Fabulous Frescoes & Hidden Treasures

San Marco, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Palazzo Davanzati

Duration: 4 hours

This private tour is not only for lovers of frescoes, but for lovers of Florence in general as we visit places that are often overlooked, quite simply as the list of things to do in the city is too long!

We visit a monastery, the first Medici renaissance palace, a little chapel of a local confraternity & a merchant’s house from the 1300s. We start the walking tour visiting the Dominican monastery of San Marco, a masterpiece of renaissance architecture & outstanding example of artistic & political patronage by the Medici family, where the cells are frescoed by the great master & fellow friar Beato Angelico.

We continue to the Medici Palace, the prototype model for palatial architecture for the 1400s in Italy, with an exquisitely frescoed cavalcade depicting the three Magi. Afterwards we visit the St Martin Chapel of the Florentine confraternity, which is frescoed with delightful street scenes of Florence during the renaissance.

Finally we finish with a virtual step back into time, with a tour of Palazzo Davanzati – a house from the 1300s, full of furniture and frescoed decoration, which brings to life how a family lived six hundred years ago. If you choose this tour on a day when one of the sites is closed we will substitute the closed site with Santa Maria Novella Church or Palazzo Vecchio.

Meeting point

In front of the entrance to the San Marco monastery in piazza San Marco next to the San Marco Church.

Please note: If the tour is booked on a day when San Marco is closed and it is substituted with another site, the meeting place will be different.

All tours that we organise are private. We do not organise group tours.

The cost for the 4 hour tour

520€  when you book for up to 5 people

600€  when you book for 6-9 people

680€ when you are booking for 10 or more people

ADMISSION FEES to sites not included in the hourly rate. Admission fees to be paid on the day at the ticket office with guide.

Under 18 years are free to state and council run museums (San Marco, Palazzo Davanzati, Palazzo Vecchio) and are eligible for reduced ticket admission at other places. An original passport or, a paper or digital copy, of passport is necessary to show as proof of age at the ticket office of each museum.

Headset hire 

Groups greater than 6 people will require headsets, necessary for most of the museums and recommended for city walks due to surrounding noise.

Freya’s Florence will book these in advance and they will be distributed at the beginning of the tour and used for the entire duration of the tour. For parties of 10 people and less the total cost for a half day tour is 25€ or for a full day tour the cost is 50€.

For parties greater than 10pax the cost of the headsets per person is 2.50€ for a half day tour and 5€ per person for a full day tour.

Payment

Payment for the tour can be made in cash at the end of the tour directly to the guide, or via paypal with an additional 5% to cover the paypal fees. Tours booked within ten days of the date of the tour must be paid in advance by PayPal.

Cancellation Policy

Cancellations made less than 48hours prior to the tour start time require full payment.

Cancellations made within a week of your tour date will require half payment.

Museum opening times

Each of the museums included in this tour have differing days when they are closed.

The days of the week when all three places are open are: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday,Saturday.

On Wednesday when the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi museum is closed we will include the Santa Maria Novella Church and cloister complex.

On the 2nd + 4th Sunday and the 1st + 3rd + 5th Monday of the month when the Palazzo Davanzati is closed we will include the Palazzo Vecchio if the tour is booked on Sunday and the Santa Maria Novella Church if it is on Monday.

On the 1st + 3rd + 5th Sunday and the 2nd + 4th Monday of the month when the san Marco monastery is closed we will include the Palazzo Vecchio if the tour is booked on a Sunday and the Santa Maria Novella Church if it is on Monday.

Dress code

Appropriate clothing for entering the churches during summer months:

Shoulders must be covered and skirts or shorts no higher than the top of the knee in churches.