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 of the 4 hour tour

€560 for parties of 1-5 people (excluding admission fees)
€640 for parties of 6-9 people (excluding admission fees)
€720 for parties of 10 people or more (excluding admission fees)

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 of 4 or more 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 up to 15 people the total cost for a half day hire is 30€ or for a full day tour the cost is 40€.

For parties greater than 15pax the cost of the individual headset hire for the half-day rental is 30€ + 2€ per person.

Payment

Prepayment is required for guided tour costs. This is done as a security measure so that large sums of cash are not carried or exchanged on the day of the tour. We use a secure payment system provided by SumUP, you do not need to have a SumUP account to use it, you can sign in as a guest and use a credit card. SumUP charges a 2.5% handling/service fee which will be added to your invoice.

Cancellation Policy

Cancellations or date changes made less than 1 week prior to the tour start time require full payment. Cancellations or date changes made within 2 weeks of your tour date will require half payment. Tours proceed in inclement weather. Museum reservation fees and pre-purchased tickets are non-refundable. SumUP handling/service fees are non-refundable.

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.