Accademia Gallery
Home to Michelangelo's David, and the sculptures that never made it out of the marble.
The Galleria dell'Accademia is a state museum in central Florence that houses one of the most famous sculptures in the world: Michelangelo's David, completed in 1504. The original statue — all 5.17 metres and 5,660 kilograms of Carrara marble — stands at the end of a long skylit hall called the Tribune, and seeing it in person is a genuinely different experience from any photograph. The museum was founded in 1784 under the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo as a teaching collection for the adjacent Academy of Fine Arts, which is why the building still buzzes with art students today.
The David gets all the attention, but the Accademia has more going on than a single statue. Along the corridor leading to the Tribune, you'll find Michelangelo's unfinished 'Prisoners' (also called the Slaves) — four extraordinary figures that appear to be emerging from or struggling against the stone. They were intended for the tomb of Pope Julius II and were never completed, which makes them, in a strange way, more haunting than the finished work. The museum also holds a solid collection of Florentine Gothic and Renaissance painting, Byzantine icons, and a room dedicated to plaster casts, which is far more interesting than it sounds.
Book ahead — this is one of the most visited museums in Italy, and the queues without a reservation can stretch for hours, especially in summer. Tuesday mornings are typically quieter than weekend afternoons. The museum is compact enough to do thoroughly in about two hours, so don't rush past the Prisoners trying to get to the David first: walk the whole corridor slowly, then let the statue reveal itself at the end.
