In Florence, Rome, and the Vatican, go behind the scenes in Italy’s leading art conversation and restoration laboratories
Travel with Frank Dabell, a renowned art historian and lifelong Rome resident to see how skilled experts are protecting the rich legacy of Medici and papal patronage on an exclusive journey. In Florence, delight in private looks at the Uffizi’s restoration labs and the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, where master craftsmen preserve the Medici’s Renaissance vision by creating “paintings” from precious stones, and witness the meticulous restoration of the Battistero di San Giovanni’s shimmering dome mosaics, where Dante was baptized.
Masterpieces Revealed: From Florence to the Eternal City
In Siena, see Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s vivid 14th-century Effects of Good and Bad Government frescoes restored after centuries, a monumental depiction of justice and tyranny still resonating today. In Rome, gain rare access to the Vatican’s conservation labs, where modern science meets Renaissance ingenuity, and marvel at the restoration of Pietro Cavallini’s 1293 Last Judgment fresco, whose groundbreaking naturalism paved the way for the Renaissance.
Highlights
- Join Frank Dabell, renowned art historian and lifelong Rome resident, in Florence and Rome for rare private tours of Italy’s most important conservation laboratories
- Meet some of the world’s most experienced conservators while viewing masterpieces under restoration, including the owners of an exceptionally advanced laboratory in Arezzo
- Witness master craftsmen practice the ancient art of Florentine stone mosaic inside the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, founded by the Medici family in 1588
- Enjoy an exclusive guided viewing of the 13th-century dome mosaics at the Battistero di San Giovanni, Florence’s oldest religious building, during their ongoing meticulous restoration
- Watch conservators at Siena’s Museo Civico restore Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s revolutionary, 14th-century Effects of Good and Bad Government frescoes, the first panoramic cityscapes painted since ancient Rome
- Meet the specialized restoration teams at the Vatican Museums Laboratory, where 21st-century science meets Renaissance techniques in preserving the world’s largest art collection
- Gain exclusive access through the Benedictine nunnery at the Basilica di Santa Cecilia in Trastevere to study Pietro Cavallini’s 1293 <em>Last Judgment</em> fresco, whose naturalistic style influenced Renaissance masters
- Visit the Priscilla Catacombs with experts to explore ancient tunnels housing early Christian art and the world’s oldest known images of the Virgin Mary
- Accompany a curator at Florence’s Galleria dell’Accademia to view the Medici’s collection of rare musical treasures, including the world’s only surviving complete Stradivari instrument and earliest known upright piano
- Experience layers of Roman history on a guided tour of the Basilica di San Clemente, descending from a 12th-century church to a basilica from Late Antiquity to an ancient Roman temple
- Step inside Rome’s Villa Farnesina, a Renaissance banker’s private pleasure palace, to see Raphael’s groundbreaking frescoes up close, including his famous Triumph of Galatea
- Go behind the scenes at Florence’s 16th-century Accademia di Belle Arti, Europe’s first art academy, where Michelangelo and other masters perfected their craft
