Private Tour of Florence in the Footsteps of Galileo

Our adventure begins at Porta Romana, one of the majestic fourteenth-century gates that still mark the entrance to Florence. Merchants, travellers and pilgrims from DA Siena and DA Roma used to pass through here. It is the ideal point to open a journey that does not go into the crowded heart of the city, but takes the opposite direction: towards the hills. Porta Romana is a symbol of passage, yesterday as now : then from the outside world to the city, today from the center to the nature that surrounds it. DA here we start to discover views, gardens and places of Galileo Galilei, the man who changed the way we look at the sky.

Our journey begins along Viale dei Colli, the great nineteenth-century boulevard designed DA Giuseppe Poggi when Florence became the capital of Italy. With its harmonious curves and tree-lined avenues, it was intended as an elegant outdoor lounge for carriages and scenic walks. Even today it offers enchanting views of the city from above. Along the avenue opens the Bobolino Garden, a small romantic jewel full of paths, fountains and staircases, created as an “introduction” to the most famous Boboli. In this suggestive place you can breathe nineteenth-century Florence, but it is also an opportunity to remember the young Galileo, who already as a boy observed nature with curiosity to draw insights and experiments. Here, between landscapes and gardens, art and science begin to intertwine in our journey.

Going up we arrive at Pian dei Giullari, a hilltop village whose name recalls the medieval jesters who performed here. In the middle of noble villas stands Villa Il Gioiello, home of Galileo Galilei for the last ten years of his life. Condemned by the Inquisition, he spent his house arrest here, blind and guarded, but still full of ideas. In these rooms he wrote the Discourses and mathematical proofs around two new sciences, the basis of modern physics. It is a place that conveys emotion: despite its limitations, Galileo never gave up investigating the cosmos, leaving an eternal legacy.

Not far DA Il Gioiello is the Convent of San Matteo, where Galileo's daughters lived. The most beloved, Sister Maria Celeste, maintained an intense exchange of letters with him. His letters show a different Galileo: not the rebel scientist, but a frail, loving and grateful father. She comforted him with sweet words, small gifts, health remedies. When he died young, in 1634, Galileo was destroyed. This place, while seen from the outside, is fundamental: here the human and private side of the great scientist is told.

Next to Il Gioiello, on the same hills, stands the Astrophysical Observatory of Arcetri, founded in the nineteenth century and now the headquarters of INAF. It is a symbol of continuity: from the rudimentary lens of Galileo’s telescope, which opened up to humanity the vision of Jupiter’s moons and sunspots, to modern instruments that today peer into galaxies and black holes. Arcetri is a place where past and future meet : the memory of the father of modern science lives alongside the most advanced research. A stage that links tradition and innovation, showing Florence as the eternal city of knowledge.

Our last stop is Poggio Imperiale, a splendid Villa that was a Medici residence and then a Grand Ducal. Imposing and monumental, it dominates Florence from above, offering an extraordinary panorama. Today it houses an international school, but retains all the charm of the past. It is the perfect place to close the story: Galileo was protected by the Medici, court scientist and pride of Tuscany, but he did not escape condemnation. Florence was the scene of his victories and difficulties. DA here, with the city lying below us, we can understand how art, power and science have always coexisted, creating the magic of Florence.