Florence: in the footsteps of the Medici

Arrive independently at your hotel. Accommodation in a new-style room accessible with breakfast at the 4 * Grand Hotel Mediterraneo (parking available with supplement)

Grand Mediterranean hotel
On the Lungarno of Florence, a few meters from Ponte San Niccolò, 327 rooms are equipped with the most modern comforts and services which cam let you try the best of Florentine hospitality.
A contemporary style, welcoming spaces characterized by comfort and functionality and an excellent restaurant lend themselves perfectly to a leisure stay.
Grand Hotel Mediterraneo has ten rooms accessible to all, without architectural barriers and equipped with a wider entrance, bathrooms and showers with supports in accordance with the law. The accessible rooms are of the New Style type.
Access to the hotel is equipped with a mobile ramp, in the "South Wing" it is possible to access the main hall even with particularly heavy equipment and aids, thanks to the platforms and elevators capable of supporting up to 530 kg.

Many services also designed for guests with visual impairments: audio guide in Italian and English, lifts with numbers in Braille, accompaniment to the room by the reception staff, and much more. Guide dogs are welcome.

Meeting with the guide for a brief introduction to travel and a walking tour around the hotel to provide reference points for customers, report some points of interest nearby and how to reach them independently.

Breakfast and independent transfer to the Basilica of San Miniato al Monte, on request it is possible to book an accessible taxi.

On the Monte di San Miniato, the sacred Florentine hill theater of miraculous and legendary events, we will visit the Romanesque church of San Miniato. Founded in 1018, the church is still there:intact and unchanged by time, with its ancient shapes and its characteristic marble decorations to tell of a distant past.
From the magnificent terrace below dedicated to the genius of the Renaissance, Piazzale Michelangelo, the gaze will open onto the narrow valley, dwelling on bell towers, towers and Brunelleschi's Dome, "Structura is large, rising above and 'skies, wide to cover all with its shadow and Tuscan peoples. "
The descent to the historic center will be a gentle walk, among gardens and groves full of plants and flowers: the nineteenth century was the golden century of public gardens and city entertainment and with Florence, the capital of the Kingdom, a wonderful place for strolling was created. crowned by one of the most beautiful fountains in Florence.
The meeting with the Arno river happened suddenly, crossing the ancient gate of San Niccolò, once the defensive bulwark of the city.
Following the Lungarni with its elegant buildings and its ancient bridges. We will tell about the Arno, joy and pain, wealth and misery of the Florence of the past, until the tragic flood of November 4, 1966.
After crossing the river we will be at the entrance of the ancient center of Florence, between alleys, chiassi and medieval squares to get to the oldest heart of the city: the ancient Roman amphitheater, stage for gladiator games and terrible clashes between ferocious beasts and slaves Christians. Its remains are still there to be discovered, hidden in the medieval city landscape, along a "twisted" road that will lead us to our last stop. The grandiose square of Santa Croce, where the Franciscans had their church built.

Free lunch and return to the hotel on your own.

Free dinner and overnight stay.

Breakfast, check-out and meeting with the guide at Piazza San Lorenzo for the last excursion.

Following in the footsteps of an ancient family, powerful and very rich that in its 4 centuries of domination has redesigned the face of Florence, is a unique and unrepeatable experience.
Who were the Medici? how did they become so rich and powerful so to became the Grand Dukes of Florence and all of Tuscany? What was their city like? These are the questions that will guide us on our journey.

Their home was the first great palace in Florence, envied and copied by all the important families who competed to overcome it in magnificence. Our journey will start from their palace, Palazzo Medici Riccardi.
If there is a family palace, there is also a need for a family church, where to celebrate weddings, make official investitures and even funerals. And here, the Basilica of San Lorenzo, much more than the Medici church. It is the first cathedral in Florence, founded in the 4th century AD, rebuilt several times up to the latest version, the one we see today, designed by the brilliant architect Brunelleschi.
But if San Lorenzo was the first cathedral in Florence, it means that another was built.
And in fact the second stop will be in the Piazza del Duomo, the religious heart of the city.
A treasure chest of art that preserves some of the most beautiful treasures in the world.
The Romanesque Baptistery of San Giovanni with its theory of white and green marbles, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore with the famous brick dome, Brunelleschi's masterpiece and on which it is said the Medici banquets and invited their most illustrious guests and then Giotto's bell tower, which with its almost 100 meters high, dominates the entire city.
Walking through the alleys behind the cathedral, we will immerse ourselves in medieval suggestions, we will see the ancient tower houses of the Florentine families among which the Alighieri family is still recognizable,expecially the one where Dante was born.
Traces of the Florentine Arts are still visible in the neighborhood, the ancient guilds that held absolute power for centuries, until the arrival of the Medici; and it is precisely in one of these ancient Arts that the Medici family will begin its relentless rise.
A few steps away there is our last stop, Piazza della Signoria, an open-air museum and political heart of the city, with the imposing palace-castle, Palazzo Vecchio, once the seat of the free Florentine republic and of the Arts, then condemned to become the private palace of the Medici when they became the Lords of Florence in 1550.

Return on your own.