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Gothic-Renaissance frescoes and a centuries-old perfume pharmacy.
A private tour of the Santa Maria Novella church, museum, and its historic pharmacy, home to a working perfume and elixir shop.
Admire evocative frescoes and devotional sculptures by Giotto, Brunelleschi, and Ghirlandaio, then browse elixirs and bath products in the little-known pharmacy tucked within the church walls.
A popular starting point — every Voyzo itinerary is fully customizable, so we'll shape the order and stops around your group.
Meet directly at Santa Maria Novella.
Giotto, Brunelleschi, and Ghirlandaio all represented inside.
A working shop selling perfumes and elixirs, with roots as a medieval apothecary.
Back to your hotel, home, or the airport — whenever your day wraps up.
A private tour of the Santa Maria Novella church, museum, and its historic pharmacy, home to a working perfume and elixir shop. Admire evocative frescoes and devotional sculptures by Giotto, Brunelleschi, and Ghirlandaio, then browse elixirs and bath products in the little-known pharmacy tucked within the church walls.
Santa Maria Novella was founded by the Dominican order in 1279, with construction on the current church beginning around 1290 and continuing for almost 200 years. Its distinctive two-toned facade tells that long timeline at a glance: the lower half, in Romanesque style, was built in the 14th century, while the upper section, with its geometric white and green marble patterns, was designed by Leon Battista Alberti and completed in 1470, nearly two centuries after the project began.
Inside is Masaccio's Holy Trinity fresco, painted around 1424 to 1425 and considered one of the first artworks in Western art to use true mathematical linear perspective. Contemporary accounts describe Florentines flooding in to see it when it was unveiled, convinced the flat wall had somehow been punched through into real space. The church's Gondi Chapel also holds a wooden crucifix by Brunelleschi, which, according to a well-known Renaissance anecdote recorded by Vasari, he carved specifically to outdo a crucifix by his friend and rival Donatello after criticizing it as looking more like a peasant than Christ.
The pharmacy tucked into the old convent walls traces its own roots to 1221, when Dominican friars first began cultivating a monastic garden and apothecary on the site; it's commonly described as the oldest pharmacy in the world, though with a history this long and other historic pharmacies making similar claims, that exact title is difficult to verify beyond dispute. What's certain is that the shop has operated continuously in some form for centuries, formalizing into a documented pharmacy by 1508 and opening its doors to the general public in 1612, and it still sells perfumes and elixirs today.
Every Voyzo tour is a starting point — tell us what you have in mind and we'll build it.
