Michelangelo’s David and Accademia Tour

Inside, Michelangelo's David stands at the end of a corridor lined with the Prisoners — four figures still half-trapped in their marble, left unfinished. In about an hour, a licensed guide walks you from those rough blocks to the finished statue, so you see how it was made before you see what it became: a block other sculptors had rejected, carved by a twenty-six-year-old into the image Florence chose for itself. The tour ends inside the gallery, so your ticket is still good afterwards — stay for the Medici instrument collection with its Stradivari violins, and the Florentine paintings upstairs. The same reserved entry is also available with an audio guide.