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Chiesa di San Barnaba
It is no coincidence that this early-14th-century church lies on the corner of Via Guelfa, as it was built to celebrate a victory by the Florentine Guelphs over a Ghibelline (pro-Holy Roman Empire) army from Arezzo on 11 June 1289, the feast day of St Barnabus, to whose intercession Florence attributed victory. The entrance is topped by a ceramic Madonna col Bambino (Madonna and Child) by Giovanni della Robbia (added in the 16th century).
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Chiesa di San Firenze
From as early as 1645, the Oratorian Fathers wanted to expand the small parish church of San Firenze. For the next century, architects and finances came and went, and the design continued to change. The original church, which stood on the right flank of the present building, was to have a chapel and convent added. In the end, a new church, dedicated to St Philip Neri, was built on the left flank and the San Firenze church was reduced to an oratory.
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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 San Pancrazio & Museo Marino Marini
As early as the 9th century a church stood here. The shabby-looking version you see today is what remains of the original building from the 14th and 15th centuries. The church, deconsecrated in the 19th century, now houses the Museo Marino Marini. Donated to the city by the Pistoia-born sculptor Marino Marini (1901-80), the collection contains about 200 of the artist's works, including sculptures, portraits and drawings. The overwhelmingly recurring theme appears to be man and horse, or rather man on horse.
Read more about Chiesa di San Pancrazio & Museo Marino Marini
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Chiesa di Sant'ambrogio
A rather dull 18th-century façade hides centuries of church history on this site. The first church here was raised in the 10th century, but what you see inside is a mix of 13th-century Gothic and 15th-century refurbishment. The name comes from the powerful 4th-century archbishop of Milan, Sant'Ambrogio (St Ambrose), who stayed in an earlier convent on this site when he visited Florence. The church is something of an artists' graveyard too.
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Chiesa di Santa Felicita
The most captivating thing about the façade of this 18th-century remake of what had been Florence's oldest (4th-century) church is the fact that the Corridoio Vasariano passes right across it. The Medici could drop by and hear Mass without being seen!
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Chiesa di Santa Margherita
Dante fans will like to know that it was in this tiny 11th-century church, in the poet's old stomping ground, that he is said to have first espied his muse, Beatrice Portinari. And it is here that he ended up marrying Gemma Donati, to whom he had been promised.
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Chiesa di Santa Trinita
This church was built in the 13th century, rebuilt in the Gothic style and later graced with an uninviting mannerist façade; you can though get some idea of the Romanesque original from inside. Its most famous art is in the Cappella Sassetti, a cycle of Ghirlandaio frescoes depicting the life of St Francis of Assisi.
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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 e Convento di Santa Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi
The main treat inside this former convent complex is not so much the church as what lies beyond it, a remarkable fresco of the crucifixion of Christ done by Pietro Il Perugino in 1493-96. The beauty and freshness of the colours are all the more amazing because they have never been touched by restorers.
Read more about Chiesa e Convento di Santa Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi
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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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Chiostro dello Scalzo
You'd never guess what's inside this modest cloister ( chiostro ) of a church long gone. Treat yourself to the sounds of silence (few tourists make it here) and admire the sepia frescoes on the life and death of John the Baptist carried out in stop-start fashion by Andrea del Sarto throughout the course of his career.
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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.
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Corridoio Vasariano
When Cosimo I moved to Palazzo Pitti in 1564, he got Vasari to build a 1km-long private corridor from the Palazzo Vecchio, through the Uffizi, across the top of Ponte Vecchio, through the Chiesa di Santa Felicita and into their new home. It was a security measure and a means of avoiding the riff-raff. Long home to a collection of secondary art, it is at present closed to the public.
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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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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.
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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.
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Galleria d'Arte Moderna
In Florentine art, 'modern' means from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th, and the most interesting part - not necessarily the best - of this collection is the work of the late-19th-century Macchiaioli ('spot-makers'), or Tuscan impressionists.
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Galleria degli Uffizi
Designed and built by Vasari in the second half of the 16th century at the request of Cosimo I de' Medici, the Palazzo degli Uffizi, originally housed the city's administrators, judiciary and guilds. It now houses the world's single greatest collection of Italian and Florentine art. Be warned, if you don't book ahead you could be queuing for literally hours.
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Galleria del Costume
This gallery on the ground floor of the Palazzo Pitti displays thousands of dresses that reflect the changing styles of court and high fashion from the late 1700s to the 1960s.
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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.
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Giardino Delle Rose
For a brief spring moment, this pungent garden comes to colourful life. A plethora of rose varieties and a modest Japanese garden are on show, and you are high enough here to enjoy views over the city too. The main entrance is a about halfway along the pedestrianised street leading up to Viale Galileo Galilei from the San Niccolò area.
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Giardino di Boboli
The Boboli Gardens were laid out in a blend of Mannerist and Baroque styles in the 16th century as a backyard for Cosimo I and his ailing wife in Palazzo Pitti. Dotted with fountains, ponds and statuary, it is a beautiful green haven in which you will also find the Museo delle Porcellane and the restored 18th-century Kaffeehaus, perfect for a cuppa.
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Il Genio di Leonardo
Odd how two such museums have landed in Florence. This one is very similar to Le Macchine di Leonardo though slightly less complete and a trifle more expensive. As in the other, you can see life-size models of Leonardo da Vinci's big ideas, from a glider to a tank. Whatever you do, do not visit both museums!
