Museo Nazionale del Bargello

Lonely Planet review

Begun in 1254, the Palazzo del Bargello was originally the residence of the chief magistrate and then a police station. During its days as a police complex, many people were tortured in the medieval courtyard and, for a long time, the city's prisons were located here. It now houses the most comprehensive collection of Tuscan Renaissance sculpture in Italy.

Notable entry-level works include Michelangelo's drunken Bacchus , the designs submitted by Brunelleschi for the Baptistry Doors Competition (Ghiberti won that one) and Giambologna's Mercury , plus a prized collection of decorative arts that includes a room full of glazed terracotta by the renowned della Robbia family. Up the grand staircase to the magnificent hall, the rapture continues with the vigorous genius of Donatello. His very suave and effeminate bronze David looks like he might have charmed Goliath into submission, and it's interesting to compare it to his earlier works, including a very different marble David , a gallant St George that once graced the facade of Chiesa di Orsanmichele, and the heraldic lion, the Marzocco .