Access Arnolfo Tower & Video Guide Palazzo Vecchio Combo

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IMPORTANT NOTE: The time you select on the order form is your preferred time. The closest available time, which can be anytime during opening hours on the selected date, will be automatically confirmed if your preferred time is no longer available.

Once a confirmation code has been assigned to your reservation, we can refund the cost of unused tickets, also for no-shows, minus a service fee (reservation fee and online booking fee).

Tickets:

• Full price ticket
• Reduced price ticket: people between 18 and 25 years old.
• Free ticket: children under 18 years old and Firenze card holders. On an experimental basis throughout 2019, free admission for European Union citizens aged between 18 and 25 years old, on Monday.

Literally "towering" over Florence, the 95m/311' high Tower of Palazzo Vecchio is one of the city's unmistakable symbols and focal points. Built between 1299 and the early 14th century, possibly designed by Arnolfo di Cambio, it is also one of the oldest parts of the building. As the seat of the city's government, the building's stern mass reflects specific political and administrative requirements. But the solid defensive wall, the ramparts with their arrowslits, and the tall lookout tower bear witness to the fact that it also served to protect the government from external attack. The tower also symbolically dominated the Florentine families' private house towers, which the "Government of the First People" had ordered to be reduced to a maximum height of approximately 29m/95'.

The tower consists of two parts. The first, completed by 1302, is encased in the palace walls and rests on the foundations of an earlier tower belonging to the Foraboschi family, known as the Torre della Vacca. The second part, completed over the following twenty years, rises up over the corbeled ramparts, continuing the facade of the edifice in a bold architectural gesture.

Inside the tower, a stone staircase of 223 steps leads up to the highest battlemented level, offering a spectacular view over the city. On the way up, you'll pass a small prison cell known as the Alberghetto (little guest house). Among the famous “guests” housed here for a while were Cosimo the Elder in 1433 (before he was exiled from Florence for a year on a charge of plotting against the Republic) and Fra' Girolamo Savonarola in 1498 (prior to his execution as a heretic in Piazza della Signoria).

Above the viewing level, two bell chambers house the bells known as the Martinella (rung to summon the citizens' assembly), the Campana del Mezzogiorno or Midday Bell, and the Campana dei Rintocchi or Chiming Bell. The pinnacle of the tower is topped by a copy of the old weathervane in the shape of the Marzocco lion with the lily of Florence (the original is now inside the palace). The clock mechanism was made by the Bavarian clockmaker Georg Ledel in 1667, while the clockface is the result of a 19th century restoration.

Florence's city hall, the Palazzo della Signoria, known also as Palazzo Vecchio, has been the symbol of civil power of the city of Florence for more than seven centuries. Your visit begins in the Cortile di Michelozzo, the courtyard adorned with stuccoes and frescoes, crests of the church and city guilds, and frescoes by Giorgio Vasari. There is a fountain in the center built by Battista del Tadda. The putto (figure of a chubby child) with the dolphin, which crowns the fountain, is a copy of Andrea del Verocchio’s original, now on display on the second floor.

Step into the Palazzo and continue to the first floor with the Salone dei Cinquecento (Hall of the Five-hundred), the large assembly hall. Here, you'll see the majestic cycle of pictures celebrating the history of Florence and the apotheosis of Cosimo de’ Medici as well as a rich array of statues accompanying Michelangelo’s celebrated sculpture Genius of Victory.

Continue onto the second floor of the museum for a visit to the private rooms of the Medici court, all sumptuously decorated and furnished. Among these is the marvelous Cappella di Eleonora, the chapel with paintings by Agnolo Bronzino. Some of the Palazzo’s oldest and most important decorative objects are on display in the Sala dell’Udienza (Audience Hall) and the Sala dei Gigli (Hall of the Lilies), where you'll also see the original of Donatello’s sculpture Judith. In the Sala delle Carte Geografiche (Hall of Maps) an exceptionally large globe and more than fifty painted panels provide an extraordinary glimpse of all the parts of the world known in the sixteenth century.

Round off your visit with a stroll through the mezzanine floor for its remarkable collection of paintings and sculptures from the Middle Ages and Renaissance left to the city of Florence by Charles Loeser, the American art historian and collector.

Climb the 223 steps of the Torre Arnolfo, which has been towering over the Palazzo Vecchio and Florence as a symbol of the city government for close to 1,000 years. The view over the city is simply breathtaking. And the history contained in the architecture will astound you. Your combo ticket offers you access to the tower, as well as a ticket to the Palazzo Vecchio, which you can visit in your own time using a Video Guide.