Museo dell’Opera di Santa Croce

The Museo dell’Opera contains renowned artworks such as the "Crucifix" by Cimabue, frescoes by Taddeo Gaddi and Andrea Orcagna and the graceful Pazzi Chapel designed by Brunelleschi.

type:	Museums
World66 rating:	[rate it]
address:	Piazza S. Croce, 16
openings:	summer: 10am-12.30pm - 2.30-6.30pm / winter: 10am-12.30 pm - 3-5pm - Closed Wed, Entr. L 3.000
tel:	+39 (0)55 - 244619

Il Duomo, Santa Maria del Fiore

Nave and apse of Duomo
photo by: Kim Rowland

Arnolfo di Cambio who began construction in 1296 designed Santa Maria del Fiore, the Gothic cathedral erected over the ancient basilica of Santa Reparata. Brunelleschi completed it in 1436 with the elegant dome, the inside of which was entirely frescoed by Vasari and Zuccari. The final phase in the construction of the cathedral, that is the completion of the façade, dates from the mid-19th century.

To the right of the cathedral rises the Bell Tower, or Campanile, designed by Giotto in 1334. The square tower is covered with red, green and white marble inlays, decorated more..

type:	Hotspots
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address:	Piazza Duomo
tel:	+39 (0)55 - 2302885
openingHours:	CATHEDRAL: 10 am - 5 pm, Entrance free; DOME: 8.30 am - 7 pm, Sat. 8.30 am - 5.40 pm, Entrance € 6; BELL TOWER: 8.30 am - 7.30 pm, Entrance € 6

The Badia Fiorentina

The city’s oldest monastery (978) is just a short distance from the Bargello museum. Here there is a masterpiece by Filippino Lippi. And nearby in the Palazzo Nonfinito is the rich Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology, while the Museo Casa di Dante (Dante’s house) is right behind the Badia.

type:	Convents
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Piazzale Michelangelo

Piazzale Michelangelo was built in 1869 to plans by Giuseppe Poggi; it offers a splendid panorama of the city. In the middle of this plaza stand bronze copies of Michelangelo’s "David" and the four statues on the tombs in the Medici Chapels.

Just above Piazzale Michelangelo is the basilica of San Miniato al Monte. Its green and white marble façade is considered one of the finest examples of the Florentine Romanesque style. Built between the 11th and 13th centuries, it contains fine artworks such as the chapel of the "Crucifixion" by Michelozzo and the chapel of the more..

type:	Squares
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Piazza della Republica

Piazza della Republica, Florence, Italy
photo by: Ellie Trevarthen

Build between 1890 and 1917, after the demolishing of the medieval Florentine town center. This square is at about the same location as the roman fortress once was. The statue of prosperity on the column is a copy of the one kept in the Palazzo della Casa di Risparmio.

The square is surrounded by banks and by terraces.

type:	Squares
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Piazza Signoria

Looking out from the loggia into Piazza Signoria
photo by: Kim Rowland

A welcome refresher after spilling out of the chaos on Via Calzaiuoli, Piazza Signoria is home to the Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi, and a loggia housing some of the most beautiful and famous statues of the world, including Giambologna's "The Rape of the Sabines" and Cellini's "The Triumphant Perseus." A marker in the square decorates the spot where Savonarola was executed for heresy in 1498.

type:	Fountains and statues
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Santo Spirito

The church was designed by Brunelleschi and begun in 1444, it is one of the most beautiful examples of Renaissance architecture. The interior, in the shape of a Latin cross with three naves, is pure Brunelleschian style. The sacristy was built to plans by Giuliano da Sangallo. Next to the church is the Cenacle of Santo Spirito, where there is still a fragment of the "Last Supper" by Andrea Orcagna

type:	Churches
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address:	Piazza S. Spirito

Cappelle Medicee

type:	Churches
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address:	Piazza M.d. Aldobran
openings:	Lit. 11000
tel:	+39 (0)55 - 2388602

Convento di San Marco

Michelozzo rebuilt and expanded this convent for Cosimo the Elder, and it still contains the splendid frescoes that Beato Angelico painted to decorate the monk’s cells. Inside there is also a beautiful library that Michelozzo designed in 1448; this, the first public library of the Renaissance, contains many fine illuminated manuscripts.

The church of San Marco that stands alongside the convent was redesigned by Michelozzo.

type:	Convents
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Uffizi Gallery – Galleria degli Uffizi

photo by: Kim Rowland

The Uffizi Gallery, founded in Florence in 1581, by the De Medici family, is one of the oldest museums in the world. Many important works of Italian and other schools, dating from between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries, are kept here, including the largest existing collection of Tuscan Renaissance paintings.

The Uffizi Palace was constructed in the mid-sixteenth century by the architect Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) in the period when Cosimo de' Medici, first Grand Duke of Tuscany, was bureaucratically consolidating his recent takeover of power. Built in the form of a more..

type:	Museums
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email:	info@uffizi.firenze.it
address:	Piazza Uffizi
url:	www.uffizi.firenze.it
openings:	Tue – Sun 8.15am – 7pm, closed on mondays, Lit. 12000
tel:	+39 (0)55 - 2388699

Galleria della Accademia

This is one of many important museums in Florence, because it houses famous sculptures by Michelangelo, including the stunning and most well-known version of "David." There are also many paintings, collected by the Grand Duke Peter Leopold to help the young artists enrolled in the Accademia d’Arte, which is still next door to the gallery. No photos are allowed to be taken of anything inside the museum.

type:	Hotspots
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address:	Via Ricasoli 58-60
openings:	9am-7pm, holidays: 9am - 2pm, closed Mondays, entrance EURO 9.50
tel:	+39 (0)55 – 2388609 or 23885

Palazzo Pitti

The Pitti Palace was begun during the second half of the fifteenth century by Luca Pitti, but was unfinished at his death in 1472. Tradition says that the palace was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) and built by his pupil Luca Fancelli. The original construction on two floors above a ground floor with only five windows on each floor, was bought in 1550 by Cosimo I de' Medici's wife, Eleonora of Toledo and became the official residence of the grand ducal family. The palace was then enlarged and altered; from 1560 date the grandiose courtyard and the two lateral wings, more..

type:	Catacombs
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address:	Piazza Pitti 1
tel:	+39 (0)55 - 213 440

Palazzo Davanzati

This building dates from the mid-14th century. the antique dealer Elia Volpi purchased it in the early years of the 20th century and restored and furnished it, to recreate a period Florentine home. The many rooms, several of which are decorated with frescoes and fine coffered ceilings, contain carved and inlaid furniture, chests, benches, paintings, tapestry, sculptures, ceramics, items used every day and in the kitchens. It’s one of the finest examples of trecento palazzi in Florence, though the loggia is an addition of the 15th century.

type:	Palazzi
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address:	Via Porta Rossa 9
openingHours:	7 am to 7pm

Brancacci Chapel and Museum (Sta. Maria del carmine)

This chapel is famous throughout the world for its frescoes by Masaccio, a masterpiece of Renaissance painting; it is located in the 13th century church of Santa Maria del Carmine. Masolino was commissioned to do the frescoes and he began work in 1424 with the help of Masaccio. When Masaccio left Florence, Filippino Lippi completed the frescoes after 1480.

type:	Churches
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address:	Piazza del Carmine
openings:	weekdays 10am-5pm, holidays l-5pm, closed on Tue, entr. L. 6.000 (red. L. 3000)
tel:	+39 (0)55 - 2382195

Santa Felicita

Inside this church, in the Capponi chapel is Pontormo’s painting of the "Deposition" (1525-28) which is considered one of the masterpieces of Florentine Mannerism.

type:	Churches
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Santa Trinita

This church, built in the second half of the 11th century, was enlarged and modified according to the Gothic style in the early 14th century. The pietra forte façade was made to designs by Buontalenti towards the end of the 16th century. The major artworks inside the church are the Sassetti Chapel with the fresco cycle depicting "Scenes from the Life of St. Francis of Assisi" and the panel painting of the "Adoration of the Shepherds" by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1483-86). *D:Orsanmichele Originally this building, a loggia designed by Arnolfo di Cambio (1209), was a granary and more..

type:	Churches
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Cenacle of Ghirlandaio

Domenico Ghirlandaio’s painting of the “Last Supper”, of which even the synopia is visible, graces the former refectory of the monastery adjacent to the Church of Ognissanti.

type:	Convents
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Anthropology Museum

type:	Museums
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address:	Via Proconsolo,12
openings:	Thur., Fri. and Sat. & 3rd Sun. of the month: 9am-lpm, entr. free
tel:	+39 (0)55 - 2396449

The district of Santo Spirito in Oltrarno

This picturesque neighborhood populated by craftsmen, restorers and antique dealers, gets its name from the Church of Santo Spirito. The church is only one of the major sights, together with the Palazzo Pitti and the Piazzale Michelangelo.

Santa Maria Novella

Begun in 1246 for Dominican friars, the church was completed in 1360. Leon Battista Alberti who designed the upper part completed the white and green marble Gothic-Romanesque façade.

Inside the church there are splendid masterpieces including "The Trinity" by Masaccio, frescoes by Filippino Lippi and Ghirlandaio in the Tornabuoni chapel, a Crucifix by Giotto and a wooden Crucifix by Brunelleschi.