Medici Discovery Walk with Medici Chapels Entry, Florence

Your discovery walk begins in one of Florence's oldest neighborhoods and the historic center of Medici influence: the San Lorenzo district. Starting at Palazzo Medici Riccardi, the imposing residence commissioned by the Medici family, and widely considered Florence's first Renaissance palace, you'll admire its elegant architecture as your guide shares stories of the family's rise to power, their immense wealth, and the calculated alliances that secured their dominance. 

Nearby, you'll stand before the Basilica of San Lorenzo, the family's official church, and the attached Medici Chapels, the final resting place for nearly 50 members of the dynasty. As influential patrons of the arts, you'll step inside to discover how the Medici supported some of Italy's greatest Renaissance masters (like Brunelleschi, Donatello, and Michelangelo), transforming Florence into one of Europe's cultural capitals, as further evidenced by the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (the Duomo), crowned by Brunelleschi's iconic red-tiled dome, and your next stop. 

Carrying on, you'll explore Piazza della Repubblica and walk down Via dei Medici, where the family first established themselves after arriving from the Tuscan countryside, followed by Palazzo Vecchio, one of the Medici family's most important residences and the site of one of Florence's most infamous betrayals, the Pazzi Conspiracy. You'll then stroll the arcaded walkway of the Uffizi toward Ponte Vecchio, learning the secrets of the Vasari Corridor en route, the passageway that connects Palazzo Vecchio with your final stop over the Arno: the grand Palazzo Pitti, and the Medici family's main home.