After booking yourself into a hotel, Florence , Italy, awaits for your exploration of its numerous paintings, sculptures, and artifacts — its art and history available to travelers in 70 museums, from the Museum of Prehistory to Michelangelo’s house to the Alinari Museum of Photography.
The Museum of Prehistory may be found in the Palace of the Oblates; it was established in 1946, with a mission to preserve and classify prehistoric collections that existed in Florence, ranging from the Pre-Stone Age period and on into historical times, as human society began to form based around the economics of hunting and crop-growing. Exhibits of stone instruments, pottery, bone, copper arms, bronze, and artistic evidence are all derived from excavations and research carried out in Italy, as well as abroad in Africa, Asia, and America, and comprise the historical collections.
On the first floor, the exhibits teach you about the prehistoric period, dedicating themselves to what we know during these times about the enviornment, human fossils and human culture. A second room emphasizes specifically European prehistory. You’ll find here information about the Paleolithic, Eneolithic and Bronze Age.
At Michaelangelo’s house, you’ll shoot forward in time to the 17th Century in the Casa Buonarroti , which celebrates several centuries of the Buonarroti family as well as works by Michelangelo, who lived in the 15th and 16th centuries. Inside this extraordinary museum, you’ll find two famous marble reliefs sculpted by Michelangelo, the Madonna della Scala and the Battle of the Centaurs. There’s also a collection of the autograph drawings by the artist, comprised of 205 sketches. You’ll discover the Curcifix of Santo Spirito, too, which critics attribute to Michelangelo, and many other works of art.
The Alinari Museum of Photography brings us securely into the 21st century, as Italy’s national photography museum. Established in 2006, the museum may be found in the Piazza Santa Maria Novella in the historic Leopoldine complex. It’s comprised of seven sections with exhibits on the origins of photography (1839-1860), the golden age of photography (1860-1920), and the advent of the avantgarde (1920-2000). There are also exhibits about transparent images (paper negatives to glass plates), photo albums (rare collections), the history of photographic equipment, and even a section that goes beyond photography, demonstrating the ways in which photography has been used in advertising, stationary, postcards, even ceramics, glassware, jewellery and fabrics.
With just these three museums, you’ll have an overview of the city and country in which you’re visiting, uncovering a taste of what Florence offers its many visitors.