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A site symbolic of the culture of Renaissance art, the Horne Museum is a treasure-chest crammed with wonderful masterpieces.
The museum takes its name from the scholar and collector Herbert Percy Horne, who was born in London but fell in love with Florence and made it his home at the end of the nineteenth century. What he has bequeathed to us is a priceless legacy of paintings, sculptures, ceramics, gold and silverware, furnishings, plaques, seals and fabrics.
The most striking aspect of the Horne collection is in fact the unbelievable variety of works and objects which coexist with the utmost consistency and harmony, while also merging perfectly into the display setting in the attractive Palazzo Corsi.
This is a place in which visitors can relive the Florentine past and discover the customs, habits and arts of the city.

In Borgo Santa Croce is the house where the great art historian and artist Giorgio Vasari lived during his last years. The house that he originally rented, which was later given to him by the Grand Duke, has inevitably undergone many modifications and alterations over time.
A wonderful spectacle awaits us in the only room which has remained intact in its original version, known as the “Sala Grande” (or Great Hall): the walls splendidly frescoed by Vasari and his assistants.
These show images related to the subject of the arts, indicating the supremacy over all the others of the art of painting.
The theme is elaborated through scenes drawn from the writings of Pliny, complete with allegorical images and portraits of the artists whose praises Vasari sung in his famous work “Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects”. Consequently it is an extremely evocative place, newly restored to splendour through lengthy recent restoration.

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The Oltrarno is the part of the city that developed on the south bank of the river. At length considered representative of genuine popular life in the city district, it now conserves all the charm of authenticity in an area packed with art, trattorias and craft workshops. The perfect distance from the old city centre has defended the soul of the “Diladdarno”, as it has always been known by the Florentines who see it as a real and vibrant area. Even now it features the greatest concentration of craft enterprises and antique dealers; the market is still held every Sunday morning and the atmosphere continues to be that of a typical “quartiere”.

Crossing Via De’ Serragli and its beautiful Renaissance and Baroque palazzi, together we discover the way the ancient convents and hospitals have now become delightful little theatres or artists’ studios. Finally we arrive in Via Romana, which as the name suggests is the road leading to Rome, along the route followed by the pilgrims heading towards the Holy Land. Here we also find the Museo della Specola, one of the most original museums in Florence in view of its zoological collections and the famous anatomical waxworks. It was the very first Museum of Physics and Natural History, set up in 1775 by Peter Leopold of Lorraine.

Just a few steps away, also in Via dei Serragli, is the Atelier degli Artigianelli.
It was founded in 1899 as a nursery school for orphaned craft apprentices, and the very first craft workshops were opened here just three years later in 1902 and entrusted to “gifted and intelligent workers”.
Today this institute can be described as a real casket of history and culture which is by now an integral part of the collective memory and the tradition of the San Frediano district.
Here we can discover the ancient techniques connected with artistic paper processing: special paper products, artistic bookbinding, reproduction of marbled and decorated paper as well as the restoration of antique paper and books.

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Via de’ Serragli in Florence is an intriguing street, packed with art and curiosities. In addition to being one of the most important links between the old city centre and Porta Romana, the area bordering on the old city walls, it has also witnessed great changes over time. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries this part of the city underwent extensive redevelopment and new palazzi were constructed. In fact, after the Grand Ducal court moved to Palazzo Pitti all the most prominent families in the city entered into competition to acquire the best plots of land so that they could build splendid residences close to the palace of the Grand Dukes, in a gesture that was symbolic of power and social prestige.

This itinerary takes us along almost the entire length of the street, allowing us to admire Renaissance palazzi and also what were once the convents and the monasteries. In the adjacent Via Santa Maria stands the former convent of San Vincenzo di Annalena, which in the early nineteenth century became what is still the Teatro Goldoni. A little further on we come to what was previously the Cinema Goldoni, where in the 1960s Vittorio Gassman ran his theatre workshop.

A succession of splendid Baroque palazzi line the entire route – Palazzo Rinuccini, Palazzo Antinori and Palazzo Ricasoli – and we can see the broad low arches of the entrance doors where the carriages entered. Finally we come to the Torrigiani Villa and Garden, one of the largest green areas of Florence in the form of a park of almost twenty-five acres that is conserved like a precious gem. The garden surrounding the stunning sixteenth-century residence is the largest green area inside the city walls. It is also an expression of complex masonic symbolism, with grottoes, towers, sculptures and initiation itineraries: a supreme example of the Romantic style of the early nineteenth century.

The craft workshop of Duccio Banchi is an institution in the Oltrarno area. Practically from time immemorial the ancient art of working bronze has been passed on here from father to son, from master to pupil.

Duccio helps us to discover the unbelievable pliancy of this material, and his words also convey to us the passion he brings to the forging of each individual object. Here the only risk we run is that of losing ourselves amidst the shapes, styles and stories of this most singular craft workshop.

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The facade of San Lorenzo has a curious history and, although incomplete, it is much loved by the Florentines.
It was indeed intended to be finished with a marble facing, and in 1515 a competition was announced that involved architects of the calibre of Raphael, Jacopo Sansovino and Giuliano da Sangallo.

Even Michelangelo produced five designs for the facade of San Lorenzo, although the reasons why none was ever realised remain unknown.
The Old Sacristy, completed in 1428, features a simple and austere spatial concept, underscored by the use of pietra serena sandstone showing off the structural components.
In the Treasury of San Lorenzo and the recently-renovated basement areas we can admire the liturgical accessories and precious reliquaries belonging to the basilica.
Also in the crypt are the tomb of Giovanni di Bicci, the monumental tomb of Cosimo il Vecchio, the tombstone in honour of Donatello and five panels with drawings by Jacopo da Pontormo.

The Chapter Archive consists of manuscript volumes in parchment with leather bindings.
Access to what is one of the most complete and complex documentary records of the Florentine diocese is through the fourteenth-century cloister.

Originally the cloisters overlooked the residences of the canons and the prior and the areas used for communal life, such as the kitchen, the refectory and the chapter room.
The smaller cloister, probably dating to the end of the fourteenth century, represents the oldest part of the monumental complex, the only one that has preserved the features of the building prior to Brunelleschi.

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DISCOVER THE WORLD OF FLORENTINE CRAFTSMANSHIP!

There’s another more unusual Florence which lives and works off the classic tourist routes.
There are small craft workshops that are a precious casket of history, art and life.
There’s a Florence just waiting to be discovered: the Florence of the craft workshops!

You can choose between our half-day and full-day tours:

Half day (3h)
-Via De' Serragli: discover a bronzesmith, a fashion atelier and a goldsmith designer
-The Oltrarno: the Florentine goldsmithery tradition, decorated paper and a tea workshop
-San Frediano's neighborhood: decorated paper, vivaciuos jewels, and fashion boutiques
-Via Tornabuoni's fashion: unique jewels, magnificent hats, household linens and lingerie
-Ponte Vecchio's magic: discover artistic perfumes, silver creations and the “Scagliola” technique
-Santa Croce: Horne Museum, a Florentine perfumery and the “Leatherworking school”
-Santo Spirito's neighborhood: cabinetmaking and frames, bijoux and fashion boutiques
-Florentine leather: Salvatore Ferragamo Museum, bespoke footwear and the “Leatherworking school”
-Golden Oltrarno: goldmith's shops and the “Tesoro dei Granduchi” Museum
-Florentine's fragrance: perfumeries, spice shops and ancient apothecaries

Full Day (6h)
-Ponte Vecchio's magic: artistic perfumes, silver creations, the “Scagliola” technique and the “Tesoro dei Granduchi” Museum
-San Lorenzo's neighborhood: a goldsmith's shop, frames, mosaics and the ancient “Commesso fiorentino”
-Piazza Pitti: mosaics, “Tesoro dei Granduchi” Museum, a goldsmith's shop and the “Jewellery's school”
-San Niccolò: bespoke footwear, a goldsmith's atelier and the “Bardini Museum, Villa and Garden”
-Santa Croce: Horne Museum, Casa Vasari Museum, a Florentine perfumery and the “Leatherworking school”
-Florentine fashion: Salvatore Ferragamo Museum, bespoke footwear, lingerie and household linens

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The Tesoro dei Granduchi, or the Medici Treasury (ex Argenti Museum), occupies the ground and mezzanine floors of the magnificent Palazzo Pitti.
This museum is a casket containing priceless treasures: collections of rare and precious objects which were collected over the centuries by the Grand Dukes of Tuscany.
Together we will discover the magnificent vases in semi-precious stones that belonged to Lorenzo il Magnifico and the sixteenth-century pieces executed by the Mannerist artists, finally arriving at the collection of amber brought to Florence by Maria Maddalena d’Austria.
After this, our exploration continues with the collections of glyptics and Medici jewellery.
The silverware after which the museum was named comes from what was called the Salzburg Treasury, that is the collection belonging to the bishops of Salzburg brought to Florence by Ferdinand III of Lorraine in 1815.

A visit to this museum is an enchanting journey through time embellished by precious artefacts and objects of everyday use. These illustrate the consummate skill of gifted craftsmen and the sophistication of the commissioners, as well as the extraordinary wealth and refined taste of the Medici dynasty.

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