Date

Activity

General highlights

Scientific highlights

Monday - 1/3

Walking tour of city center

Cathedral dome (Duomo)
Orsanmichele
Piazza della Signoria
Palazzo Vecchio
Uffizi Museum
 Bargello Palace
 Dante's Church (Chiesa di S. Martino del Vescovo)

Tuesday - 1/4

Discussion of Armillary and gnomon by Egnatio Danti (1536-1586)

Santa Maria Novella church

Strozzi chapel fresco by Filippino Lippi

Major chapel fresco by Ghirlandaio (1449-1494)

Brunelleschi's wooden crucifix

Armillary and gnomon by Danti

Museum of Santa Maria Novella

Spanish chapel frescos by Buonaiuto (1343-1377)

Courtyard frescos by Uccello (1397-1475)

Basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore (Duomo)

Design by Arnolfo di Cambio (1245-1302)

Meridian line (gnomon) of Toscanelli

Climb of Dome (cupola)

Universal justice fresco by Vasari (1511-1574)

Amazing architectural achievement of Brunelleschi (1377-1446)

Wednesday - 1/5

Talk by Galileo expert Tom Settle at the Science History Museum

Science History Museum

Objective lense of telescope used by Galileo in discovering moons of Jupiter

Two of Galileo's original telescopes

Model of type inclined plane used by Galileo in his motion experiments

Military compass given by Galileo to young Cossimo II

Brancacci Chapel in Church of Santa Maria del Carmine

(Cappella Brancacci)

Frescos by Massacio (1401-1428), Masolino (1383-1440) and Filippino Lippi

Thursday - 1/6

Uffizi Gallery

Compare Madonna and child by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1255-1318), Cimabue (1240-1302) and Giotto (1267-1337)

Botticelli (1445-1510)

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

Duerer (1471-1528)

Mantegna (1431-1506)

Corregio (1489-1534)

Michelangelo

Bronzino (1503-1572)

Titian (1488-1576)

Rubens (1577-1640)

Raphaello (1483-1520)

Portrait of Galileo by Sustermans (1597-1681)

Friday - 1/7

San Gimignano (city with many medieval towers)

Monteriggioni (small walled medieval town)

Archbishop's palace in Siena

Galileo in Archbishop Piccolomini's custody here in 1633

Siena Duomo

Pergamo by Nicola Pisano (1220-1278), Piccolomini library

Palazzo Pubblico, Siena

Lorenzetti's (-1348?) fresco allegories of good and bad government, Maesta fresco by Simone Martini (1280-1344)

Pasticceria Nannini (Siena)

Ricciarelli (almond pastry) and vin santo

Saturday - 1/8

Florence Topographical Museum

Maps and views of Florence through the ages,

Model of Roman Florence

Wednesday - 1/12

Lecture by Galileo expert William Shea at the University of Padua

Thursday - 1/13

University of Padua (tour conducted by William Shea's graduate student Anne and physics student )

Galileo's lecturn (built by his students),

World's oldest anatomical theater, 1594, (for human dissection),

Aula magna Galileo Galileo (for formal university functions)

Caffe Pedrocchi (Europe's oldest continuously operating café - since 1831)

Scrovegni Chapel

Frescos depicting events in the lives of Mary and Christ by Giotto, painted1303-05

Civic Museum

Roman funerary sculpture from Padua

Galileo's house on Via Galileo

Piazza del Santo

Statue of Gattamelata by Donatello (1386-1466)

Saint Anthony Cathedral

Alter, Crucifix by Donatello, frescos by Altichiero da Verona (1330-1390)

Friday - 1/14

Walking tour of Venice from the train station over the Rialto bridge to Piazza San Marco (and pigeons)

San Marco basilica

Bizantine reliefs and mosaics

Accademia Galleries

Works by Lorenzo Veneziano (died 1372?), Giovanni Bellini (1430-1516) Giorgione's (1476-1510) The Tempest, Andrea Mantegno (1431-1506), Tintoretto (1518-1594), Veronese (1528-1588), Marco Ricci (1676-1730), Pietro Longhi (1702-1785),

Special exhibit of works of Carravagio (1573-1610)

Saturday - 1/15

Naval history museum

Model of the bucintoro (used since thirteenth century in annual marriage of Venice with the sea)

models of venetian merchant and naval vessels

historical navigation instuments

Arsenale

Shipyard visited frequently by Galileo

Ducal palace

Administrative, legislative and judicial rooms of the Venetian republic,

Surprising display of paintings by Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516)

Paintings by Bellini,

Frescos by Veronese and Tintoretto

Collection of arms beginning in early middle ages,

Map room with restored 16th century maps (including Marco Polo's journey)

Correr Museum

Manuscripts from 16th and 17th centuries, historical navigation instruments

Murano island

Vaporetto pilot navigated closer to Arsenale and slowed, enabling us to take pictures

Galileo's first telescope lenses produced by glass artisans here

Monday - 1/17

Santa Croce basilica

Tombs of Machiavelli and Michelangelo, frescos by Giotto,

Medici chapel was Galileo's original burial site, Galileo's tomb now in basilica

Santa Croce cloister

Pazzi Chapel, Brunelleschi architecture, crucifix by Cimabue

Palazzo Vecchio

Building design and art by Vasari (1511-1574)

Hall of Justice and chapel of the republican priors

Geography room - maps and globe by Danti and Buonsignori (?-1589)

San Lorenzo basilica

Brunelleschi's design,

Donatello's bronze pulpits and sarcophagus in form of wicket basket,

Tomb by Verrocchio (1435-1488)

Celestial dome in Old Sacristy depicting night of July 4, 1442

Tuesday - 1/18

View of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo

City defensive walls designed by Michelangelo

San Miniato al Monte

Benedictine monestary constructed between 1018 and 1207, crucifix by Michelozzo (1396-1472), fresco by Taddeo Gaddi (?-1366)

Il gioiello (the jewel) in Arcetri (Florence)

We saw the entire house!

Galileo's house where he was confined from 1633 until his death in 1642

San Matteo convent in Arcetri

Thanks to Nuvolina for persuading Father Guiseppe to let us inside, and to Father Guiseppe for his gracious hospitality and informative commentary

Home of Galileo's daughter, Suor Maria Celeste

Leonardo Museum in Vinci

Reproductions of Leonardo da Vinci's plans with actual models

Leonardo da Vinci's birthplace near Vinci

Wednesday - 1/19

Leaning Tower of Pisa (campanile)

You know the story

Pisa Cathedral

Galileo's lantern (though story not true since the lantern was installed two years after Galileo left Pisa)

Camposanto

Oldest public museum in Europe - frescos destroyed in WWII partially restored, frescos by Taddeo Gaddi, Benozzo Gozzoli (1420-1497)

Statue of the Pisan mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci (1170?-1250?)

Galileo's University - Universita degli Studi

Galileo was both student and professor here

Galileo's birth home

Thursday - 1/20

Academy Gallery

David by Michelangelo

Medici musical instrument collection,

Festival painting scene by Scheggio (brother of Massacio)

San Marco Museum

Dominican monestary cell frescos by Fra Angelico (1387-1455), library by Michelozzo

Medici chapel

Medici funerary sculpture by Michelangelo

Friday - 1/21

Bargello Museum

Donatello's David, sculpture by Giambologna (1529-1608), Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571), competition door panels by Brunelleschi and Ghiberti

Walking tour of central Rome

Spanish steps

Piazza Navona

Pantheon

Trevi Fountain

Saturday - 1/22

coliseum

Nero's gold house (domus aurea)

Recently excavated and opened,

Renaissance artists snuck into rooms to copy (and imitate) frescos

Roman Forum

Quirinale

Monte Cavallo fountain

Sunday - 1/23

Saint Peter's basilica

Celebration of mass,

Michelangelo's pieta

Saint Peter's square

Pope's address

Santa Maria Maggiore

Ceiling fresco by Cigoli (1559-1613) in Borghese chapel

Friend of Galielo depicted imperfect moon in 1611

Monday - 1/24

Vatican museums

Sistine Chapel frescos by Michelangelo (and other "lesser" artists like Botticelli, Ghirlandaio…),

Raffaello rooms, including Athens School fresco,

Belvedere torso by ancient greek Apollonius,

Ancient Roman copies of greek sculptures of the muses

Map room with 16th century maps by Danti

Pantheon

Piazza Argentina

Ruins of Senate building where Cesar was assassinated

San Luigi dei Francesi church

Paintings by Carravagio (1571-1610)

Farewell dinner at the Galleria Sciarra Restaurant