Uffizi Gallery - The Medici "offices" became a public museum in 1765. This small, but amazing gallery contains the core of the Italian Renaissance. The walls of this museum appear like an art history book that covers all the major works from ancient to late Renaissance. Of everything there, including Titian, Raphael, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Leonardo da Vinci, et al, one artist outshines all the others: Michelangelo. It's not only the unmatched skill and craftsmanship of his work, but that he always pushed the envelope. Before Michelangelo, all the "Adoration of Christ" images, which was what art was leading up to the Renaissance, depicted the spectators as if they had full knowledge of all that will transpire during the life of the baby. Michelangelo portrayed the onlookers with various levels of emotion, from curiosity to fear. In other words, with realism.