Florence celebrates the Festival of the Republic in style, with ceremonies in piazza della Signoria and a free evening concert there at 9pm (see www.comune.firenze.it for a full programme). Traditionally, museums are closed on this public holiday, but this year some of the Polo Fiorentino museums will especially open their doors to the public, so don’t miss your chance to combine Florentine tradition with culture.
From 8.15am-6.50pm Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus awaits you in the Uffizi Galleries, likewise Michelangelo’s David at the Accademia. From 8.15am-6.30pm, stroll around the Boboli and Bardini Gardens or visit the Museum of Silver and the Costume Gallery in Pitti Palace.
Free entry to the church and museum in Orsanmichele can be enjoyed from 10am-5pm, as well as the Bargello museum, the museum of San Marco, the gardens of the Castello Villa Medici, La Petraia, Poggio a Caiano and Verreto Guidi Villa Medici, Refectories of Ognissanti and Sant’Apollonia and the Cloister of the Scalzo, which will all be open to the public.
