Meeting with the driver and the guide in hotel.
The fame of the Medici family as munificent patrons of the arts has overshadowed their promotion of science. Beginning in the late 15th century with the eccentric genius Leonardo da Vinci, Medicean Florence was home to many famous inventors and scientists. Among them were the astronomer Paolo dal Pozzo Tosacanelli, the navigators Amerigo Vespucci and Giovanni da Verrazzano and Galileo Galilei — father of modern science — who honoured his patron Cosimo II by naming the newly- discovered moons of Jupiter “Medicea”. At the end of the 16th century, Francesco I de’Medici organized the Uffizi Gallery into the world’s first public art museum, a privileged seat of art collections and “marvels” that included the family’s collection of scientific instruments. After a look at renowned masterpieces by Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli and Caravaggio in the Uffizi, the tour continues next door in the medieval Palazzo Castellani, now the Science Museum. Here, in addition to Galileo’s own telescope, a fascinating collection of antique globes, compasses, maps, microscopes, spheres and surgeon’s instruments is displayed.
Return to hotel. |
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