Santa Croce and Dante’s neighbourhood

Overview

Florence! exult: for thou so mightily
Hast thriven, that o'er land and sea thy wings
Thou beatest, and thy name spreads over hell.
(Dante, Inferno XXVI, 1-3)

From the Franciscans to Giotto, from Michelangelo to Galileo, from Dante to Foscolo: an artistic and literary tour to discover Florentine genius in the Church of Santa Croce and in locations across Dante’s neighbourhood.

Places

Church of Santa Croce
Pazzi Chapel
Dante Alighieri’s House
Chestnut Tower
Oratorio dei Buonomini

Info

Tour duration: 2,5 hours

The tour consists of an outdoor walk inside the Medieval Neighbourhood with access to the Church of Santa Croce and it’s not available on Sunday morning, when the church is closed. Reservation is recommended for the Santa Croce Church.

The tour is suitable for all visitors although some zones in the church are not suitable for the disabled. We recommend dressing in an appropriate way as we will be visiting holy places.

Fees

Guided visit starting from 150,00 € max 3 hours

The fees do not include museum tickets, transportation costs or the rental of radio systems.

Church of Santa Croce
Regular Tickets: 8,00 €
Reduced Tickets (between 11 and 17 years old, groups of students and groups that include a minimum of 15 people): 6,00 €
Free Entry: under 11 years old

Radio Systems are mandatory for groups over 15 people. On request we can manage their rental.

Reservation: 1,00 € per person, free for groups of students.

By booking this tour we can follow you step by step, helping you to make the reservations for the church and the headsets. If you are planning to visit the museum independently, we recommend reading our BLOG instead.

What to expect

The Church of Santa Croce is one of the most iconic places in Florence not only as the “temple of Italian glories”, according to the famous expression coined by Foscolo, given that it hosts the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli along with many others, but also as a trove featuring many masterpieces among its paintings, sculptures and architectural structures.

During the visit we will first observe the Crucifix by Cimabue, heavily damaged by the last flood which afflicted the city 50 years ago and showing the first traces of the artistic innovations of the Renaissance, before seeing the explosion of these changes in the frescoes painted by Giotto in the transept chapels owned by important Florentine banking families such as the Bardi and the Peruzzi. Here, the artist told the stories of Saint Francis in one chapel and those of John the Baptist and John the Evangelist in the other. The frescoes were later studied by the young Michelangelo, as examples of the amazing innovations first introduced by Giotto in the pictorial language. The itinerary started by Giotto was later fully developed by Donatello, whose magnificent wooden devotional crucifix we will admire, and by Brunelleschi in the new architectural conception of the Pazzi chapel, a Chapter of the Franciscan convent.

The tour will then move onto the medieval streets of the city, towards the heart of the neighbourhood hosting the Alighieri houses. Here we will understand how life worked in Dante’s Florence, which places the poet frequented and how they influenced his life and works. Furthermore, we shall explore how his figure led to a new appreciation for certain corners of the city that will forever be linked to his name.

Some examples are the torre della Castagna, one of the few intact tower houses in the city, and the Oratorio dei Buonomini, which is still today active and testifies the values of a society capable of applying its faith in the creation of charity institutions to aid those in need.