Florence Santa Croce Basilica Private Tour

Explore Florence's Santa Croce Basilica on a guided tour focused on Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, and Dante.

Getting started

Enter Santa Croce Basilica using your included entry and meet your expert guide at the start of the guided tour of Santa Croce Basilica. After tickets are checked, you will receive radio guides and headsets so you can clearly follow the commentary. The visit then begins inside the church, where the group moves together through the main spaces.

What to expect

Santa Croce Basilica

This experience centers on Santa Croce Basilica in the heart of Florence, a key site for the city's Franciscan, artistic, and intellectual heritage. Your professional guide leads you through the interior, focusing on the people and artworks that made this church a resting place for major Italian figures.

Features

• The guided tour of Santa Croce Basilica is led by an expert guide, with a professional guide included to give context to the architecture, artworks, and the Franciscan background of the site. Using radio guides and headsets, you can move freely while still hearing the explanations clearly.
• Inside the basilica, you visit the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli, seeing where these major figures are commemorated and learning stories of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, and Dante and their links to Florence.
• In the chapels, you will admire Giotto’s famous fresco cycles, observing how they unfold across the walls as your guide points out key scenes and what they meant in the context of Florence's artistic development.
• The route includes a stop at the historic Cimabue Crucifix, where you can view this important work up close, and time in the Pazzi Chapel to take in its Renaissance architecture and understand its place within the larger Santa Croce complex.