Duomo & Piazza della Signoria
Home to the world's greatest collection of Italian Renaissance art, Florence's premier gallery occupies the vast U-shaped Palazzo degli Uffizi (1560–80),…
Duomo & Piazza della Signoria
Home to the world's greatest collection of Italian Renaissance art, Florence's premier gallery occupies the vast U-shaped Palazzo degli Uffizi (1560–80),…
Basilica di Santa Maria Novella
Santa Maria Novella
The striking green-and-white marble facade of 13th- to 15th-century Basilica di Santa Maria Novella fronts an entire monastical complex, comprising…
Duomo & Piazza della Signoria
This fortress palace, with its crenellations and 94m-high tower, was designed by Arnolfo di Cambio between 1298 and 1314 for the signoria (city government…
San Lorenzo & San Marco
At the heart of Florence's university area sits Chiesa di San Marco and an adjoining 15th-century Dominican monastery where both gifted painter Fra'…
Duomo & Piazza della Signoria
Florence's duomo is the city's most iconic landmark. Capped by Filippo Brunelleschi's red-tiled cupola, it's a staggering construction whose breathtaking…
Duomo & Piazza della Signoria
This awe-inspiring story of how the duomo and its cupola came to life is told in this well-executed museum. Among its sacred and liturgical treasures are…
Duomo & Piazza della Signoria
A Renaissance masterpiece, the duomo's cupola – 91m high and 45.5m wide – was built between 1420 and 1436. Filippo Brunelleschi, taking inspiration from…
San Lorenzo & San Marco
A queue marks the door to this gallery, built to house one of the Renaissance's most iconic masterpieces, Michelangelo's David. But the world's most…
San Lorenzo & San Marco
Nowhere is Medici conceit expressed so explicitly as in the Medici Chapels. Adorned with granite, marble, semiprecious stones and some of Michelangelo's…
Santa Croce
The austere interior of this Franciscan basilica is a shock after the magnificent neo-Gothic facade enlivened by varying shades of coloured marble. Most…
Boboli & San Miniato al Monte
Commissioned by banker Luca Pitti in 1458, this Renaissance palace was later bought by the Medici family. Over the centuries, it was a residence of the…
Santa Croce
It was behind the stark walls of Palazzo del Bargello, Florence's earliest public building, that the podestà (governing magistrate) meted out justice from…
San Lorenzo & San Marco
Shortly after its founding in 1421, Brunelleschi designed the loggia for Florence's Ospedale degli Innocenti, a foundling hospital and Europe's first…
Oltrarno
Fire in the 18th century practically destroyed 13th-century Basilica di Santa Maria del Carmine, but it spared its magnificent chapel frescoes – a…
Santa Maria Novella
Don't allow the Renaissance to distract you from Florence's fantastic modern art museum, at home in a 13th-century pilgrim shelter, hospital and school. A…
Duomo & Piazza della Signoria
Home to the wealthy Davanzati merchant family from 1578, this 14th-century palazzo (mansion) with a wonderful central loggia gives you a view into…
Boboli & San Miniato al Monte
Behind Palazzo Pitti, the fountain- and sculpture-adorned Boboli Gardens – slowly but surely being restored to their former pristine glory thanks to a €2…
Duomo & Piazza della Signoria
The 414-step climb up the cathedral's 85m-tall campanile, begun by Giotto in 1334, rewards with staggering city views. The first tier of bas-reliefs…
San Lorenzo & San Marco
Considered one of Florence's most harmonious examples of Renaissance architecture, this unfinished basilica was the Medici parish church and mausoleum. It…
Oltrarno
The facade of this Brunelleschi church, smart on Florence's most shabby-chic piazza, makes a striking backdrop to open-air concerts in summer. Inside, the…
Oltrarno
Astonishing. Behind the unassuming facades of Via de' Serragli lies a vast, secret garden – Europe’s largest privately owned green space...
Oltrarno
Dating from 1345, iconic Ponte Vecchio was the only Florentine bridge to survive destruction at the hands of retreating German forces in 1944. Above…
Boboli & San Miniato al Monte
Turn your back on the bevy of ticky-tacky souvenir stalls flogging David statues and boxer shorts and take in the spectacular city panorama from this vast…
Duomo & Piazza della Signoria
This 1km-long covered passageway, currently closed for restoration work, connects Palazzo Vecchio with the Uffizi and Palazzo Pitti. Vasari designed it in…
Duomo & Piazza della Signoria
This 11th-century baptistry – the oldest religious building on the vast cathedral square – is a Romanesque, octagonal-striped structure of white-and-green…
Boboli & San Miniato al Monte
This 17th-century villa and garden was named after 19th-century antiquarian art collector Stefano Bardini (1836–1922), who bought it in 1913 and restored…
Chiesa e Museo di Orsanmichele
Duomo & Piazza della Signoria
This unusual and inspirational church, with a Gothic tabernacle by Andrea Orcagna, was created when the arcades of an old grain market (1290) were walled…
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
San Lorenzo & San Marco
Beyond the Basilica di San Lorenzo ticket office lie peaceful cloisters framing a garden with orange trees. Stairs lead up the loggia to the Biblioteca…
Santa Maria Novella
Built in Gothic style and later given a mannerist facade, this 14th-century church shelters some of the city's finest frescoes. Right of the main altar,…
Duomo & Piazza della Signoria
This 15th-century Renaissance mansion was built for wealthy merchant Filippo Strozzi, one of the Medici's major political and commercial rivals. Today it…
Boboli & San Miniato al Monte
Should you notice something gone awry with street signs in Oltrarno – on a No Entry sign, a tiny black figure stealthily sneaking away with the white bar…
Santa Maria Novella
Deconsecrated in the 19th century, Chiesa di San Pancrazio is home to this small art museum displaying sculptures by Pistoia-born sculptor Marino Marini …
San Lorenzo & San Marco
Once part of a sprawling Benedictine monastery, this cenacolo (refectory) harbours arguably the city’s most remarkable Last Supper scene. Painted by…
Santa Maria Novella
Take a break from Renaissance art with this pioneering urban street-art gallery. Exhibitions showcase the work of local street artists, including street…
Oltrarno
For a change of pace from the Renaissance, head to this Gothic-style former refectory safeguarding an imposing wall fresco by Andrea Orcagna depicting the…
Duomo & Piazza della Signoria
Renaissance palaces and Italian fashion houses border Via de' Tornabuoni, the city's most expensive shopping strip. Named after a Florentine noble family …
Duomo & Piazza della Signoria
The hub of local life since the 13th century, Florentines flock here to meet friends and chat over early-evening aperitivi (predinner drinks) at historic…
San Lorenzo & San Marco
Cosimo the Elder entrusted Michelozzo with the design of the family's town house in 1444. The result was this palace, a blueprint that influenced the…
Boboli & San Miniato al Monte
Forte di Belvedere is a rambling fort designed by Bernardo Buontalenti for Grand Duke Ferdinando I at the end of the 16th century. From the massive…
Duomo & Piazza della Signoria
On the Arno river next to the Uffizi in 12th-century Palazzo Castellani – look for the sundial telling the time on the pavement outside – is this state-of…