Three Days to Cancel, Skip the Queue, and Stay On After the Guide Goes

The Medici residence and one of the largest art collections in Italy, visited with a guide.

The group meets in the centre of Florence at the scheduled time and walks into the Palazzo Pitti, a 15th-century building that housed the Medici for the length of the dynasty.

The visit starts in the Palatine Gallery, which holds the most important part of the collection. Room after room, along the corridors as much as in the galleries themselves, the names are Botticelli, Titian, Rubens and Caravaggio.

Then the royal apartments. Three sets of occupants lived here: the Medici first, then the House of Lorraine, and finally the King of Italy during the brief 19th-century period when Florence was the capital of the country.

When the guided part ends, you can stay on in the Palatine Gallery or the royal apartments for as long as you want.

Two practical points. The booking includes entry without queuing, even in high season, though a strike or a major disruption can still produce a line. And cancellation here is unusually generous for a guided tour: free up to three days before, rather than the twenty-four hours most operators allow.