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Arte della Lana
The medieval headquarters of the Wool Guild is made up of a tower-house, echoing that very Florentine preoccupation with self-defence that clearly affected the guilds almost as much as it did feuding families. An eagle clutching a bundle, the guild's symbol, is embossed in stone in several places on the wall on Via Calimaruzza.
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Basilica di Santa Croce
Completed in 1385, this Gothic temple is as much the resting place of a Who's Who of Florentine greats as repository of stunning art. The magnificent facade is a neo-Gothic addition of the 19th century! Deceptive, huh? Michelangelo's tomb here was designed by Vasari. Galileo and the composer Rossini also rest in peace here.
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Basilica di Santo Spirito
A barmy Baroque high altar, added in the 17th century, tends to distract from Brunelleschi's clean and harmonious design, although it's still easy to appreciate the colonnade of pietra serena columns and side chapels, which are filled with Renaissance art, including works by Domenico Ghirlandaio and Filippino Lippi.
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Borgo San Frediano
Just north of Piazza del Carmine stretches Borgo San Frediano. The street and surrounding area have, to a degree, retained their feel of a working-class quarter where small-scale artisans have beavered away over the centuries. Many continue to do so.
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Campanile
Soaring gracefully by the side of the Duomo is the 84.7m-high Campanile (Bell Tower). You can admire its beauty from the outside and, if you're feeling fit, head inside and climb its 414 steps for some wonderful views of the Duomo and central Florence. Having designed the bell tower, Giotto began work on it in 1334. His death only three years later cut his contribution cruelly short, and it was left to Andrea Pisano and Francesco Talenti to continue the work.
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Casa Galleria
An unexpected sight in moody medieval Florence is this Art Nouveau townhouse, built by Giovanni Micheluzzi in 1911 in a rare moment of original 20th-century Florentine architecture. The striking and curvaceous façade is liberally laced with glass and iron - one of the few buildings of its genre in Florence that hasn't been pulled down.
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Certosa di Galluzzo
Dominating the village of Galluzzo, about 3km south along Via Senese from Porta Romana, is this quite remarkable 14th-century monastery. The Carthusian order of monks once had 50 monasteries in Italy. Of these, only two are now inhabited by monks of that order. The Certosa passed into Cistercian hands in 1955.
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Chiesa di San Miniato al Monte
Florence's finest Romanesque church, San Miniato, is an 11th-century treasure atop a hill in the Oltrarno. Named after the city's first Christian martyr, who legend says flew up here decapitated head in hand, the church boasts a multicoloured marble façade and, inside, a wealth of frescoes, mosaics and the Renaissance Cappella del Cardinale del Portogallo (1466).
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Chiesa di SS Michele e Gaetano
Even if you're not big on Baroque, the harmonious interior of this rare, intact example of the style is worth a visit (especially if you want to escape the crowds). It was built in the 11th century and completely overhauled in the 17th century according to a design by Buontalenti.
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Chiesa Russa Ortodossa
Rising incongruously above the smart palazzi north of the centre are five graceful onion domes belonging to the Russian Orthodox Church, built and decorated by Russian architects and artists in 1902. Florence was a popular 19th-century winter retreat for wealthy Russians - Tchaikovsky and Dostoevsky among them.
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Duomo
This is the holy centre of Florence and once the site of the town's Roman temple. As the city emerged to become the dominant power in medieval Tuscany, it lavished money and genius on this piazza, a place for Florence to beat its chest proudly and show the world its greatness.
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Fiesole
Nestled in the hilly valleys between the Arno and Mugnone rivers, beautiful Fiesole offers spectacular views of nearby Florence (8km to the south) and is a welcome fresh-air retreat from the city bustle. The city readily reveals its Etruscan, Roman and Renaissance past, and in summer it has attracted the likes of Boccaccio, Proust, Gertrude Stein and Frank Lloyd Wright.
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Palazzo Antinori
One of Florence's most beautiful 'small' palazzi, this golden abode was built in 1465 for Giovanni Boni, a very rich member of the Money Changing Guild, but was taken over by the Antinori wine-making dynasty in the 16th century. Over 100 palazzi were built in the 15th century, when mercantile Florence was at its peak.
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Palazzo Medici-Riccardi
Cosimo rejected Brunelleschi's design for his new home as too flashy - after which, the furious architect smashed up the model - and plumped instead for Michelozzo's more discreet and refined design. The Riccardi family remodelled the house in the 17th century, but you can still see the Cappella dei Magi, a chapel bursting with the colour of Benozzo Gozzoli's Gothic frescoes depicting the arrival of the Three Wise Men in grand medieval-style procession.
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Piazza del Duomo
This is the holy centre of Florence and was once the site of the town's Roman temple. As the city emerged to become the dominant power in medieval Tuscany, it lavished money and genius on this piazza, a place for Florence to beat its chest proudly and show the world its greatness.
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Piazza della Repubblica
In a masterstroke of 19th-century middle-class fatheadedness, this brash, broad and breezy square was ruthlessly gouged out of the ancient city centre (wiping out the Roman forum) during Florence's brief spell as the Italian capital. A huge memorial plaque atop a bombastic triumphal arch proclaims stridently ' l'antico centro della città da secolare squallore a nuova vita restituito ' (the ancient city centre returned to new life after centuries of squalor).
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Piazza della Santissima Annunziata
This elegant and relaxed 16th-century space is flanked on three sides by arcades, including the Brunelleschi-designed and La Robbia-decorated façade of the Spedale degli Innocenti. Commanding from the centre is Ferdinando I de' Medici , Giambologna's last statue, finished by his student Pietro Tacca, who also designed the two bizarre Baroque bronze fountains after, perhaps, one too many sleepless nights.
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Piazza della Signoria
A massive holding tank for tourists (if you want space, bring a bicycle bell), the city's most splendid piazza was created virtually by accident in the 13th century and - lined with replicas of famous sculptures and historical buildings - has been the hub of Florentine political life ever since.
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Piazza di Santa Croce
Basilica di Santa Croce keeps haughty watch over this piazza, which was cleared in the Middle Ages to accommodate the overflow from the church. Once the scene of colourful jousts, festivals and the ferocious Calcio Storico, it was also Savonarola's preferred place to execute heretics. Jammed with tourists by day, it's much more pleasant in the evenings when reclaimed by the locals.
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Piazza di Santa Maria Novella
This vast five-sided piazza was extended several times to accommodate the huge crowds drawn to the Dominican church. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, it hosted the annual Palio dei Cocchi (Chariot Race), which went around the two marble obelisks atop bronze turtles made by Giambologna in 1608.
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Piazza di Santo Spirito
Florence's most lively, yet laid-back and local piazza is lined with good cafés and bars spilling out onto the square beneath the façade of Brunelleschi's basilica. It attracts a mixed crowd of students, layabouts, artists, slumming uptowners, savvy foreigners and dodgy hash dealers.
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Piazzale Michelangelo
A few twists and turns above Porta San Niccolò, this affable piazza has a carnival atmosphere at sunset and is the most popular vantage point for views over the city, partly because the car park is big enough to accommodate tour buses.
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Ponte Alle Grazie
In 1237, Giovanni Villani tells us, Messer Rubaconte da Mandella, a Milanese then serving as external martial (podestà) in Florence, had this bridge built. It was swept away in 1333 and on its replacement were raised chapels, one of them dubbed Madonna alle Grazie (Our Lady of the Graces), from which the bridge then took its name.
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Ponte Vecchio
The first documentation of a stone bridge here, at the narrowest crossing point along the entire length of the Arno, dates from 972 AD. The Arno looks placid enough but when it gets mean, it gets very mean. Floods in 1177 and 1333 destroyed the bridge, and in 1966 it came close again.
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Porta Romana
Pilgrims to Rome headed down Via Romana leaving Florence behind them. The end of the road is marked by the Porta Romana, an imposing gate that was part of the outer circle of city walls knocked down in the 19th century. A strip of this wall still stretches to the north from the gate.
