Showing 1-15 of 15 results
-
Arte dei Giudici e dei Notai
Dating to the 14th century, with Roman foundations, this building was once home to the judges and lawyers' guild. One of the city's premier restaurants, Alle Murate, is lodged beneath wonderfully restored frescoes. By day you can visit the place as a monument, possibly combining with a light lunch. By night you can dine beneath the ceiling frescoes in romantic style.
-
Casa Guidi
Welcome to chez Browning. Robert and Elizabeth Barrett rented rooms in 1847 and lived and scribbled here for many years. Elizabeth died here in 1861. The house, run by Eton College and the Landmark Trust, has been restored in 19th-century style and some of the furnishings belonged to the poetic couple. If you like it enough you can stay.
-
Cenacolo di Foligno
Long forgotten until stumbled upon in the 19th century, this Last Supper scene is thought to have been done by students of the Umbrian Renaissance artist Il Perugino (1445-1523) to his design. The organisation of the scene is classic, with Judas (sans halo) sitting on the wrong side of the table, grasping the sack of coins. Ring the doorbell for entry.
-
Cimitero Degli Inglesi
If you are a little sick of museums and need some air and a change of speed, you might consider heading east for the so-called English Cemetery. Located outside what were the city walls in 1828, and now effectively forming a large traffic island around which swarm thousands of hectic Florentine commuters, it is more accurately a Protestant cemetery and Swiss property.
-
Forte di Belvedere
Bernardo Buontalenti helped design the rambling fortifications here for Grand Duke Ferdinando I towards the end of the 16th century. The fort makes a wonderful place to stroll, hosts various temporary exhibitions and offers fine views of the city and a terrace bar.
-
Fortezza Da Basso
Alessandro de' Medici ordered this huge defensive fortress built in 1534, and the task went to a Florentine living in Rome, Antonio da Sangallo il Giovane. The Medici family in general and Alessandro in particular were not flavour of the month in Florence at the time, and construction of the fortress was an ominous sign of oppression. It was not designed to protect the city from invasion - Alessandro had recently been put back in the saddle after a siege by papal imperial forces.
-
Giardini d'Azeglio
A rare urban haven, this garden in the shady Piazza d'Azeglio has swings, slides and an old-fashioned merry-go-round. In the late afternoon it fills up with excited children and their wound-up guardians.
-
Loggia del Bigallo
This graceful 14th-century marble loggia, opposite the Battistero, was built for the Misericordia charity and served as a lost-and-found office for children; the poor mites who weren't collected within three days were sent on to foster homes. The confraternity has a small museum across the road behind the ambulances.
-
Palazzo Davanzati
This remarkable 14th-century mansion, nearing completion of a painstaking restoration, is a rare and exquisite example of the medieval mansion. On view now is probably the most interesting part, the first, or 'noble' floor, whose star is the family dining room or Sala dei Pappagalli (Parrot Hall), so named because of the birds in the fresco décor.
-
Palazzo dei Capitani di Parte Guelfa
In the middle of this well-preserved chunk of medieval Florence is the 13th-century 'Palace of the Guelph Faction's Captains', a fortified building raised on land confiscated from the Ghibellines and later touched up by Brunelleschi and Vasari.
-
Advertisement
-
Palazzo Pitti
When the Pitti, a wealthy merchant family, asked Brunelleschi to design their home, they did not have modesty in mind. Great rivals of the Medici, there is not a little irony in the fact that their grandiloquence would one day be sacrificed to the bank account.
-
Palazzo Strozzi
Fifteen buildings were knocked down to make way for this behemoth of golden, rusticated stone, which was built late in the 15th century for the obscenely wealthy Strozzi banking clan. It stayed in the family until 1937, and is now occasionally used as a temporary exhibition space.
-
Palazzo Vecchio
The 95m-high (312ft) bell tower of the fortress-like, rhomboid-shaped Palazzo Vecchio (Old Palace) soars above Piazza della Signoria, another famous Florence emblem. The palace was built by Arnolfo di Cambio between 1298 and 1314 and has been the seat of civic authority ever since.
-
Poggio Imperiale
From Porta Romana a straight boulevard, Viale del Poggio Imperiale, leads directly to this once-grand Medici residence, the 'Imperial Hill'. The neoclassical appearance is due to changes wrought in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is now home to a high school and girls boarding school. If you turn up alone you will probably be able to wander around this somewhat neglected site.
-
Via Maggio
No, it doesn't mean May St, but rather Via Maggiore (Main St). In the 16th century this was a rather posh address, as the line-up of fine Renaissance mansions duly attests. Palazzo di Bianca Cappello, at No 26, has the most eye-catching façade, covered as it is in graffiti designs. As a fugitive from Venice and Francesco I de' Medici's lover and later wife lived here, Ms Cappello didn't know too many dull moments.
Showing 1-15 of 15 results
