Who's your favourite?

They were the great masters of their generation, and their names will be forever remembered as the exponents of those wonderful artistic eras in Italy - the Renaissance and the Baroque.

We design tours showing you where in Rome you can find their greatest accomplishments; in painting, sculpture and architecture.

We have tours of four of our favourites -
Michelangelo
Raphael
Caravaggio
and Bernini.
Read the descriptions below to see what we include on each tour.

If you would like to combine one or more of these tours, send us an email and we will put together the perfect package for you. For example, if you would like to tour the Vatican with a focus on these artists; or if you would like to visit the Capitoline Museums or the Borghese Gallery to view the complete works of these artists, we can design a tour of the museums without the churches. Just ask us, we are here to design the tours that you want!
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Michelangelo in Rome
Works by the great Florentine, who swore that he "would never live out of sight of the Duomo (in Florence)", are in evidence all over Rome.

From the Pietà in St Peters Basilica, his first great work in this city, to the Dome in the same Basilica - his last work, Michelangelo spent a great portion of the intervening 65 years struggling to satisfy Popes and other patrons - as well as his own furious, insatiable appetite to create.

The Sistine Chapel ceiling, the Last Judgement on the altar wall of the same chapel, the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, the magnificent square of Campidoglio, the Moses statue (so lifelike that the great man, upon completing the sculpture, stuck it on the knee with a hammer, commanding it to "now speak"! - still in evidence on the statue today), the Risen Christ - all the paintings, statues and architectual accomplishments of this "Renaissance Man".

On this tour, we will also show you the influences on Michelangelo, including the Laocoon and Belvedere Torso statues in the Vatican Museums, which will help you enter the mind of the artist as well as see the link between Classical and Renaissance Art.
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Raphael in Rome
Raphael, unlike his contemporary and rival Michelangelo, died a young man in Rome, but left behind a wealth of work which illustrates all the more painfully what a loss the great man was to the world of art.

Although he was appointed maestro of St Peters Basilica in the early 1500's, Raphael's time there was marked by arguments over the design and waste of resources, so there is no trace of his efforts visible today. We will take you to the apartments of his great patron, Pope Julius II, in the Vatican, to see the wonderful rooms he decorated for the Pope, as well as his other paintings, and the 10 magnificent tapestries for the Sistine Chapel, in the Pinacoteca Gallery there. You will see the work of the artists who inspired him, as well as that of the students who were influenced by him.

We will take you around the churches of Rome where he designed and decorated chapels for one of the city's richest patrons - Agostino Chigi. These Chigi Chapels are found in the churches of Santa Maria della Pace and Santa Maria del Popolo, where also can be found some wonderful frescoes and mosaics attributed to Raphael.

The rest of Raphael's works in Rome are found scattered around the various museums. If you wish to visit these museums, we can extend the tour for you - just send us an email and we will design the tour for you.
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Caravaggio in Rome
Known as a great innovator, this controversial artist marks the move away from the Renaissance and into the Baroque. Many great artists of the 1600's imitated the realism of Caravaggio.

On our Caravaggio trail, we will bring you into the churches where his greatest works can be seen; the church of San Luigi dei Francesi, Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Concezione.

Although there is a lot more of Caravaggio's works in Rome, as with Raphael his paintings are now found in many different museums. If you are interested in visiting one or more of these museums and seeing more of his work, send us an email and we will design the tour you want.
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Bernini in Rome
If Rome is an "outdoor museum", then the greatest contributor to its collection is undoubtedly Gianlorenzo Bernini.
As a young boy, the son of a Florentine architect employed by the Pope to rebuild an aqueduct, his talent was already spotted by the papacy.

Among his works in outdoor Rome, you can see the chapels, churches and palaces he designed for the Popes and cardinals of his time - Santa Maria della Vittoria, Palazzo Barberini, San Andrea al Quirinale, San Bibiana, San Francesco a Ripa, Santa Maria del Popolo, San Andrea della Fratte, Santa Maria in Ara Coeli.

One of his greatest accomplishments was the magnificent Piazza di San Pietro, the square of St Peters, in front of his greatest failure - the facade of St Peters Basilica and the doomed bell towers that failed miserably.
His fountains include the Fountain of Four Rivers in Piazza Navona, and the Triton Fountain and Fountain of Bees in Piazza Baberini.

Apart from his architectural designs, Bernini was probably the greatest sculptors of his time. In the churches already mentioned, as well as in St Peters Basilica, you can see the monumental tomb statues he sculpted for his many patrons. Also in St Peters is his great bronze masterpiece, the 100ft canopy or Baldacchino above the altar of St Peters, beneath Michelangelo's dome.

There is really so much of Bernini in Rome that in one visit you cannot possibly hope to see everything. An option would be to visit the Borghese Gallery, where he contributed to the collections of Scipio Borghese with the statues of David, Apollo and Daphne, the Rape of Proserpina, Aeneas and Anchises; as well as busts and portaits, including his own self-portrait - showing that not only was he a talented sculptor and architect, but also a great painter.

For this tour, it is best to email us specifying where you would most like to direct your attention - churches, piazzas or museums.