There are many different museums in the city of Florence; for example, the Accademia Gallery (which houses some Michelangelo Buonarroti’s sculptures), the Pitti Palace (which is divided into eight museums) and the National Archaeological Museum (where you can see Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek and Roman finds). The Uffizi Gallery is the most visited florentine museum, and it is located on the first floor and second floors of the building of Uffizi.

The building of Uffizi was constructed between 1560 and 1580, and originally it hosted public offices. The architect Giorgio Vasari was engaged by Cosimo I de’ Medici, the second duke of Florence, to plan this building. Cosimo I died in 1574, and his son Francesco I engaged Bernando Buontalenti to complete the work. He also ordered that the top floor hosted its collection of paintings, statues, bronzes, miniatures, medals and other objects. The museum was born.

New rooms were built in the course of time, and the collection expanded thanks to the Medici family and the Lorraine family. Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, the last lineal descent of her family, gave the Medici’s art collection to the Lorraine family, on the condition that no part of it could be removed from the city of Florence. In 1769 the grand duke Peter Leopold opened the museum to the public, and he reorganized its collections. The sculptures of famous characters were sculpted in the 19th century; some of the sculptors were Giovanni Duprè, Emilio Santarelli and Lorenzo Bartolini.

The museum boasts ancient sculptures and exceptional paintings made by Giotto, Piero della Francesca, Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Rembrandt, Velazquez and many other painters. There are two current exhibitions:

• Il cosmo magico di Leonardo: l’Adorazione dei Magi restaurata” (from 28 march 2017 to 24 september 2017)
• Facciamo presto! Marche 2016-2017: tesori salvati, tesori da salvare (from 28 march 2017 to 30 july 2017)