The best museums Toscane

A unique, stimulating and interesting interactive museum showcasing Leonardo da Vinci's most important inventions. Visitors can satisfy their curiosity by trying out the mechanisms of the machines designed by Leonardo in his codes, such as the giant tank, the catapult... This well-thought-out interactivity offers a hands-on experience that differs from conventional exhibitions. The museum also features educational laboratories and a well-stocked bookshop.

A place with an atypical history! There was once an oratory dedicated to the Archangel Michael, built in the garden of a Benedictine monastery. Since then, there has been a portico that was enlarged and consolidated in 1337, as the current two-storey structure was built above it to store wheat in the event of famine. In 1380, because of the increasingly intense devotion to an image of the Madonna placed on a pilaster in the portico, the arcades on the ground floor were closed. The portico was thus transformed into an unusual church with two naves, which is now the worthy setting for a splendid marble tabernacle in Gothic style, the work of the Florentine sculptor Andrea Orcagna. This old church, transformed into a grain market and then again into a church, houses a beautiful, albeit somewhat dark, interior of medieval architecture.

Among the statues that adorn the exterior of the Orsanmichele church are those of Lorenzo Ghiberti in bronze, on the side of Arte della Lana Street, representing Saint Matthew, at the corner of Orsanmichele Street, and Santo Stefano. Those of Donatello - Saint George - and Verrocchio - a group with the Unbelief of Saint Thomas - towards Calzaioli Street have been replaced by copies (the originals being at the Bargello Museum). These statues were financed by the Florence merchant corporations, proof that the commercial activity was closely linked to religion and art. A few steps away, stands the imposing Palazzo Vecchio in Piazza della Signoria.