Historic Tour

Simonetta Vespucci Cattaneo, a captivating figure of the Italian Renaissance, was born in 1453 into a prominent Florentine family. Renowned for her unparalleled beauty and elegance, Simonetta became a muse for renowned artists of her time, such as Sandro Botticelli and Piero di Cosimo. Her timeless allure is immortalized in masterpieces like Botticelli’s “The Birth …

Next to Dante’s alleged house in the homonymous street, a place with a great story behind him in the square of S.Martino. It is a place founded by a famous painter of the time, Mariotto Albertinelli. Born in Florence on October 13, 1474 from Biagio by Bindo Albertinelli, he began his career before in the shop of the goldsmith’s father and subsequently in that of Cosimo Rosselli.

In the heart of Florence, narrow in the streets that pulsate with history and secrets, there is via dell’ Inferno, ” Hell street ” an alley that many passers -by cross without noticing, distracted by the surrounding beauty of the city. However, this place hides a forgotten story, a plot that is intertwined with the fate of those who dared to travel it after sunset. It is said that centuries ago, via dell’ Inferno was the favorite passage from a mysterious character known as the craftsman of the shadows.

Towards the end of the 1600s, Grand Duke Cosimo III had created in his residence of Palazzo Pitti, an area used as a small zoo, where “very rare animals conducted by the most remote regions were placed …” as in other European courts, also the family Of the doctors, he wanted to create a mènagerie (in Italian Serraglio, derives from the Latin Serraculum indicating a enclosure or closed part) practically a structure consisting of a series of cages or fences, where animals and birds were held.

The double copper circular track in via del Proconsolo has a fascinating history: it is the fruit of the excavations of the eighties and nineties, which have brought to light a tower and a stretch of the Roman walls.

In some research something unique and original was discovered in the Florentine archives, a very particular anecdote. It is a somewhat bizarre detail in some respects but very normal for the period in which this writing was drawn up. In practice, the writing reveals the presence of cats inside the Florentine Cathedral.

Thus the major advice of the Signoria deliberates the construction of a public loggia: it is the Loggia dei Priori better known with the Loggia dei Lanzi or the orcagna. Before building the loggia there was an environment where some lions symbol par excellence of the city of Fiorenza were kept in captivity, subsequently everything was turned with enormous pillars in order to support the real loggia.