 Introduction
Arrival
By plane:
Peretola Airport (Florence Airport, Amerigo Vespucci) is served by around forty domestic and international flights each day connecting with all major Italian airports and 13 European destinations: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Bucharest, Frankfurt, Geneva, London Gatwick, Madrid, Monaco, Paris, Timisoara, Tirana and Vienna.The airport is located 4km north-west of Florence, in the direction of Prato. The local companies SITA and ATAF run a bus service between the airport and Santa Maria Novella Station.
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Pisa's international Airport (Galileo Galilei) is the most important in Tuscany: it links the city with major Italian and European destinations which is served by budget airlines Ryanair, Easyjet and Thomsonfly from a range of UK regional airports.The airport of Pisa is connected to Pisa Central Station by many routes, among which there are eight direct trains from the airport of Florence. There is also a shuttle coach service run by Terravision from Pisa Airport to Florence (Santa Maria Novella Station). The journey takes 70 minutes.
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By car:
From Rome:(274 Km) or Naples:(472 Km) highway A1 will conveniently get you to your destination; exit at Firenze Sud. From Milan: (305 Km) the same highway A1 will bring you to Florence going by Bologna: (110 Km). From Venice: (261 km) and from the Northeast take A13 Padova-Bologna and continue on A1 up to Florence. Those coming from the Tyrrhenian coast, from Genoa:, Pisa: or Lucca:, must take A11 Pisa-Firenze.
By train:
Florence is well-connected to Italy's rail network. Florence is situated on the Milan-Rome line, with frequent and rapid connections both ways. Frequent services run from Florence's principal station, Stazione Santa Maria Novella , to the other major Italian cities. From Venice there are two direct connections, otherwise you have to change in Bologna. Florence is connected to Pisa by many direct trains; those coming from Genoa or from the Tyrrhenian coast must usually change in Pisa. The station is convenient for the centre of Florence and within walking distance of many hotels. A few services (mostly night-time ones) stop at Campo di Marte, a secondary station to the east of Florence city centre. You can get information at your nearest train station or travel agent, or by contacting Trenitalia. You can buy railway tickets at the station and from most travel agents. There are automatic machines at the station that accept credit cards and cash.
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By bus:
Bus and coach services connect Florence to the rest of Tuscany: and Italy. Buses stop in various locations close to Stazione Santa Maria Novella. SITA, who run many regional services, have their own bus station (the Autostazione Sita) on Via Santa Caterina da Siena, a few yards from the railway station. Lazzi is responsible for long-haul bus services to other parts of Italy, mostly on routes south where train services are either nonexistent or painfully slow. Destinations include Potenza and Matera: (Basilicata) and some in Puglia: and Calabria:.
City Transport
Transport in Florence is run by an efficient organisation called ATAF. They have a bus station alongside Santa Maria Novella railway station (to the left as you leave your train). This is a good first stop for the tourist, as you can pick up a free bus map at their information kiosk which shows all the bus routes in central Florence, along with a street index and ticket information.
If you are sightseeing in the centre of Florence you are unlikely to use the buses much - most of the tourist sights are within walking distance of each other. However, there will undoubtedly be times when a short bus trip will be a welcome way to rest tired legs, so it's a good idea to buy a few single tickets on your arrival in Florence. Tickets should be bought before you board a bus, and validated in the machines on board. They can be purchased from bars and news-stands, and from the ATAF kiosk by the railway station.
Taxi
Taxis wait outside Stazione di Santa Maria Novella:, or you can get your hotel to phone one.
History and Culture
During the Middle Ages, ruled by great characters like Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, the town grew in size while its position on trade routes led to prosperity. Rich merchant families built themselves defensive towers and began the feuding that was to last for centuries. As the ambitious town grew, Florence was adopting a militant attitude to its Tuscan neighbours, with repeated wars against the likes of Fiesole, Pistoia and Siena. The argumentative character of the town was evidenced in its wars on local nobles and on rival towns, as well as rebellions and participation in wider conflicts, such as the vicious division of the city between the Guelph (pro-Emperor) and Ghibelline (pro-Pope) factions. The great plague of 1348 had halved the city's population. In the latter part of the 14th century the Medicis began consolidating power, eventually becoming bankers to the papacy. Cosimo Medici - patron of artists such as Donatello, Brunelleschi, Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi - became ruler of Florence. Perhaps the most famous Medici was Lorenzo, grandson of Cosimo, who took power in 1469. His court fostered a great development of art, music and poetry, and Lorenzo sponsored philosophers and artists such as Botticelli, da Vinci and Michelangelo.
The Medici proceeded to reign, with variable success, until the family died out in the 1700s. The city fell under the control of Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican monk who led a puritanical republic until he fell from public favour and was hanged and burned as a heretic in 1498. The Medicis returned to Florence in the 16th century, having united themselves by marriage with Emperor Charles V, and ruled for the next 200 years.
The next major change came with the revolutions leading to Italian unification. In the 1860s Florence became the capital of Italy, and King Vittorio Emmanuele II took up residence in the city, which saw major developments of wide streets and building on a large scale to accommodate the new administration. Florence remained the capital until Rome took over in 1875.
Modern History :
After 1890, large swathes of the medieval city were demolished by government officials and developers; buildings that had stood in the area of what is now Piazza della Repubblica since the early Middle Ages were pulled down to make way for undistinguished office blocks, and old quarters around Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella were razed. WWI left it spent, shocked and vulnerable to Fascist rhetoric. The city was one of Mussolini's most faithful strongholds. Florence was badly damaged during WWII by the retreating Germans, who blew up all its bridges except the Ponte Vecchio. The bridges were rebuilt after the war, but it wasn't the end of Florence's troubles; a great flood in 1966 caused widespread damage to the city and its art, the waters rising to swirl around the Duomo. Yet again Florence and its treasures had to be restored.
Recent History :
As the twentieth century turned into the twenty-first, Florence was one of the world's major holiday destinations, full of hotels, restaurants and shops catering for the steady influx of overseas tourists. Florence has rarely hit the headlines in recent times. It leads the quiet dignified life of a regional capital under a constant influx of tourists. In 1995 a car bomb killed five people and damaged works in the Uffizi gallery - this attack was attributed to the Sicilian Mafia. Otherwise Florence has been relatively untouched by sensation. Its streets could almost beguile you into thinking you've walked into a former age, untouched by the clamour of the wider world.
Churches and Museums
This is the holy centre of Florence and once the site of the town's Roman temple and it is the world's fourth-largest cathedral. Work on the Gothic cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore began in 1296 and was completed by Brunelleschi in 1436 with the famous Dome, which was painted inside with frescoes by Vasari and Zuccari. The square Bell tower designed by Giotto in 1334 stands on the right-hand side of the Cathedral and is covered in white, green and red marble. The Baptistery of San Giovanni, one of the oldest monuments in Florence (1128), is located opposite the Cathedral and is built in Florentine Romanesque style.
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Santa Maria Novella
From its front view, the church of Santa Maria Novella is one of the city's most gorgeous buildings. Built in the 13th century according to the wishes of the Dominican monks, the Church's facade is built in the Gothic-Romanesque style, with white and green marble. Important works of art inside are the frescoes by Masaccio portraying the Holy Trinity, the Crucifix by Brunelleschi and the one by Giotto.
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Basilica di Santa Croce
Santa Croce is a wonderful Gothic basilica containing superb frescoes by Giotto and others, built in the second half of the 12th century. Santa Croce contains several masterpieces: the Crucifix by Cimabue and the Cappella dei Pazzi, a chapel built by Brunelleschi. The Basilica is famous throughout the world because some famous people are buried inside it, such as Alfieri, whose tomb was sculpted by Canova.
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Orsanmichele
This church was built with the intention of becoming the people's grain market, but was immediately used as a place of worship. 14 niches can be seen in the church's outer walls containing the same number of statues of saints who are patrons of the arts and work “Corporations”.
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Basilica di San Lorenzo
The interior of this church was completed by Brunelleschi and later, by Michelangelo. The Basilica di San Lorenzo's facade is still not finished. There are some works of art inside: the two pulpits built by Donatello when he was already 74 years old, The Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana and the Tombe Medicee, works by Michelangelo, the Cappella dei Principi chapel with its magnificent decorations in marble and semi-precious stones.
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Basilica di Santo Spirito (St. Mary of the Holy Spirit)
The Basilica easily know as Santo Spirito is located on Oltrano neighbourd, in the square that has the same name of the church. This is one of the most important Renaissance architecture construction in Florence.
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The Battistero di San Giovanni (Florence Bapistry)
The Christian building is know as the oldest building of the city, the bronze doors are the most important artistic attraction. Is located in Piazza del Duomo, on the west side of this last one. Until the beginning of the nineteen hundred all Florentines were baptized in this church. It has the status of a minor basilica.
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Cappella Brancacci
The chapel was designed and decorated on the initiative of Felice Brancacci, who was a prosperous businessman in Florence. The painters held responsible for the much admired artwork are Masolino and Masaccio. However due to the death of one of the painters and the exile of the other the paintings could not be completed for sometime. The work resumed after a lapse of almost 50years in 1480 by a Filippo Lippi who was solely responsible for completing the frescoes.
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Cappella dei Pazzi (The Pazzi Chapel)
Is one of the most important renaissance architecture, located in the Basilica di Santa Croce, the construction begun on in the 1441 by Andrea Pazzi, who head the Pazzi family.
They were the second reach family of Florence immediately after the Medici family there where their family. The construction ended on the 1460s.
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Cappella Rucellai
The small temple of San Sepolcro is at the center of the 14th-century chapel which is annexed to the church of S. Pancrazio, the current home of the museum Marino Marini. It was designed by Giovan Battista Alberti, the architect who was also commissioned to build the family palace. The harmonious proportions of the temple and its antique style make it one of the most important examples of Florentine renaissance architecture. The work was finished in 1467, and was based on the size of the Santo.
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Cappelle Medicee
This magnificent complex includes the Cappella dei Principi, the Medici chapel and mausoleum that was begun in 1605 and kept marble workers busy for several hundred years, and the Sagrestia Nuova (New Sacristy), designed by Michelangelo and so called to distinguish it from Brunelleschi's Sagrestia Vecchia (Old Sacristy) in San Lorenzo. Michelangelo received the commission for the New Sacristy in 1520 from Cardinal Giulio de' Medici (1478-1534), who later became Pope Clement VII and who wanted a new burial chapel for his cousins Giuliano (1478-1534) and Lorenzo (1492-1519). The result was a tour de force of architecture and sculpture. Architecturally, Michelangelo was as original and inventive here as ever, but it is, quite properly, the powerful sculptural compositions of the side-wall tombs that dominate the room.
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La Chiesa di Ognissanti (The Church of Ognissanti)
is a Franciscan church in Florence, Italy. Founded by the lay order of the Umiliati, the church was dedicated to all the saints and martyrs, known and unknown. The construction ended on the 1250, but in the baroque time it was completely reconstructed respecting the design of Bartolomeo Pettirossi, about 1627, with a facade - by Matteo Nigetti. Its two orders of pilasters enclose niches and windows with fantastical cornices. To the left of the facade is a campanile of 13th and 14th century construction.
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La Chiesa di San Felice (The Church of St Felix)
is a Franciscan church in Florence, Italy. Founded by the lay order of the Umiliati, the church was dedicated to all the saints and martyrs, known and unknown. The construction ended on the 1250, but in the baroque time it was completely reconstructed respecting the design of Bartolomeo Pettirossi, about 1627, with a facade - by Matteo Nigetti. Its two orders of pilasters enclose niches and windows with fantastical cornices. To the left of the facade is a campanile of 13th and 14th century construction.
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Chiesa di San Miniato al Monte
For an uncrowded, panoramic view of Florence. There are other more popular viewpoints on the same side of the Arno, but San Miniato al Monte offers one of the highest and most natural (trees vs. concrete parking lots). From here you can also see some of the city's old fortifications, and there is a small souvenir shop that sells handpainted ceramics and copies of iconic paintings. To reach San Miniato, it is best to take the bus, a taxi, or rental car.
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Chiesa di San Salvatore al Monte
The building appears extremely simple. It has a plaster facade which is only animated by tympan windows and by portals. The everyday construction was the work of Cronaca who renewed and enlarged the church at the end of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth. The church was governed by the Franciscans and was limited to the space which is today known as the big chapel. The interior follows the model of other Florentine churches (eg Santa Maria Maddalena de'Pazzi).
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Chiesa di Santa Maria degli Angeli (Firenze)
Santa Maria degli Angeli is a former church and convent in Florence, Italy. It belonged to the Camaldolensian order, which was a reformed branch of the Benedictines. The order was founded in 1012 by the hermit St. Romuald at Camaldoli, near Arezzo, hence the name. Very little of the medieval building exists today.
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Chiesa di Santa Maria del Carmine
Santa Maria del Carmine is a church of the Carmelite Order, in the Oltrarno district of Florence, in Tuscany, Italy. It is famous as the location of the Brancacci Chapel housing outstanding Renaissance frescoes by Masaccio and Masolino da Panicale, later finished by Filippino Lippi.
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Chiesa di Santa Trinità
The Santa Trinità (Holy Trinity) church was erected in the middle of the 11th century. Originally Romanesque in style, the church underwent a Gothic remodeling during the 14th century. It was rebuilt several times and the present Baroque facade was made only at the end of the 16th century by Bernardo Buontalenti. The interior was restored in Gothic style at the end of the 19th century. Remains of the Romanesque construction are visible on the interior front wall.
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Chiesa di Santi Apostoli
The Church of Saint Apostoli in Florence, built in the 11th century, and adjusted in the 15th and 16th centuries, is one of the few in the city to have maintained its High Middle Ages style. It is located in Piazza del Limbo ("Limbo Square), so-called for it anciently housed a cemetery for children who died before having been baptized. A small bell tower was added by Baccio d'Agnolo in the 16th century.
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Basilica della Santissima Annunziata
The Basilica della Santissima Annunziata (Basilica of the Most Holy Annunciation) is a Roman Catholic minor basilica in Florence and the mother church of the Servite order. It is located at the northeastern side of the Piazza Santissima Annunziata.
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Chiesa di Santo Stefano
The church dates to at least 1116, and presents a Romanesque facade whose lower half is older, with simple doors bordered by architraves, and arches. The church was badly damaged during the Second World War, and again by the 1966 flood. The interior is rectangular, and originally had three aisles, which were merged into a single nave by F. Tacca between 1649 and 1655. The roof has exposed trellis-beams that are at two different elevations. The church has now been deconsecrated, and hosts the Orchestra Regionale Toscana. The front half of the church has altars from the 1500s, while the back half is architecturally subdivided into two orders that open towards the presbytery, which is proceeded by an interesting marble staircase with balustrades of a kind Bernardo Buontalenti had already placed in the Santa Trinita.
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Chiesa di San Gaetano (Saint Gaetano Church)
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Chiesa di San Michele Visdomini (Saint Michele Visdomini Church)
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Bargello
The National Museum, housed in a building that was the city prison dating back to 1200. It contains some of the best sculptures from the Tuscan Renaissance era. Some of the works of art in the Bargella are: the David by Donatello, Mercury by Gianbologna, and the bust of Brutus by Michelangelo.
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Galleria degli Uffizi (Uffizi Gallery)
The greatest art gallery in Italy is one of the largest museums in the world, a fitting memorial to the town's importance as the cradle of the Renaissance, this art museum contains one of the greatest collections of paintings in existence. It was built in the mid-sixteenth century, following a project by the architect Giorgio Vasari and still houses some of the most famous works of art by Italian and foreign painters from the 13th to 19th centuries, such as Tiziano, Cimabue, Giotto, Masaccio, Tintoretto, Leonardo, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Piero della Francesca, Raffaello, Caravaggio, Rubens, Rembrandt, Dürer and Goya.
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Museo di Storia della Scienza (The History of Sciences Museum)
This museum is dedicated to Tuscany's men of science, particularly Galileo Galilei, whose telescope, lens and finger are on display. In his memory, Florence founded an Academy of Experimentation and you can see early thermometers and barometers invented by the group, plus gadgets and innovations from around Europe.
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Casa Buonarroti
This palace was renovated in 1612 by Michelangelo Buonarroti “il giovane”, who decorated all the interior area of the building on his own, as a tribute to his ancestor. It is possible to see some early masterpieces by Michelangelo such as the Madonna della Scala(Madonna of the Steps) and the Battaglia dei Centauri. You'll also find a few drawings, portraits of him by other artists.
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Archeological Museum (Archaeological Museum)
The collection of artifacts on show in the Museum belonged to the Medici family, especially to Cosimo il Vecchio, and comprises objects from the Etruscan period: terracotta ornaments and sculptures in marble and bronze, including the Chimera di Arezzo and l'Arringatore. The Egyptian section, that was created thanks to the collection from another important family, the Lorena, is not to be missed.
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Galleria dell'Accademia (The Academy Gallery)
This Gallery was founded in 1784 by the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo, who decreed that all the schools of painting should be joined together in a single Academy. One of the most popular museums in Florence, the Gallery houses many sculptures by Michelangelo, including the famous David.
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Museo Bardini (Bardini Museum)
The building was constructed by an antiques dealer, Stefano Bardini, at the end of the 19th century and was left to the city council in 1922, together with his wide ranging collection. (sculptures, paintings, furniture, ceramics, tapestries, weapons, carpets, musical instruments, sarcophagi, tombstones, and funeral monuments.) The construction is unique in its use of doors, windows, and arches from churches or ruined villas and with Venetian and Tuscan wooden ceilings. As well as the Roman.
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Museo degli Argenti (The Silvers Museum)
The Museum is located in the Summer Apartments on the ground floor and on the mezzanine floor of the Pitti Palace. The Granduke Ferdinando I, made these rooms decorated in 1635, on the occasion of his wedding with Vittoria della Rovere. The Museum houses the important Medici’s Treasure. The Museum is named after the silvers of the Salzburg Treasure, belonged to the Bishops of Salzburg and brought to Florence by Ferdinand III of Lorena in 1815. An important new section devoted to the Contemporary Jewellery has recently been opened to testify the vitality of this historical Museum. A new setting houses the Japanese and Chinese Medici's porcelain collection.
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Museo della Casa Fiorentina Antica (Antique Florentine House Museum)
Palazzo Davanzati was erected in the second half of the 14th century by the Davizzi, a family of well-going wool traders. In 1516 it was sold to the Bertolini and, in the same century, to the Davanzati family, also rich merchants (1578), who held it until 1838: after the suicide of Carlo Davanzati, it was split into different quarters and modified. On the 19th century, it was bought by Elia Volpi, an antiquarian, and restored in the original style. In 1910 it was opened as a private museum, but in 1916 all its furniture were sold in New York. In the 1920 Vitale e Leopoldo Bengujat, also antiquarian, acquired the edifice. After the changes of property, in 1951 it became a state possession, and was adapted as a museum. In the 1990s it was restored. The museum was partially reopened in 2005.
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Museo della Fondazione Horne (Horne Foundation Museum)
The wealthy English art critic Herbert Percy Horne (1864-1916) gave the State a valuable collection of paintings, sculptures, drawings, furniture and ancient ornaments and utensils which are now on display in the Palazzetto Horne. This building, also transferred to the State, was built in the late 15th century for the Alberti family, probably by Simone del Pollaiolo (Cronaca), and later belonged to the Corsi family. The collection was seriously damaged in the 1966 floods, especially the groundfloor exhibits.The first floor holds 14th-16th century paintings, including works by Simone Martini, Benozzo Gozzoli, Pietro Lorenzetti, Filippino Lippi and Bernardo Daddi. Among exhibits on the second floor are furniture made in Florence, drawings, roundels and terracottas (all 15th/16th century).
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Museo delle Carrozze (Carriage Museum)
The museum is located in the round intersection to the right of the Palazzo Pitti. It contains a collection of the carriages which belonged to the ruling families of Savoy and Lorena between the 17th and 19th centuries. The museum is currently closed to the public for restoration. Admission: by request only.
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Museo delle Porcellane (Porcellane Musueum)
Situated inside the Boboli gardens, this collection consists mainly of table porcelain used by the Grand Ducal and Royal households of the Medici, Lorena and Savoy families. The collection is divided by national origin and by manufacturer: Italian and French porcelain is displayed along with pieces from Doccia, the local Florentine factory. The collection of French porcelain from Sevres was brought to Florence from Savoy and part of it is a gift from Napoleon I to his sister Elisa Baiocchi who was the Duchess of Tuscany from 1809 to 1814. Admission: EUR 6 and includes entry to the Museo delle Costume , Giardino di Boboli , Museo degli Argenti and the Museo Bardini.
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Museo dell'Opera del Duomo
This museum has been totally renovated and is located behind the Duomo. The museum shelters many works of art from the Duomo (cathedral), Campanile (bell tower) and Battistero (Baptistery), such as the statue of Boniface VIII, the work of Arnolfo di Cambo, or Donatello's Saint John and Magdalene. The furnishings are also important, for example, the silver altar from the Battistero and the restored panels of the "Gates of Paradise".
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Museo dell'Opera di Santa Croce
A massive Gothic church housing the remains of some of the biggest names in European history, from Michelangelo to Galileo. What is most amazing about this church is the number of notable tombs here. You can walk in awe past the tombs of Michaelangelo, Gallileo, Dante, Machievelli.
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Museo dell'Opificio delle Pietre Dure
Adjacent to this fascinating small museum is an opificio, or workshop, that Ferdinand I established in 1588 to train craftsmen in the art of working with precious and semiprecious stones and marble (pietre dure means hard stone). Four hundred-plus years later, the workshop is renowned as a center for the restoration of mosaics and inlays in semiprecious stones. The museum is highly informative and includes some magnificent antique examples of this highly specialized and beautiful craft.
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Museo di Palazzo Davanzati
The museum is found in a narrow and characteristic side-street which connects Piazza Santa Trinità with Via dei Calzaiuoli. The building is one of the most beautiful and best conserved of the 14th century. It was built halfway though the 14th Century by the Davizzi family and was passed over to the Davanzati at the beginning of the 16th Century where it remained until 1838. It then was divided up and it was only at the beginning of the 20th Century that it was bought and restored to the style of the old Florentine building. This was due to the efforts of the new owners, the antiquarian Elia Volpi and Leopoldo Bengujat. The interior has three floors and all the areas of the building have the original fired brick flooring and wooden ceilings. Some of the painting is original and the walls have been frescoed to the taste of the typical 14th Century Florentine house. The furniture and furnishings are from the 14th to the 19th Centuries. The area under the building is used for antiques exhibitions and has been the site of archaeological finds.
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Museo di San Marco(The San Marco Museum)
in located in the Convento di San Marco, not far from the Accademia Gallery in Florence Italy (FirenzE). The 14th century monastery contains paintings by Fra Angelico, an early Renaissance artist. The church faces Piazza de San Marco in the San Marco District of Florence.
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Museo di Santa Maria Novella (Santa Maria Novella Museum)
The cloisters of Santa Maria Novella's convent are open to the public as a museum. The Chiostro Verde, with a cypress-surrounded fountain and chirping birds, is named for the greenish tint in the pigment used by Paolo Uccello in his frescoes. His works line the right wall of the first walkway; the most famous is the confusing, somewhat disturbing first scene you come to, where the Flood and Recession of the Flood and the Drunkenness and Sacrifice of Noah (1446) are all squeezed onto one panel as the story lines are piled atop one another and Noah appears several times. The two giant wooden walls on either side are meant to be the Ark, shown both before and after the Flood, seen in extreme, distorting perspective. The Cappella degli Spagnoli (Spanish Chapel) got its name when it became the private chapel of Eleonora of Toledo, recently arrived in Florence to be Cosimo de' Medici's bride. The pretty chapel was entirely frescoed by Andrea da Firenze and his assistants in a kind of half Florentine-half Sienese style around 1365.
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Museo Marino Marini (Marino Marini Museum)
The Museo Marino Marini, housed in the deconsecrated and renovated church of San Pancrazio, is a pleasing blend of old and new. The interior space has been beautiful designed as an open, airy showcase for Marini's sculptures, drawings, and paintings.The first contemporary art museum in Florence houses more than 170 works of Marini, one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century.
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Museo Salvatore Ferragamo (Salvatore Ferragamo Museum)
This museum is like heaven to shoe buffs since it houses a collection of more than 10,000 shoes dating from the 1920s. Salvatore Ferragamo was born in 1898 in Bonito, near Naples, the eleventh of 14 children. After making his first pair of shoes at age nine, for his sisters to wear on their confirmation, young Salvatore decided that he had found his calling and become a fabulous shoe designer. He always had a passion for shoes. After studying shoemaking in Naples for a year, Ferragamo opened a small store based in his parent's home. In 1914, he emigrated to Boston, where one of his brothers worked in a cowboy boot factory.
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Cenacolo di Sant'Apollonia
In the former convent of Cenacolo di Sant’Apollonia is a masterpiece painted by the artist Andrea del Castagno known as the Last Supper. It is thought that the inspiration for the painting came from his trip to Venice in about 1444. Inside this beautiful building you can see frescoes depicting three scenes from the Passion of Christ, they are The Crucifixion, Entombment, and The Resurrection. The convent is now a museum, which was opened at the end of the 19th Century. It displays many other works by Andrea del Castagno. Castagno used his paint to create the rich marble panels that checkerboard the trompe l'oeil walls and broke up the long white tablecloth with the dark figure of Judas the Betrayer, whose face is painted to resemble a satyr, an ancient symbol of evil.
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Cenacolo di Santo Spirito
The dark and haphazard museum in the church's old refectory (entrance to the left of Santo Spirito's facade) has a gathering of Romanesque and paleo-Christian stone sculptures and reliefs. The main reason to drop by is the end wall frescoed by Andrea Orcagna and his brother Nardo di Cione in 1360 with a Last Supper (of which only 1 1/2 apostles and a halo are left) and above it a beautiful Crucifixion, one of 14th-century Florence's masterpieces.
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Museo Zoologico (Zoological Museum)
Italy has very few zoos, but this is the largest zoological collection, rooms full of insects, crustaceans, and stuffed birds and mammals -- everything from ostriches and apes to a rhinoceros. The museum was founded here in 1775, and the collections are still displayed in the style of an old-fashioned natural sciences museum, with specimens crowded into beautiful old wood-and-glass cases. The last 10 rooms contain an important collection of human anatomical wax models crafted between 1775 and 1814 by Clemente Susini for medical students. The life-size figures are flayed, dissected, and disemboweled to varying degrees and are truly disgusting, but fascinating.
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Historical buildings
These royal apartments, situated on the second floor of the right wings of Palazzo Pitti, are a suite of richly decorated and furnished rooms. They served as the official residence of the Medici and the Lorraine families, as well as of Vittorio Emanuele II in the years when Florence was capital (1865-71). One of the few examples of late-Baroque decoration.
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Badia Fiorentina
The Badia belltower is one of the main reference points in the panorama of the city. Under restoration for some time now, the Badia is part of the monastery which was the home of the Benedettini. It was founded in 978 by the mother of a famous Florentine figure, Ugo of Tuscany. The Pandolfini chapel, which is in front of the 15th Century atrium, was restructured on the remains of the previous smaller church of San Stefano. There are lectures of Dante given here in memory of the first public
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Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana (The Laurentian Library)
In Florence, Italy is famous as a repository of more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books.Built in a cloister of the Medicean Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze under the patronage of the Medici pope, Clement VII, the Library is renowned for the architecture planned and built by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1525).
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Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale
Florence has numerous museums, mostly devoted to painting and sculpture. The National Central Library (Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale) has been the Italian library of deposit since 1870, receiving a copy of every book published in the country. It houses millions of autographs, manuscripts, letters, incunabula, and books, including many rare editions.
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Giotto's Bell Tower(Campanile di Giotto)
This bell tower takes its name from the fact that it was designed by the great artist Giotto. It rises 84.7 m. tall, to the right of the cathedral. Its plan is square and it is reinforced at the corners by octagonal buttresses. Giotto first began work in 1334. By the time the artist died, he had completed only the lower order, with its distinctive reliefs set in hexagonal panels. Work continued under the supervision of Andrea Pisano and was completed in 1359 under Francesco Talenti who was responsible for the top three floors, which are marked by broad gabled twin- and three-light mullioned windows.
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Casa di Dante (Dante House)
This is actually not Dante's house - it was built in 1910 to commemorate the poet who did live in this area. The house holds a museum of Dante relics (including various editions of the Divine Comedy), and some of the rooms are used for temporary exhibitions.
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Casino del Cavaliere (The Cavalier Casino)
the Casino del Cavaliere is at the top of the Boboli gardens. Built in the 18th century as a retreat for the Grand Duke, the Casino has proved a particularly ideal setting for the conservation and display of a unified collection. The collection consists mainly of table porcelain used by the Gran Ducal and Royal Houses of the Medici, Lorraine and Savoy. The collection can be described as princely, in that many pieces were made for the grand ducal court or were gifts from other European rulers. The grand dukes made use of the local Florentine manufactory of Doccia for their large services in daily use, which are well represented in the museum.
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Forte di Belvedere
Commissioned by grand duke Ferdinando I, this unusual fort (also known as Forte San Giorgio) was built by Buontalenti and Don Giovanni de' Medici at the end of the 16th century to defend the city from enemy attack. It could be reached - and still can be today thanks to restoration work carried out during the 1950's - from the east side of the Boboli gardens. The pathway around the perimeter of the fort gives visitors breathtaking views of Florence's skyline as well as the Tuscan
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Fountains and Squares
The loggia was built around the middle of the 16th century in the heart of the city, just a few steps from the Ponte Vecchio. Underneath the Loggia del Porcellino, the marble wheel can be found which commemorates the place where the carroccio was left, an emblem of the Florentine Republic. In medieval times it was used as a pillory for those who dared to dupe the merchants of the city. The Loggia was the work of G.B. del Tasso who built it in the middle of the 16th century as a market place for the sale of fabrics and objects of different kinds. Today the Loggia also houses a market, mainly for tourists. Leather bags, silk scarves, straw hats and other art and craft objects can be found there. The Porcellino is the boar which is part of the fountain on one side of the market. This bronze sculpture was made by Pietro Tacca at the beginning of the 17th century after a marble original of the Hellenistic period (on show at the Uffizi).
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Loggia della Signoria
Built around the end of the thirteenth century as a symmetrical contrast to the city's religious centre, Piazza della Signoria was enlarged through demolitions of the tower-houses of the Uberti, Foraboschi and other powerful Ghibelline families. Right from Medieval times, Piazza della Signoria has always been the civic centre of Florentine life.
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Loggia di San Paolo
Opposite the church of Santa Maria Novella, on the south side of the square, is the Loggia di San Paolo which was commissioned in 1466 by the head of the Ospedale di San Paolo. It is modeled closely on Brunelleschi's Loggia degli Innocenti (the Porch of the Foundling Hospital). The columns were replaced in 1789. It too is decorated with terracotta medallions by the Florentine artists Andrea and Giovanni della Robbia.
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Mercato Centrale
Mercato Centrale is a fabulous 19th century covered market. You can come here to pick up ingredients for a cheap lunch, a meal or just a browse through the colourful fresh produce. The fruit and veg all looks delicious.
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Mercato dei Ciompi (Ciompi Market)
Florence's flea market, where you'll find some really off-the-wall items. Daily 9 am-12:30 pm and 3:30-8 pm (all day the last Sunday of the month). Piazza dei Ciompi (a little east of the city center), Florence.
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Mercato Nuovo (The Straw Market)
This semi-enclosed market bustles under a beautiful, spacious loggia dating back to the 16th Century. Under the arches, numerous vendors set up shop selling belts, scarves, leather goods, embroidered linens, souvenirs, and Florentine straw hats. The market is open year-round, with limited hours during the winter.
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Piazza della Santissima Annunziata
The square has a great artistic and stylish harmony, where most of the renaissance artist has operated. In the square there is the basilica, where inestimable painting artworks are stored.
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Piazza della Signoria (Signoria Square)
When the medieval Guelf party finally came out on top of the Ghibellines, they ordered architect Arnolfo di Cambio to build what we now call the Palazzo Vecchio. TThe space around the palazzo became the new civic center of town, the L-shaped Piazza della Signoria, named after the oligarchic ruling body of the medieval city. To its right is one of Florence's favorite sculptures to hate, the Fontana del Nettuno (Neptune Fountain; 1560-75), created by Bartolomeo Ammannati as a tribute to Cosimo I.
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Piazza Santa Maria Novella (Santa Maria Novella Square)
Piazza Santa Maria Novella boasts patches of grass and a central fountain. The two squat obelisks, resting on the backs of Giambologna tortoises, once served as the turning posts for the "chariot" races held here from the 16th to the mid-19th century. However, these days the piazza sees more action as a roving ground for the few gypsies picking tourists' pockets in Florence and as the hangout for the city's economically depressed small immigrant population and even smaller cache of itinerants. Several bars and pubs have tried to infuse the area with some life, but the night still leans toward the seedy around here.
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Piazza Santo Spirito (Santo Spirito Square)
The church can be found in one of the most lively piazzas in the Oltrarno. The scrolled plaster facade is from the 18th Century, but is only the last phase of the building. The building was started in 1444 by one of the greatest creators of the Renaissance in Florence: Filippo Brunelleschi.
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Piazza della Repubblica (Firenze)
This square marks the ancient heart of Florence and is the site of the Giubbe Rosse cafe' where intellectuals and artists met in the early years of the 20th century. Piazza della Repubblica (Republic Square) is a city square in Florence, Italy. It is on the site, first of the city's forum and then of the city's old ghetto, which was swept away during the city improvement works or Risanamento initiated during the brief period when Florence was the capital of a reunited Italy, work that also created the city's avenues and boulevards.
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Piazzale Michelangelo
Renowned for its panoramic views of Florence and the Arno valley, this terrace is a popular spot with locals and tourists. Created as part of major restructuring of the city walls, Giuseppe Poggi's sumptuous terrace is typically 19th century. In 1871, Poggi designed a monument base dedicated to Michelangelo. The monument itself was to be composed of copies of Michelangelo's works, including David and the Medici chapel sculptures from San Lorenzo . When the terrace was finished, Poggi designed the hillside building, now a restaurant, as a museum for Michelangelo's works.
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Palaces, Villas and Gardens
At the end of the visit of the Boboli gardens, you will find a huge square where you will find Palazzina della Meridiana, a construction neoclassic started by Gaspare Maria Paoletti in the 1778 and completed by Pasquale Poccianti. The renewal was completed in the 1971.
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Palazzo Davanzati (Davanzati Palace).
Palazzo Davanzati was erected in the second half of the 14th century by the Davizzi, a family of well-going wool traders. In 1516 it was sold to the Bertolini and, in the same century, to the Davanzati family, also rich merchants (1578), who held it until 1838: after the suicide of Carlo Davanzati, it was split into different quarters and modified. After escaping the numerous demolitions of 19th century Florence, it was bought by Elia Volpi, an antiquarian, and restored in the original style. In 1910 it was opened as a private museum, but in 1916 all its furniture were sold in New York. In the 1920Vitale e Leopoldo Bengujat, also antiquarian, acquired the edifice. After the changes of property, in 1951 it became a state possession, and was adapted as a museum. In the 1990s it was restored. The museum was partially reopened in 2005.
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Palazzo Medici-Riccardi (Medici-Riccardi Palace)
This building was the symbol of the economic power of the Medicis who were the virtual lords of Florence, even in the Florentine Republic at the time. The large ground-floor windows were designed by Michelangelo and date back to 1516. Medicis continued to live here even after they became Dukes of Florence, until 1540. The palace in Via Larga then passed to the widows and young princes of the Medici family, and in 1670 it was purchased by the very wealthy Riccardi marquises who enlarged and partially refurbished it. In addition to the beautiful courtyard that you can see it was designed by Michelozzo and decorated again in the Baroque Age.
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Palazzo Pazzi Quaratesi (Pazzi Quaratesi Palace)
A rich Florentine merchant family, enemy of the Medici, against whom it plotted (the Pazzi conspiracy, 1478). The Pazzi family were Tuscan nobles who had become bankers in Florence in the 14th century. Andrea de' Pazzi was also the patron for Brunelleschi's chapter house for the Franciscan community at Florence's Santa Croce church, often known as the Pazzi Chapel.
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Palazzo Pitti (Pitti Palace)
When the rich Florentine merchant Luca Pitti died, the palace on the other side of the Arno was still unfinished. It was never proved that Brunelleschi was the author of this Palace. What is known for sure, though, is that the building was much smaller than the present one. Cosimo and Eleonora decided to turn it into a significant palace and charged Bartolomeo Ammannati with completing and, above all, enlarging the building.
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Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana)
Is famous as a repository of more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books.Built in a cloister of the Medicean Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze under the patronage of the Medici pope, Clement VII, the Library is renowned for the architecture planned and built by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1525).
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Palazzo Rucellai (Rucellai Palace)
Palazzo Rucellai is a Renaissance palace in Florence, Italy, designed by Leon Battista Alberti between 1446 and 1451 and executed by Bernardo Rossellino. Its splendid facade was one of the first announcing the new ideas of Renaissance architecture based on pilasters, entablatures in proportional relationship to each other.
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Palazzo Spini Feroni (Spini Feroni Palace)
The palace was built from 1289 for the rich cloth merchant and banker Geri Spini, on the lands he had bought from the monks of Santa Trinita after the 1288 flood of the Arno.At the time it was the largest private-owned palace in Florence, in competition with the seat of government, the Palazzo Vecchio, which was being built in the same period. Architects to whom the design has been attributed include Arnolfo di Cambio or Arnolfo's father, Lapo Tedesco. The edifice's original appearance can be seen in Ghirlandaio's frescoes in the Cappella Sassetti of the neighbouring church of Santa Trinita.
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Palazzo Strozzi (Strozzi Palace)
Palazzo Strozzi is a palace in Florence, Italy. The Palace was begun in 1489 by Benedetto da Maiano, for Filippo Strozzi the Elder, a rival of the Medici who had returned to the city in November 1466 and desired the most magnificent palace to assert his family's continued prominence and, perhaps more importantly a political statement of his own status.
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Palazzo Vecchio (The Old Palace)
In 1293, after the political success of the guilds, the new Priors wanted to build a monument which would become the most important civic monument in Florence, the Palazzo dei Priori, seat of the Signoria, later called Palazzo Vecchio. According to tradition, the central nucleus of the building was erected by Arnolfo di Cambio between 1299 and 1304. It has the appearance of a fortress, topped by a huge open gallery, from which rises the slender tower known as the Arnolfo tower and which repeats in the belfry the design of the top of the palace. The two rows of elegant ogival mullioned windows; this is the only measured proportion to the Palace. It was subsequently enlarged by Vasari, in the sixteenth century and by Buontalenti, in the seventeenth century. Palazzo Vecchio, after having been the seat the seat of the town authorities, became the home of the Medici family.
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Chiostro dello Scalzo (The Barefoot Cloister)
The cloister was called Scalzo or Barefoot because of the custom of carrying the cross with bare feet in the processions, observed by the Disciples of S. Giovanni Battista. Andrea del Sarto painted the fresco as did Franciabigio in his absence from 1518-19. It was painted from 1507 to 1526 with stories depicting the life of S. Giovanni Battista, the protector of the company.
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Parco delle Cascine (Cascine Park)
Spread over 118 hectares, this popular park is a favorite with joggers, horse riders and families with young children, especially on Tuesday mornings, when it is a market . Towards Piazza Vittorio Veneto on the park's east side is an open-air swimming pool (used during the summer months), while to the west is the park's amphitheatre, a popular summertime venue for dance performances and concerts. At the end of the 18th, century important buildings such as the Palazzina Reale, currently home to the Facoltà di Agraria dell'Università degli Studi di Firenze (School of Agriculture of the University of Florence) were added before the park finally became public at the start of the 19th century. Horse racing takes place not far from here at the Ippodromo delle Muline.
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Giardino di Boboli (Boboli's Garden)
Inside this garden lies the Buontalenti grotto (1583-1593). Decorated with Mannerist-style scenes from Greek and Roman mythology, the grotto includes copies of Michelangelo's famous Slave series, the originals of which were transferred to the Galleria dell'Accademia . In the 17th Century, the garden was extended as far as the Porta Romana , adding the Vasca d'Isola (pond) at the centre with a fountain and a statue of Neptune. In the late 18th century, Zanobi del Rosso built the Kaffehaus pavilion. Admission: EUR 6 and includes entry to the Museo delle Porcellane , Galleria del Costume , Museo degli Argenti and the Museo e Galleria Mozzi Bardini.
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Places of Interest
This collection of around 2,000 works of art is situated on the second floor of the Palazzo Pitti. The Macchiaioli, precursors to the French Impressionist movement, the famous Tuscan group of the 19th century, are well represented here, with their pictures in which reality is represented through realistic personal expressions. The subjects of the paintings were principally inspired by nature and everyday life and these are expressed through spots of color and luminarist contrasts. At the head of the movement was Giovanni Fattori of whom there are numerous works exhibited, amongst which the Rotonda Palmieri and a whole series of landscapes and representations of Maremma life. The gallery also displays the work of living contemporary artists.
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Galleria del Costume (Costume Gallery)
The Costume Gallery occupies the 18th-century Palazzina della Meridiana, a wing of the Pitti Palace overlooking the Boboli Gardens. The collection comprises six thousand items including costumes dating from the 16th to the 20th centuries, theatre costumes and accessories. It is the only museum of the history of fashion in Italy and one of the most important in the world. A selection is exhibited in rotation every two years. There are frequent special exhibitions devoted to particular aspects of the collection.
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Ponte Santa Trinità (Santa Trinità Bridge)
The Ponte Santa Trinita (Italian for Holy Trinity Bridge, named for the ancient church in the nearest stretch of via Tornabuoni) is a Renaissance bridge in Florence, Italy, spanning the Arno. The Ponte Santa Trinità is the oldest elliptic arch bridge in the world, the three flattened ellipses giving the structure its celebrated elegant appearance. The outside spans each measure 29 meters (95 ft) with the center span being 32 meters (105 ft) in length.
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Ponte Vecchio
Best known of all Florence's treasures, this glorious bridge was the only one of six spared by the retreating Germans on 4 August 1944. Over the centuries flooding unfortunately took its toll; few traces of the 10th-century bridge remain. Today's bridge, built in 1345, was filled with butcher's shops which would routinely discard the carcasses into the Arno causing quite a stench. Grand Duke Fernandino I issued an edict to replace the butchers with goldsmiths to eradicate the smell and gentrify royalty's route to Palazzo Pitti , reached via the Vasari Corridor that passes over the bridge.
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Galleria Palatina (Palatina Gallery)
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Rotonda Brunelleschi
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Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi
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Via dei Tornabuoni
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Galleria Corsi (Corsi Gallery)
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Florence Travel Guide
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