A G: Italy Day 7 - Florence Day 1 Part 2 by Aaron, Renaissance Tour and Medici Tour

Renaissance Tour and Medici Tour

~ Aaron

Renaissance Tour at Duomo Florence, Signoria and Ponte Vecchio

I enjoyed 2 tours during my first day in Florence. I first learned about how the Renaissance started in Florence. Learning about the Medici family was very interesting. These were great tours!

The Renaissance drove the Middle Ages out of Europe, and started modern times. This movement started in Florence. During the tour, we also saw the homes of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. In 1425, the city had a population of 60,000 and was able to be an independent city-state. The leaders of the city wanted to restart Roman art. The Medici was one of the families that supported this change, and this is what we learned about in our next tour.

There are many people buried in Santa Croce, including Lorenzo Ghiberti, Galileo Galilei, and Michelangelo. Dante Alighieri has a monument inside the church too. It was started in 1294 and finished in 1442. The church was later rebuilt in 1560. It is the largest Franciscan church in the world.

The Medici was one of the strongest families in Florence. It is amazing to learn that the Medici were first just bankers, and their bank grew stronger as time went by. Their rule over Florence and Tuscany lasted for about 300 years, and many things were invented during this time for the Medici. Just one example is the famous Italian gelato, which was first made back when only very rich people had refrigerators. The Medici had their own walkway connecting important places of Florence with their Pitti Palace high above everyone else. This means that it was harder to kill them while they were traveling. Eventually, the Medici died out because of a disease which was transmitted from the Medici to all of their children.

The tours I participated in were very fun. The history of the start of the Renaissance was very wonderful. I had a fabulous time listening to the story of the Medici family. This was a great da in Florence!