Audiovisual Tour Guides
FLORENCE WALKING TOUR
HISTORIC CITY CENTER
The BARDEUM Mobile App combines the magic of history, travel and storytelling by allowing visitors to not just see the sites, but step inside their stories.
STEP INSIDE THE STORY OF A TRUE EVENT AS YOU ARE GUIDED THROUGH FLORENCE'S HISTORIC CITY CENTER
During the late 14th century, Florentines began their long history with artistic competitions. Most of the city's marvels were commissioned through high-profile contests pitting the city's greatest artists against one another. These masterpieces of artistic and architectural engineering included Filippo Brunelleschi’s towering cathedral dome and the bronze doors of the Baptistery.
In 1501, the Cathedral Committee set forth a new competition - the creation of a large figure of the biblical David. For decades, a giant hunk of marble lay dormant in a corner of the cathedral's work yard. A generation earlier, two master sculptors tried their hand at creating a sculpture from this large marble block quarried from the white hills of Carrara, located along the Tuscan coast northwest of Florence. However, the block was awkward and strangely sized. Both sculptors ultimately abandoned the project. The question buzzing throughout the city was whether there was an artist talented enough to shape this long abandoned block of marble.
Controversially, it was a twenty-five year old, relatively unknown sculptor by the name of Michelangelo Buonarroti who won the commission. For three years the citizens of Florence waited to judge the young artist - their curiosity only growing greater by Michelangelo's highly secretive methods.
In 1504, when Michelangelo had deemed his work of art completed, the cathedral committee had hoped to avoid a riot by unveiling the statue David in the middle of the night - but the plan backfired. Instead, the midnight spectacle drew a frenzied mob...
In 1504, Florence, Italy, simmers with political intrigue and artistic ingenuity. The Medici family plots their return to prominence, but the city’s new leaders have other ideas. They have commissioned the young sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti to create a colossal David to stand as a symbol of the new Republic against the Medici’ Goliath.
Medici sympathizers have hired a band of mercenaries to ensure that this rumored masterpiece will never survive atop it’s intended pedestal at the gates of the Palazzo Vecchio. Follow the mercenary Alessio around Florence Cathedral and through the narrow streets and alleyways as he works to bring his clients’ destructive wishes to fruition in the Piazza della Signoria.
Learn about Renaissance Florence, Michelangelo, and one of the world’s greatest works of art by Stepping Inside the Story of BARDEUM’s The Unveiling of Michelangelo’s David.
LAURA MORELLI
AUTHOR
Laura Morelli is an American art historian and the author of travel guides and award-winning historical fiction, including the historical novel The Gondola Maker.
DAN JOHN MILLER
NARRATOR
An Audie award-winning voice-actor, Dan has been named a “Best Voice” by Audiofile magazine 5 years running. He has also had roles in Walk the Line and Leatherheads.