The statue of David is one of the most famous symbols of Florence and was made by a very young Michelangelo.

The original is now located in the Galleria dell'Accademia, but an accurate copy still guards the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of the public life of the city.

Actually, the initial project was conceived as a real challenge: to hoist the marble giant very high on one of the bastions of the Cathedral.

But once the work was completed, the result was such an awe-inspiring artwork that even the Vasari wrote about the David: 'one who sees this, it doesn’t have to take care to see another work of sculpture made in our time, or by any other maker'.

It was therefore determined that her beauty would have been put eye level, so to let everyone have the chance to admire it.

David is a religious topic, nonetheless it appeared immediately perfect to fit and represent the virtues of good governance of the Florentine Republic.

Even if the subject of David had already been addressed in the past by other important sculptors, no one has been able to make the concentration of the young man who is unable to meet the challenge of winning the giant Goliath.

The muscles contract and her eyes who is holding their breath to capture the maximum energy capture viewers in fatal tension of the moment.

You can visit Florence churches countless times, but no doubt each time you can discover something new. How? Just ... changing perspective.

Florence, cradle of the Renaissance: here even the churches shield knowledge, so let’s suggest a new interpretation for the visit.

Santa Maria Novella is one of the most famous churches, coffer of as artworks as the Masaccio's Trinity. But don’t stop to it!

Just few of the many people passing by its façade can suspect this, but Santa Maria Novella is also an astronomic instruments.

We owe to Dominican friar Egnazio Danti the installation of advanced tools to measure the passage of the Sun.

Why this? Because Danti was court mathematician of the Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici. His Lord ambition was to reform the calendar system after Julius Caesar.

So they need to calculate the exact duration of the year, equinoxes and solstices.

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There are plenty of boutique hotels in the centre of Florence, but none like Hotel Orto de’ Medici.

Some people come for our location, as being so close to everything makes your stay so much easier. Other visitors like our staff best, because all of them are always ready to help with a smile. To other guests, it’s about the newly-renovated rooms and the freshly-squeezed orange juice, which we serve each morning in the frescoed 19th-century dining room.

But what makes this hotel so different than the rest is probably the unique story that’s related to it, which takes you back to an afternoon of 1489: then, among the garden white roses, a 14-year-old Michelangelo first learned to shape the Carrara marble.