The Florence issue
Broken at Palazzo Strozzi: Florence's Winter Sculpture Show From Ancient Egypt to Rodin
Broken is the winter show to build a Florence trip around, and it is labelled in English throughout. The flood restorations and Artemisia at the Innocenti are the others worth your time.
By Élodie FournierFlorence beyond the Uffizi queue
There is a new Mark Manders installation in the courtyard at Palazzo Strozzi this winter, and the courtyard is free to walk into. Upstairs, Broken runs until 24 January. It follows the broken fragment in sculpture, from ancient Egypt to Rodin. Everything is labelled in Italian and English.
Broken at Palazzo Strozzi
The show fills the courtyard and the piano nobile, the grand first floor. It starts with fragments from Egypt, Etruria and the Greco-Roman world. Then come Giovanni Pisano, Michelangelo and Rodin. It ends with Louise Bourgeois, Huma Bhabha and Danh Vo. The loans come from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Louvre and the British Museum. One of the causes of breakage it looks at is the flood of 1966, which comes up again elsewhere in the city this winter.
It opens every day from 10:00 to 20:00, and until 23:00 on Thursdays, with last admission an hour before closing. A dated ticket is €15 and an open-date one €20. Under-30s pay €12 and children from 6 to 18 pay €5. The same ticket covers Joanna Piotrowska's BURROWED in the Project Space, which opened on 10 November and closes with Broken.
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After the flood of 1966
The Arno came over its banks in November 1966 and damaged a great deal of Florentine painting. Sixty years on, the Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze has put a triptych by the Maestro della Madonna Straus back on show. It was wrecked in the flood and had been in store since 2000. It is in the first-floor rooms until 31 January, and two restored panels by the Maestro del 1416 are up until 14 March. Both come with the normal €20 ticket, so this is the easy one to add if you are seeing the David anyway. The gallery opens Tuesday to Sunday from 8:15 to 18:50. Entry is free on the first Sunday of the month, which is also the busiest day to go.
MAD Murate Art District is a converted prison a short walk east of Santa Croce, and it is free. Roberto Ghezzi left his canvases in the river, so what hangs on the walls is what the Arno did to them. The show runs until 4 January. It opens Tuesday to Saturday from 14:30 to 19:30, with last entry at 19:00. Half an hour is enough.
Artemisia at the Innocenti
Museo degli Innocenti is on Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, behind Brunelleschi's long arcade, the one with the blue-and-white della Robbia babies above the columns. Artemisia Gentileschi a Firenze runs until 4 April and covers only the years she worked in Medici Florence. You get Giuditta e la sua serva con la testa di Oloferne and Susanna e i vecchioni. There is also the recently restored Allegoria dell'Inclinazione, which normally hangs at Casa Buonarroti. The ticket is €16, or €14 reduced, and it gets you into the permanent collection too. If you arrive on a Frecciarossa or Frecciargento, show a rail ticket dated within the last two days and you pay €12. It opens daily from 9:30 to 19:00, with shorter hours on 24 and 31 December and closed on 25 December. Book ahead, as it fills up over Christmas.
Lorenzo's collection at Pitti
Magnifico 1492 opens at Palazzo Pitti on 3 December and runs to 1 March, in the Tesoro dei Granduchi on the ground floor. It puts Lorenzo de' Medici's collection back together from the inventory taken when he died in 1492. There are paintings, sculpture, gems, coins and manuscripts. The reason to go is Paolo Uccello's three Battle of San Romano panels, normally kept in three different museums and shown together here for the first time. Entry is €18, or €15 if you already hold a valid ticket for one of the Uffizi circuits during the run. The palace opens Tuesday to Sunday from 8:15 to 18:30, last entry 17:30. If your trip is in November, this one is not open yet.
Lions in the Sala dei Gigli
I leoni di Firenze is at the Museo di Palazzo Vecchio until 18 January, in the Sala dei Gigli, a room of gold lilies on deep blue walls. Live lions were kept at the palace from the mid-14th century until 1550, which is why the street behind it is still called via dei Leoni. There are two monumental carved lion heads by Baccio d'Agnolo, two Marzocco lions of 1383 and a stuffed lion from the university's natural history museum. Entry is €18, or €12 if you are 18 to 25, and free under 18. The tower and battlements cost a separate €20. There is a guided tour every Sunday at 15:00 and a children's session at 10:15, both by booking. The museum opens from 9:00 to 19:00, and only until 14:00 on Thursday, so keep it off a Thursday afternoon.
Winter rates at Palazzo Medici Riccardi
Palazzo Medici Riccardi has the Magi Chapel, a small room painted floor to ceiling with Gozzoli's gold-and-scarlet procession of horsemen. From 2 November to 28 February the ticket is €10, or €7 reduced, instead of the usual €15. Under-18s go free. Two shows run with it. Oltre il Rinascimento is European drawing and printmaking between Dürer and Parmigianino, on until 5 January. The other brings back four large canvases of St Francis, painted for Cosimo III de' Medici by Giuseppe Nicola Nasini, until 31 January. It opens 9:00 to 19:00, with last entry at 18:00. It can also close on Wednesdays, so check before you go.
The two Bardinis
The Museo Stefano Bardini is across the Arno near Ponte alle Grazie. Its galleries are painted deep cobalt blue from the skirting to the ceiling. Officina Bardini runs until 31 January, five rooms of silks, carpets, woven hangings and historic dress, much of it never shown before. There is a set of Quattro Stagioni hangings, a 16th-century linen shirt and a pair of Ferragamo sandals that belonged to Emma Bardini. Entry is €10, €7 reduced, free under 18. It only opens Friday to Monday, from 11:00 to 17:00, with the ticket desk closing an hour earlier.
Villa Bardini sits above a terraced garden, and its belvedere looks down over the roofs to the Duomo. From 1 December to 12 April it shows Michael Yamashita's photographs of Asia. He followed Marco Polo's road east along the Silk Road, and photographed how tradition and modern life sit together in China and Japan today. The show alone is €10, €5 reduced, and €15 with the garden. Firenze Card holders go free. It opens daily from 10:00 to 16:00, last entry an hour before, and closes on the first and last Monday of each month. Go in the morning.
Stone heads on Via Maggio
Frascione Gallery is in a frescoed palace on Via Maggio, in the Oltrarno just over Ponte Santa Trìnita. Emily Young's carved stone heads are set among old master paintings, including works by Francesco Furini and Bernardo Strozzi, until 19 December. It is free, and opens Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 13:00 and 15:00 to 18:00. Half an hour covers it, and you will miss it altogether on a weekend or Christmas trip.
Days and bookings
The Accademia and Pitti are shut on Mondays. The Bardini museum opens Friday to Monday only, and MAD is afternoons, Tuesday to Saturday. Book Palazzo Strozzi and the Artemisia show in advance, and leave Pitti out of any plan before 3 December.
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Before you go
When is Broken on at Palazzo Strozzi, and what does it cost?
It runs until 24 January in the courtyard and on the piano nobile. A dated ticket is €15 and an open-date one €20, with under-30s at €12 and children from 6 to 18 at €5. The audioguide is €4.
Is the exhibition labelled in English?
Yes, it is labelled in Italian and English throughout, so a visitor who does not read Italian can follow the whole show.
What are the opening hours, and can I go in the evening?
It opens daily from 10:00 to 20:00, and stays open until 23:00 on Thursdays. Last admission is an hour before closing either way.
Do I need to book, and what about groups?
Groups of five or more must book through the reservations office and buy their tickets there. Bring your own guide and the per-person rate drops; the house guided tour is a flat fee for a group of up to 20.
Is anything else included with the ticket?
Your ticket also covers Joanna Piotrowska's BURROWED in the Project Space, which closes on 24 January, the same day as Broken. You can see Mark Manders's courtyard installation without a ticket.
