If you can’t bearthe thought of lining up with every other tourist in Florence to get into theAcademia, this tour is for you. Your private guide will accompany you and youwill have the Gallery all to yourselves. Of course, pride of the collection isMichelangelo’s David, which was transferred here from its outdoor position inPiazza della Signoria in 1873 but there is much else besides, not least Michelangelo’sthe Prisoners and St Matthew. The building was once a convent and wastransformed into a museum in the 19th century, with works from theAcademy of Design and the Academy of Fine Arts and suppressed convents.Paintings are mostly religious, dating from the 13th-16thcenturies, plus a collection of Russian icons and plaster sculptures. Recently,the Gallery has been further enriched by a collection of old musicalinstruments.
