery in Florence is one of the most important museums in the world, for sure the most visited in Italy, because it preserves masterpieces of artists who have changed the history of art.
Over 1.5 million people visit it every year. The best way to not waste time in line is to book a tour of the Uffizi Gallery with Guided Florence Tours.
Guided Florence Tours will select the most important paintings of the Uffizi Gallery for you, choosing among the more than 2,200 works on display in the museum and the others stored in the deposits.
Guided Florence Tours, thanks to the passion and expertise of its selected guides, has thought of a journey through the most significant works of the Uffizi Gallery, for an unforgettable tour.
During the guided tour you will be told about Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, their life and their works, the technique used, the style, the historical context and the symbolic meanings of the works. We will tell you stories that have led to the creation of masterpieces such as Botticelli’s Primavera (the Spring) and the Birth of Venus, Titian’s Venus of Urbino, Michelangelo’s Tondo Doni, Raphael’s Goldfinch Madonna, Leonardo da Vinci’s Annunciation, Caravaggio’s Medusa.
During the tour of the Uffizi Gallery you will also experience incredible views of the city and the river that, regardless of the time of day and the season, always astonish an impress!
Guided Florence Tours will organize the tour of the Uffizi Gallery in detail. We will take care of you before, during and after the visit.
We will pre-book the entrance to the museum enabling you to skip the long lines. Once inside our guides will show you how to look at a painting so as to completely understand it and when the tour is over we will stay at your disposal for any other type of information you might need.
Remember that the explanation of our guides are easy to follow, interesting and appealing. Our aim is to allow you to soak up the atmosphere of the Uffizi through the highlights of the Gallery so that you will always remember the feeling of absolute and perfect beauty that characterizes this Florentine treasure.
The tour of the Uffizi takes about 2 hours. At the end of the guided tour you can stay inside the museum as long as you like.[/su_spoiler]
Uffizi is still the renaissance Florentine word for “Offices”. They were built thanks of the will of Cosimo I de ‘Medici in 1560. The new Duke of Florence decided to reorganize the Florentine State and therefore needed a building where to gather all the offices, the administration, the Florentine magistrates.
The area where the Uffizi Gallery was built was very degraded. But it was not the only reason why it was chosen. In fact it was right next to Palazzo Vecchio, the residence of the Duke.
This means that Cosimo could very easily check what was happening in the government offices and who was going to there. Therefore the new building was very important in the transformation of the city that Cosimo I had in mind. For this reason he chose for the project and construction of the gallery the greatest architect of the time, Giorgio Vasari.
The works lasted a little longer than expected because in 1565, Cosimo I succeeded in the impossible: to unite in marriage his first-born son, Francesco, with Joanna of Austria!
Also in this case Giorgio Vasari was the right-hand man of Cosimo and for him he built a corridor to unite the palace of power (Palazzo Vecchio) to the new residence that the Medici family had just bought on the other side of the Arno river, Palazzo Pitti.
In 1581 Francesco I, after the death of his father became Duke, decided to close the loggia on the top floor of the building and turn it into a gallery to keep his extraordinary collection of paintings, statues, goldsmiths, medals and inlays of semi-precious stones. Here is the birth of the first museum in the world of modern age.