Casa Buonarroti, on via Ghibellina between Santa Croce and Sant'Ambrogio, is the house that Michelangelo bought and his descendants turned into a shrine to the artist. Though he never lived here, the family filled it with his works and memorabilia, and his great-nephew decorated the upper rooms with allegorical paintings celebrating the family's most famous son.
The collection includes two of Michelangelo's earliest marble reliefs, the Madonna of the Stairs and the Battle of the Centaurs, carved while he was still a teenager, along with drawings, models, and the wooden model for the facade of San Lorenzo. It is a small, quiet museum that rewards anyone interested in the master, a welcome contrast to the queues at the Accademia.