-
Museo Storico-Topograficao 'Firenze com'era'
The 'Florence as it was' museum charts the city's development - particularly from the Renaissance to today - with paintings, models, topographical drawings and prints. The most intriguing part are the pictures and models of the old city centre destroyed in the 19th century to make way for Piazza della Repubblica.
Read more about Museo Storico-Topograficao 'Firenze com'era'
-
Museo Zoologico La Specola
The Medici founded this rather fusty museum in the 1770s; it has a vast collection of preserved and pickled animals, and a ghastly section strewn with wax models of assorted and diseased bits of the human anatomy.
-
Opificio delle Pietre Dure
One of the most beautiful and overlooked of Florence's museums is attached to a workshop established by Ferdinando I in 1558 to create decorative pieces in pietra dura for the Cappelle Medicee. Now situated in the old convent of San Niccolò, it displays 19th-century workbenches and exquisite 'paintings in stones'.
-
Orto Botanico
Also known as the Giardino dei Semplici, this small botanical garden was the Medici herb garden, where all sorts of medicinal plants were grown for the city's pharmacies. It now belongs to the university and is an unexpectedly curious green patch in this part of the city. You can see a good deal of the garden from Via Giorgio la Pira.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Palazzo Nonfinito
Bernardo Buontalenti started work on this residence for the Strozzi family in 1593. He and others completed the Palladian-style 1st floor and courtyard but the upper floors were never completely finished, hence the building's name. Buontalenti's window designs and other details constitute a mannerist touch that takes the building beyond the classicist rigour of the Renaissance. The obscure Museo dell'Antropologia e Etnologia is housed here.
-
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.
-
Advertisement
-
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.
-
Parco delle Cascine
Florence's largest park is dotted with playgrounds and is a great place to let the little 'uns loose. Families take over at weekends and the park is a colourful scene with rollerbladers, kite-flyers, joggers and kids on bikes. In summer you can also use Le Pavoniere swimming pool.
-
Piazza de' Ciompi
Named after the textile workers who met around here to plan their 14th-century revolt, this piazza is best known for its Mercato delle Pulci (Flea Market) and Vasari's graceful 16th-century Loggia del Pesce (Fish Market), which is decorated with terracotta seafood and was moved here when the Mercato Vecchio (Old Market) was torn down. It is also a top spot for mums and dads to take the young kids for squeals of delight on the swings and mucking around with equally contented local little 'uns.
-
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.
-
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).
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Advertisement
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
