Perillo Tours

This famed Florence museum is as much a work of art as the many masterpieces it contains.

The elegant proportions of its architecture and its painted ceilings are just the treasures inside. The Uffizi Gallery is enormous and houses one of the most important collections of art of all time. It was originally built to provide more office space – uffizi –  for government administrators, since the Palazzo Vecchio could not hold them all.

Over the years, parts of the palace evolved into exhibition space for artworks commissioned by the Medici family. The art treasures remained in Florence courtesy of the last Medici heiress, and the gallery was open to visitors by request starting in the 16th century. In the 18th century it was officially opened to the public. Famous works here include The Birth of Venus by Botticelli and Caravaggio’s Bacchus.

The Uffizi’s collections are so large that many pieces are now housed in other Florence museums.