Itinerary for a school trip to Florence: must-see museums

The perfect itinerary for a school trip to Florence should include some must-see museums. The Tuscan capital is recognized as one of Italy's top cities of art and culture, in addition to being a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Organizing an educational tour there is an excellent opportunity to combine education and entertainment. A city that offers curiosity, culture and learning for all cycles of study, from elementary to high school.

The perfect duration of the class trip is at least three days, so you can reach the most important stops and spend the right amount of time to enjoy them and learn all their secrets. However, it is also possible to plan a tour of the monuments and museums that have made the city's history in only two days. One of the key factors to decide the length of the school trip is the closeness to the Tuscan capital.

Why you should choose Florence as a destination to go on a class trip

One of the most successful methods for choosing where to go on a class trip is to view the educational program of the class you plan on taking on the trip. Often, it is History that acts as a link between all of them; a subject for which Florence is certainly one of the most recommended destinations, considering that even in the Middle Age, it emerged as a very important cultural, commercial, political and economic center. The same can be said for Art History and Literature: what better destination than Dante Alighieri's city?

However, Florence does not only satisfy the classical imagination: its parks, gardens and natural history museum, for example, offer great opportunities to explore the subjects of Science and Geography.

Technology is also part of the topics that suit well for a trip to the Tuscan capital. The unique HZERO museum, for example, focuses on exploring the world of railways in all its aspects. From machinery to the evolution of the technology used over the decades, including the possibilities of the ever-expanding world of trains. All of this is described with a wonderful 280-square-meter model, the result of forty years of work, research and passion.

Where to go on a school trip in Tuscany: itinerary for a short educational tour

With only a few days available, visiting Tuscany is not possible if you don't have a well-organized itinerary. To make the best choice of where to go on a school trip to Tuscany, the first tip is to visit the most important cities such as Florence, Pisa, Siena and Pistoia. This means that you could spend only half a day or a full day in each city, without being able to visit each one completely. But, certainly, with the guarantee of not missing any of the major attractions.

• In our example, the arrival in Florence could be followed by an afternoon spent in the famous Piazza del Duomo: a medieval religious center of which the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral is the highlight. From Giotto's bell tower and the Baptistery of San Giovanni, we can move to Ponte Vecchio and admire the ancient goldsmith stores: the main center of Florentine commerce.
• After a relaxing evening, it's time to leave for Pisa. Piazza dei Miracoli, the baptistery and the Leaning Tower are some of the must-sees among its impressive monuments of high historical value.
• Day three could be dedicated to a trip to Siena, to breathe the medieval atmosphere of the Church of San Domenico and see the relics of St. Catherine, Patron Saint of Italy and Europe. Next, notes on Economy can be taken with a visit to the Monte dei Paschi di Siena building, the oldest banking institution of the continent. Finally, it will be impossible not to stop in Piazza del Campo: unique for its shell shape, it is the location of the world-famous Palio, which attracts thousands of visitors every year on the dates of July 2 and August 16.
• A day in Pistoia will close this journey into the Tuscan culture. Here you can choose between the more "classic" tour that includes the Church of St. Andrew, the Ospedale del Ceppo and  Piazza del Duomo, or finish the school trip with the longest underground tour in Tuscany: 650 meters that run alongside the ancient Brenta river course.

What is described is just a suggestion of what could be the plan for a short educational trip to Tuscany. This region offers many itineraries that can be organized according to the preferences of each school and the age of the students.

Planning a school trip to Florence: must-see sites

Although the city of Florence is an open-air museum, where every place hides priceless secrets about the history of Italy, like all cities, it has its most distinctive spots.

Before making a plan for a school trip to Florence, it is good to know the must-see stops. In a three-day itinerary, it is possible to visit the must-see monuments and museums without the pressure of seeing everything in a few hours.

From the political center to the beating heart of Renaissance art, from the life of Dante to the modernity of museums that reveal the backgrounds of everyday objects, Florence truly has something for everyone.

The Uffizi Gallery, even if it is one of the must-see places on a Florence tour, requires an entire afternoon to be properly visited. For this reason, it is not always possible to include it in a school itinerary. But if you have time, it is definitely the stop from which you can start to dive into different historical eras that have left their memorable mark on the Florentine city. Palazzo Pitti and Palazzo Vecchio are worth being included in the roadmap to experience the magnificence and politics of the past Florence.

Most Florentine museums offer a wide range of playful activities planned for children, making this itinerary appropriate for any level of education from elementary school onward.

The HZERO museum, for example, offers a variety of workshops planned for children and young people. It is an engaging, multidisciplinary course that combines the spectacularity of a large model studied in every detail with the acquisition of concepts and tools that are added to the cultural background offered by the study of school subjects.

“In viaggio” is an activity offered to primary and secondary school children: in a two-hour tour, a museum educator will guide the school group through the stops of the railroad model and the workshop activity related to the travel theme. The initiative, organized by "L'immaginario Associazione Culturale", brings into play expressive languages that engage the student to explore the discovery of the exciting world of the railroad. An original, and also educational, way to end the itinerary of an unforgettable school trip to Florence.