Social activities & attractions in Florence

After classes are over for the day, our program allows you plenty of time to discover Florence, culture and everyday life.

Our langue courses are supplemented with a wide variety of fascinating opportunities to learn about Italian and local culture.

Activities and visits could include:

Galleria Corsini (private art collection in Florence)
Galleria dell'Accademia (Michelangelo's David)
Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (museum)
Piazza della Signoria
Battistero di San Giovanni
Duomo di Firenze (one of the largest Cathedrals in the world)
Ponte Vecchio (bridge)
Galleria degli uffizi (uffizi gallery)

At the weekend many students can arrange to take optional excursions to local cities or local places of interest. Some of the most popular weekend trips include:

Pisa (the leaning Tower of Pisa
Torre Pendente landmark
Tuscan village of Volterra
Lush olive groves and valleys of Fiesole (8 km's from Florence)
Medieval city of Siena
Local coast with its beaches and small coastal villages

Main attractions in Florence

Galleria degli uffizi (uffizi gallery): The most important art collection in Italy and one of the richest in the world is usually heralded by the burr of foreign tongues as queues of tourists snake across the courtyard. Located in Vasari's majestic Uffizi Palace, it houses the Medici art collection bequeathed to Florence in 1737, on the condition that it never leaves the city.

The impressive resumé of Italian and in particular Florentine art is arranged to illustrate how evolving techniques and ideas influenced the artists. The huge collection is really too big to master at one sitting but visitors with limited time should ensure they take a peek at rooms 7-18, which include some of the city's biggest draws: Botticelli's mythological masterpieces, The Birth of Venus and Primavera (Spring) and Leonardo Da Vinci's Annunciation. Early rooms concentrate on medieval art with a particular bent towards the Sienese school, exemplified by Duccio, Martini and Giotto. The latter end of the gallery features work from the Umbrian and Venetian schools, including Titian, Tintoretto and Raphael.

Piazza del duomo (cathedral square): Brunelleschi's gravity-defying dome dominates the Florence skyline and defines the city. The double-skinned dome that sits atop the city's candy-coloured Duomo (cathedral) was an architectural breakthrough, since Brunelleschi invented an entirely new way of counteracting the weight of the dome, thus building the largest self-supporting dome since classical times.

The cathedral, built under the proviso that it be the largest house of worship in Christendom (a feat eventually claimed by St Peters Cathedral in Rome) took 150 years to complete. Its original façade was pulled down on the orders of Ferdinand I in 1587 and the Duomo remained faceless for nearly 300 years, until 1887. Tall, slender and straight-backed the Campanile (bell tower) is the graceful sidekick to Brunelleschi's stout Duomo. Built according to Giotto's designs in 1334, it was completed after his death by Andrea Pisano and Francesco Talenti.

Galleria dell'accademia: While Florence offers a panoply of artworks, most people associate the city with just one masterpiece, Michelangelo's David. The huge statue occupies pride of place in the city's Accademia Gallery, dwarfing the multitude of chattering tourists who stand in awe before him.

The statue was carved from one block of marble in 1502 when the artist was just 29 years old. Its exaggerated size and musculature is a symbol of the new-born Republic that briefly cast out the Medici - the city's 'Goliath'. Also in the gallery are Michelangelo's unfinished Slaves, which stand captive in blocks of marble from which their forms seem to struggle to escape.

Ponte vecchio: Even the dogs of war could not bring themselves to destroy the Ponte Vecchio, the only bridge to survive the Nazi bombing of Florence during World War II.

These days the famous 14th-century bridge is literally paved with gold - home to Florence's gold and silversmiths - and is a prime shopping trap for the city's affluent tourists. It was Cosimo de Medici who first created the mood for change when he ordered the previous occupants, a motley crew of butchers accustomed to throwing their bloody leftovers into the River Arno, to make room for a more genteel trade.

High above the shops a secret passageway known as the Corrodoio Vasariano links the Uffizi Gallery to the Pitti Palace. Built by Vasari, it was intended to shield the powerful Medici family from the Florentine riff-raff as they journeyed from one palace to the other. Lined with portraits of the city's greatest artists, it reopened to the public in 1997 but opening times are erratic due to staffing problems.

Museo nazionale del bargello: The grim façade of the Palazzo del Bargello, formerly the city's jail and torture chamber, is a daunting introduction to Tuscany's most impressive collection of Renaissance sculpture. Masterpieces by Cellini, Donatello and Michelangelo are arranged over three floors and overflow into the Palace's handsome courtyard - where many a Florentine lost his head.

Santa croce: The elegant Franciscan church of Santa Croce has tended to overwhelm the visitor and is held responsible for the little-known disease, Stendhal's Condition. When the French writer Stendhal visited the church, he suffered a fainting fit brought on by its beauty and apparently it continues to afflict up to 12 visitors a year. Lord Byron reported himself 'drunk with Beauty' at the sight of the church, which is attributed to Arnolfo di Cambio, the architect responsible for the Duomo.

Santa maria novella The zebra-striped façade of Santa Maria Novella, completed by Leon Battista Alberti in 1470, is the starting point of many visitors' tour of Florence. Situated near the city's train station to which it lends its name, the graceful scrolls, Gothic arches and classical pediments combine to form one of Florence's most dramatic façades. Alongside Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella - home to the Dominican order - was the most important church in the city.

Museo di san marco: Rebuilt at the behest of Cosimo de Medici, this Dominican convent was home to Fra Angelico, as well as the fanatical Girolamo Savonarola. Savonarola famously preached damnation upon the Florentines and exhorted them to burn their books and paintings on the Bonfire of the Vanities.

& so much more...............