Florence

(70 km - 1 hour) Florence is the "cradle of the Renaissance". The main sights are: The Duomo, Campanile of Giotto, Piazza della Signoria, Palazzo Vecchio, Ponte Vecchio and Piazzale Michelangelo.

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8 THINGS TO DO AND SEE IN FLORENCE

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1. CATHEDRAL, GIOTTO'S BELL TOWER, BAPTISTERY BRUNELLESCHI AND DOME IN FLORENCE

Brunelleschi's Dome overlooking Florence and still there is no across the city's tallest building. The bell tower was designed by Giotto although did not see it finished. The Baptistery is one of the oldest buildings in Florence and is there from the fourth century; with its magnificent gates is a real Bible for images. The Cathedral with its white marble facade and green catch the look. There is nowhere else in the world a complex of buildings so extraordinary. We are in the heart of Florence, in front of Santa Maria del Fiore, which everyone calls the Duomo. A cathedral of 153 meters in length, built nearly 170 years to do envy to the churches of rivals Pisa and Siena. At the completion of this complex was attended by the most important Florentine artists: Giotto, Brunelleschi, Vasari, Talenti, Arnolfo di Cambio, Lorenzo Ghiberti. Every visit to Florence starts here: with their heads up and look in amazement, wondering how they did the men to create such a wonder.

When: Duomo: 10:00 to 5:00 p.m.. Baptistery: 11:15 to 18:30. Dome: 8:30 to 18:20. Campanile: 8:30 to 18:50
Mai: New Year, Easter, Christmas
How much: € 10 for entry to all monuments

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2. PONTE VECCHIO IN FLORENCE

The most beautiful bridge in Florence and one of the most photographed in the world, was not always a chic place. Although today is the goldsmiths' workshops to attract caravans of tourists, until 1565 were the shops of greengrocers and butchers to dominate the bridge. When it was built the Vasari Corridor overlooking the Ponte Vecchio, the butchers and greengrocers were driven out in favor of goldsmiths and artisans, crafts deemed best suited to the beauty of the place. Since then, gold has become the protagonist of Ponte Vecchio, as we remember the statue of Benvenuto Cellini, the greatest Florentine goldsmith. In 1565 Giorgio Vasari built for Cosimo I De Medici the Vasari Corridor to unite Palazzo Vecchio, Palazzo Pitti (then private residence of the Medici). The corridor, about one kilometer long, starts from Palazzo Vecchio, passing from the Uffizi Gallery, and then over the shops of Old Bridge and then go up to the Palazzo Pitti. It seems that Hitler has given orders to save Ponte Vecchio during the bombings of World War II. Sometimes the beauty illuminates even the tyrants.

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3. PALAZZO VECCHIO IN FLORENCE

The first thing that strikes the Palazzo Vecchio is impossible to photograph it in full. Even if you go to the far side of Piazza della Signoria, in Via dei Calzaiuoli, not be able to take it all. It's too big and too high to make it fit in a single photo. The fact is that you can not help but photograph it, since it is considered the best example of civil architecture of the fourteenth-century world. What prevents him from returning all in one shot is the "Tower of Arnolfo", 94 meters high and built around 1310, which leads to the summit the great banner with the Florentine lily. At the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio is exhibited (and support the pigeons) the copy of Michelangelo's David. You Piazza della Signoria to host this beautiful building, a place that has long been considered "cursed" because battleground between Guelphs and Ghibellines. Deleted in the footsteps of a bloody past, Piazza della Signoria is now the center of social, civil and political life of all citizens of Florence.

When: every day from 9:00 to 19:00 except January 1, Easter, May 1, August 15th, December 25th. Thursday and midweek holidays 9:00 to 14:00 hours.
How much: € 6.00 Full. € 4,50 Reduced youth 18-25 and seniors over 65 years. € 2,00 Discounted boys 3-17 years and school groups with booking € 14.00 Family (4 persons) € 16.00 Family (5 people)

4. THE UFFIZI IN FLORENCE

Enter a Caravaggio, comes a Raphael. Tiziano leaves for an exhibition abroad but meanwhile return the angels (famous) of Rosso Fiorentino. These are the Uffizi, a kind of supermarket of art, treasure trove of masterpieces from every century and dream destination for art lovers from around the world. Indeed, it is strange to see the long line of foreigners who are waiting patiently for their turn to enter, while many Italians despite having the opportunity they have never been to the Uffizi. Of things to see there are: if you think the first picture that pops into your head, you will probably find here. The journey begins with the hall of the fourteenth century, and the three blades of Cimabue, Duccio and Giotto, depicting all the "Madonna and Child Enthroned". Then a crescendo of beauty: Botticelli, Leonardo, Signorelli, Perugino, Durer, Caravaggio and then and then and then ... Plan a full day for the visit, put a pair of comfortable shoes, and then enjoy the show.

When: Tuesday to Sunday, from 8.15 to 18.50 hours
Mai: Mondays, New Year, May 1, Christmas.
How much: € 6,50 Reduced: € 3.25

 

5. CHAPEL BRANCACCI IN FLORENCE

An angel with a sword chasing Adam and Eve to drive them out of Paradise. Adam covers his face with his hand, crying and hiding in shame. Eve has the look disfigured by pain, that you get a view because the arms are engaged to cover the breasts. It is a harrowing scene, one of the highest point of art history and is located in the Brancacci Chapel in Florence, in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine. Masolino and Masaccio, old and young, teacher and pupil, frescoed this chapel together by the will of Felice Brancacci. It is not easy to distinguish the frescoes of one from those of the other. The patron Brancacci forced them to work on the same walls, to avoid that they were too obvious differences in style. The result is an extraordinary artistic career, which tells the story of sin and other episodes of the Bible and the Gospel, leaving stunned believers and non.

When: Daily from 10:00 to 17:00 Holidays: 13:00 to 5:00 p.m.
How much: € 4.00
Where: Church of Santa Maria del Carmine.
Important: The reservation is required: call from 9.00 to 18.00 the 055 / 276.8224 or 055 / 276.8558

  
 

6. THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY CROSS IN FLORENCE

The tomb of Michelangelo, "protected" by three sculptures representing Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, contends the first part of the Basilica of Santa Croce with the tomb of Galileo Galilei, just in front. Immediately after Michelangelo is the cenotaph of Dante but his remains, let in Ravenna where he died in exile. Follow Vittorio Alfieri, Antonio Canova, Niccolo Machiavelli, Gioacchino Rossini and Ugo Foscolo, who lives in a place called Santa Croce which retained the "Urns of the Strong" (the tombs of the largest in Italy). But Holy Cross is not just a "collection" of remains of Italians who have made history. In the bottom of the basilica there are chapels frescoed by Giotto with Stories of the Life of St. Francis. In the Pazzi Chapel, where Giuliano de Medici was killed and Lorenzo the Magnificent wounded during the famous conspiracy, has preserved the Crucifix by Cimabue.

When: Daily, 9:30 to 17:30 hours. Sunday and Catholic holidays: (January 6, August 15th, November 1st, December 8th) 13:00 to 17:30 hours. Monday, April 25, May 1, June 2: 9:30 to 17:30 hours Closing cash and last admission 17.00.
Never: January 1, Easter, St. Anthony of Padua (June 13), St. Francis (October 4), 25 and 26 December.
How much: € 5.00 on sale only at the ticket dell'Opera di Santa Croce

 

7. CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA NOVELLA IN FLORENCE

It just was not possible that the churches of the Holy Spirit and of the Holy Cross, belonging respectively to the Augustinian friars and Franciscans were the most beautiful and majestic Florence, so the Dominicans in 1278 began the construction of the Church of Santa Maria Novella, become a wonderful example of "Tuscan Romanesque", thanks to the use of white marble, black and green. The interior has three naves that immediately attracts the visitor's gaze Giotto's Crucifix, an early work The recently restored that hangs from the central vault. In the transept, in the Strozzi Chapel, there is a wonderful cycle of frescoes by Filippino Lippi. The main chapel or Tornabuoni, home to a famous cycle of frescoes by Ghirlandaio in which the character portraits are all important people of the time, including Tornabuoni. In the Gondi Chapel is the Crucifix by Brunelleschi, the only work in wood artist. The most important work of all Santa Maria Novella is the Trinity of Masaccioche is for art something absolutely revolutionary. Jesus on the cross at his feet the Virgin and St. John, with the side of the patrons of the work, spouses Lenzi. The time is upon Christ seems really exists, so as to bring Vasari to say that "It seems that wall washing". The Madonna does not look at his son who dies but indicates the viewer of the painting, resigned to a fate that must be fulfilled for the salvation of all men.

When: Mon - Jan - Wed - Thurs - Sat, 9:00 to 17:00. Holidays, 9:00 to 14:00.
Mai: Friday, Sunday, December 25th, New Year, Easter, May 1, August 15.
How much: full € 2.70, reduced 2.00.

8. GALLERY OF THE ACADEMY OF FLORENCE

In 1784, the Accademia Gallery was founded by Grand Duke Peter Leopold to make known the great examples of Florentine art students of the nearby Academy of Fine Arts. Also called the Museum of Michelangelo, for the abundance of the works of the Florentine genius, the Galleria dell'Accademia currently holds the sculptures of other artists and paintings from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. The most important work of the Gallery is undoubtedly Michelangelo's David that primaera exposed to the wind and the cold of Piazza della Signoria, now replaced by a copy. The statue portrays the biblical hero when they are about to face the giant Goliath and symbolizes the victory of wisdom and courage against the sheer brute force. Michelangelo worked on David from 1502 to 1504 using a block of marble that had previously been used by Agostino di Duccio and Antonio Rossellino. Both artists abandoned sculpture because giudicarno marble too fragile to support the weight of a statue of 4 meters and 10. Michelangelo obviated the fragility with special interventions making David a symbol of formal perfection and eternal beauty that emerges despite the coldness of marble.

When: Mon - Sun, 8:15 to 18:50.
Mai: Mondays, New Year, May 1, Christmas
How much: full € 6, 50, concessions € 3, 25

WHAT TO EAT IN FLORENCE

Famous for its steak, the cuisine of Florence also has much more to offer: simple dishes born from the imagination of ordinary people who turned poor and basic ingredients, such as bread, olive oil and vegetables, in extraordinary dishes . The meal always begins with some sausage accompanied with chicken liver bruschetta or garlic bread (bruschetta oil and salt). Among the former, are typical citizens pappa col pomodoro and ribollita. The queen of seconds is the famous Florentine steak, although not everyone who if the faces then appreciate in full: the Florentines are keen to point that can not be less than 1.2 kg, and that must be the blood, very rare! Among the latter stand out even tripe and the lamprey and the boundaries between the beans. Obviously, the steak carries the red wine, and on that Tuscany has to have its say: Chianti, Brunello and Montepulciano are the masters. The advice to eat in Florence, requires us to push you away from the tourist traps, concentrated in the historic center. Just leave a little 'to find taverns and restaurants where you do the good Florentine cuisine without having to mourn the credit card.
 

FLORENCE

Florence is the "cradle of the Renaissance". The main sights are: The Duomo, Campanile of Giotto, Piazza della Signoria, Palazzo Vecchio, Ponte Vecchio and Piazzale Michelangelo. Florence (IPA: [firεn ʦe ː]; Fiorenza, [fjorεn ʦa ː], in medieval Italian) is an Italian town of 379.560 inhabitants, capital of the province and Tuscany. It is the eighth Italian city by population and the first of the Tuscan region.
The city of Florence is the heart of the conurbation Florence - Prato - Pistoia, which has more than 1,500,000 inhabitants.

FLORENCE PHOTOS

THINGS TO SEE IN FLORENCE

• Uffizi Gallery Museum

• Palazzo Vecchio

• Piazza della Signoria

• Duomo of Florence

• San Lorenzo Market

• Ponte Vecchio

• Palazzo Pitti

• Piazzale Michelengelo

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In the Middle Ages was an important cultural, commercial, economic and financial, in the modern age has served as the capital of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany under the rule of the Medici and Lorraine. It was the capital of Italy from 1865 to 1871, after the unification of the country (1861).
Important university and UNESCO World Heritage Site, is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance and is universally recognized as one of the cradles of art and architecture, and renowned as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, thanks to its numerous monuments and museums - including the Duomo, Santa Croce, the Uffizi Gallery, Ponte Vecchio, Piazza della Signoria and Palazzo Pitti.

HISTORY

Ancient Age

The known history of Florence begins in 59 BC, with the founding of a village ("Florentia") to Roman veterans. Seat of a diocese from the fourth century, the city passed through periods of Byzantine, Ostrogothic, Lombard and Frankish, during which the people sometimes came down to just 1,000 people.

Middle Ages
From the tenth century, the town grew and by 1115 became an independent town. In the thirteenth century it was divided by the struggle between the Ghibellines, supporters of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Guelphs, in favor of the Roman Papacy. After ups and downs, the Guelphs won (the so-called "battle of Colle", June 17, 1269), but soon divided internally into "Whites and Blacks."
The Internal politics did not prevent the city to grow up to become one of the most powerful, prosperous in Europe, assisted by his own gold currency, the florin (introduced in 1252), from the decline of its rival Pisa (defeated by Genoa in 1284 and bought by Florence in 1406), and its commercial power resulting from an anti-aristocratic constitution, the so-called "Ordinances of Justice" by Giano della Bella (1293).
Faced with a population estimated at 80,000 before the Black Death of 1348 (immediately after Venice, and just before Milan and Bologna, was the largest city of the time for Italian population), 25,000 people worked in the wool industry. In 1345 Florence was the scene of a strike by Ciompi, who in 1378 rose up in a brief revolt against oligarchic rule in the city. After their suppression, the city came under the rule of the Albizzi family (1382-1434), bitter enemies but also precursors of the Medici.
It was under the rule, rather the Signoria in Florence this last family that knew her was probably the most auspicious. From 1437, for several centuries, the Medici to give prestige to the family, but also for a sense of offering and love their city and citizens gathered at court the best artists, writers, humanists and philosophers of the day: among the others, Michelangelo, Pico della Mirandola, Verrocchio, Michelozzo, Angelo Poliziano, Antonio Pollaiuolo, Sandro Botticelli, Galileo Galilei, Filippo Brunelleschi and Leonardo da Vinci. Florence soon became rich. Doing Business with the Medici and the Florentine banks represented in those times the best possible investment and the local currency, the forint, soon came to be the strongest currency and the most traded currency in Europe, a sort of dollar era.

Uffizi Gallery
During the fifteenth century Florence alone had a higher income than the entire England, thanks to the industries and large banks of which there were about eighty of locations and subsidiaries, the latest spread throughout much of Europe.

Modern Age
The first period of Medici rule ended with the return of a republican government, influenced by the teachings of the radical Dominican prior Girolamo Savonarola (who was executed in 1498, and that before he died he left a treatise on the government of Florence), in whose words are found often topics that will be the subject of religious controversies of the following centuries. Another important character was Niccolò Machiavelli, whose prescriptions for the government of Florence's regeneration under strong leadership have often been seen as a legitimization of tortuosity and also the abuse of politicians. On 16 May 1527 the Florentines drove out the Medici again - restored to power by the Spanish in 1512 - and re-established a republic.
Put in their place for the second time in 1530, with the support of both Emperor and Pope, the Medici in 1537 became hereditary dukes of Florence, conquered the Republic of Siena in 1555, again with the help imperial and Montalcino in 1559, coming to govern two states: the state "Old" by Florence and the state "New" in Siena, separated in the political and institutional structures, but united in the one person of the Sovereign. This situation was later sanctioned in 1569 with the creation of the title of Grand Duke of Tuscany (dignity never existed before that time in Italy).
The seventeenth century the city was reunited with the peak in the field of science. Between 1654 and 1670 it was one of the first cities in the world to emerge in the field of meteorology due to the weather station of Florence Monastery of the Angels, located at the structure of the monastery of the same name, who carried out meteorological observations and data recording thermometric scale Florentine 50 ° meteorological network in the Grand Ducal established in those years by Ferdinando II de 'Medici, to which also afferirono stations of Vallombrosa in Tuscany, Pisa and Cutigliano, the Italian Bologna, Parma and Milan and European Innsbruck, Warsaw and Paris. Precisely in that same period of time arose in Florence Accademia del Cimento, which gave further impetus to the experiments in science.
Florence over the centuries came to reign over the whole of Tuscany, with the exception of the Republic of Lucca, which remained independent and sovereign until the eighteenth century (with the arrival in Italy of Napoleon Bonaparte, who spent seven years of his life in Codest place), and the Duchy of Massa and Carrara Principality of independent until 1829, when it was absorbed by the Duchy of Modena.
The extinction of the Medici dynasty and the accession in 1737 of Francis Stephen, duke of Lorraine and husband of Maria Theresa of Austria, led to Tuscany's sphere of influence in the territories of the Habsburg.
The Grand Duke Peter Leopold November 30, 1786, promulgated the new criminal code, which means that, for the first time in the history of modern states, were abolished the death penalty and torture.

Contemporary Age

The Plan Poggi (1865), who redesigned the city became the capital of Italy and configures the subsequent urban development.
The reign of the Austrian dynasty ended before at the hands of France and then finally in 1859, when Tuscany was annexed, by plebiscite, the Kingdom of Sardinia just before it became the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
Florence took the place of Turin as Italy's capital in 1865, at the request of Napoleon III under the Convention of September until the coveted role was not transferred to Rome five years later, when the papal city was annexed to the kingdom. In the nineteenth century, Florence's population doubled and tripled in the twentieth with the growth of tourism, trade, financial services and industry.
During World War II the city was occupied by the Germans for a year (1943-1944), only to be freed from the struggle of the partisan brigades on the day of 11 August. Florence is the city decorated for Valor for the Liberation War because it was awarded the Gold Medal for Military Valour for the sacrifices of its population and its activities in the partisan struggle during the Second World War.
On November 4, 1966 by the Florentines remembered as the day of the flood of Florence. Much of the town was flooded by the river Arno. The raging waters brought great devastation and some dead, invaded the churches, palaces and museums destroying archives and works of art, flooded the deposits of the National Library damaging many valuable volumes. Mixed with the oil, due to the rupture of the tanks of fuel, the water of the river quickly clambered up the narrow streets of the historic center, commercial funds. The precious Holy Cross Crucifix by Cimabue was marred by mud, and soon became a symbol of the devastation. This immense drama was experienced by the world with a unique sharing, giving soon start to an incredible outpouring of solidarity that saw the birth of the famous mud angels, young people from everywhere who worked in the difficult task of recovery of treasures damaged.

Florence and the Renaissance
For more, see the Florentine Renaissance.
Florence is known as the cradle of the Renaissance: the city is everywhere characterized by the extraordinary literary, artistic and scientific, which took place in the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. Florence, with its artists, thinkers, writers, world-renowned scientists (think of Leonardo da Vinci that here created his masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa, Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, Niccolò Machiavelli, Filippo Brunelleschi, Galileo between the many) benefited in every way, materially and spiritually, of this great social change and became one of the catalysts of the current of thought, constituting one of the most important centers of revival of world culture.
Symbols

 

 

 

MONUMENTS AND PLACES OF INTEREST

Aerial overview of the center, with visible Palazzo Vecchio

Hercules and Cacus sculpture by Baccio Bandinelli, Piazza della Signoria
"The said city of Florence is very well populated, and generative for the atmosphere; citizens well mannered, and very beautiful women and embellished; houses and palaces, filled with many artistic, as well as other cities in Italy. For the thing which many of the distant countries come to see, but not out of necessity, but out of the goodness of 'arts and crafts, and for his glory and beauty of the city "
(Dino Comrades, Chronic of the things necessary it 'his time, Book I 1, about 1312)
Florence is universally recognized as a city of art, with a priceless heritage of architecture, paintings, sculptures, historical and scientific, which form the fabric of the city, like a button widespread museum.
The heart of Florence's Piazza della Signoria with its majestic Palazzo Vecchio, with its gallery of masterpieces of sculpture in the Loggia dei Lanzi and the nearby Uffizi Gallery, one of the most famous art museums in the world. Not far away is the religious center of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, with its majestic dome (the largest ever built) that, at the time of the Grand Duchy, it was said that with his shadow to cover the whole of Tuscany, the enormous Cathedral is beautifully accompanied by the Bell Tower, one of the most beautiful in Italy, and the Baptistery of San Giovanni, with its famous bronze doors among which is the golden gate of heaven.
The Arno River, which passes through the city, occupies a place in the history of Florence at par with the people who live there. Historically, the local population has a love-hate relationship with the Arno, which led alternately the benefits of trade, and the disasters of floods. Among the bridges that cross the Ponte Vecchio is unique in the world, with the characteristics jewelery shops in houses built on it. Crossed by the noble Vasari Corridor, it is the only bridge in the city to have survived the Second World War.
In addition to the Uffizi, Florence has other museums that would be the main artistic attraction of every other major city in the world: the Galleria dell'Accademia, the Bargello or the Pitti Palace with its eight museums, including the Palatine Gallery. The Florentines boast of possessing the best example of beauty in both women (Botticelli's Venus) and male (Michelangelo's David). 
Historic Centre of Florence
World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982, the historic center of Florence, enclosed within a circle of paths traced over the old medieval walls, collects the most important cultural heritage of the city. Bordered by the trace of the wall of the fourteenth century, built thanks to the commercial and economic power, it reached the next two centuries its peak.

The old town can be appreciated in its entirety from the surrounding hills, especially from Forte Belvedere, Piazzale Michelangelo with the Romanesque Basilica of San Miniato al Monte and the hills of Fiesole, which offers one of the most beautiful views of the valley ' Arno.

The left bank of the Arno (Oltrarno) is an area rich in monuments where you can still breathe, between its secular workshops, the atmosphere of the Florence of the past, as described for example by Vasco Pratolini. But there are many literary ideas across the city: from the neighborhoods of the tower houses, where the plaques commemorate the verses that these places inspired by Dante Alighieri, the serenity of the Medici villas, where they often met the Platonic Academy of Lorenzo the Magnificent , to the theaters at the Pergola and the Boboli Gardens, where they were placed in the scenes for the first time the melodramas that led to opera.
Florence as the "cradle of the Renaissance" has its masterpieces in the works of Filippo Brunelleschi (the Hospital of the Innocents, the church of San Lorenzo and Santo Spirito) and Leon Battista Alberti (the facade of Santa Maria Novella and the Palazzo Rucellai) but also other artistic periods have left their masterpieces: from Romanesque of San Miniato al Monte, the Gothic Santa Croce (where are the graves of the Italic glories, as defined Ugo Foscolo, who also buried there), to the vagaries of the Giambologna's Mannerist or by Bernardo Buontalenti (such as the Fountain of Neptune or the Boboli Gardens), up to the masterpieces of the greatest Italian architects of the twentieth century as the station of Santa Maria Novella and the Stadio Artemio Franchi, respectively Giovanni Michelucci and Pier Luigi Nervi .
The center of Florence with its hundreds of business is a paradise for shopping and entertainment, with elegant high-end boutiques and historic cafes to lively outdoor markets historians, as well as to host numerous nightclubs, discos, American bar, lounge bar and meeting places for an aperitif.

 

 

 

Religious Architecture

 

Churches

• Santa Maria del Fiore

• Basilica of Santa Croce

• Basilica of Santa Maria Novella

• Piazza Santa Maria Novella

• Basilica of San Miniato

• Basilica of San Lorenzo

• Baptistery with its Paradise Door

• Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore

The church of Santa Maria del Fiore is the cathedral of Florence, is the fifth largest church in Europe, after the Basilica of St. Peter, St. Paul's Cathedral in London, the Seville Cathedral and the Cathedral of Milan  it is 153 meters long while the base of the famous dome, the largest masonry dome ever built, which is visible across the plain of Florence to Prato, its width is 90 meters.
Baptistery of San Giovanni
Amato, among others, by Dante and Michelangelo Buonarroti, is beautifully decorated both inside and outside; graced by the best city workers, is most famous for the mosaics of the dome and the door of Paradise by Lorenzo Ghiberti, the mysterious historical origins of the monument and the many events in which he did by theater boost its enigmatic history.

Santa Maria Novella
The basilica is one of the most important churches of Florence and stands on the square Dominican church, contains priceless works of art, such as the frescoes by Masaccio, Paolo Uccello, Filippino Lippi and Domenico Ghirlandaio and the upper part of the facade and the portal are masterpieces of harmony and reasoning of Leon Battista Alberti.

Holy Cross
The Basilica of Santa Croce is one of the largest churches officiated by the Franciscans. One of the greatest achievements of Gothic architecture in Italy, with masterpieces such as the Pazzi Chapel by Brunelleschi, is known as "The temple of glory" for the numerous tombs of great artists, writers and scientists it contains, such as Donatello, Michelangelo, Galileo Galilei, Niccolò Machiavelli, Guglielmo Marconi, Enrico Fermi, Luigi Cherubini, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Gioachino Rossini, Leon Battista Alberti, Ugo Foscolo and many others.

San Lorenzo
The Basilica of San Lorenzo was, from the early dynastic successes until the extinction of the family, the church of the Medici, who constantly embellished with masterpieces of the best architects, painters and sculptors of Florence (such as Filippo Brunelleschi, Donatello and Michelangelo Buonarroti ), the part of the Chapel of the Princes preserves the tombs of almost all family members.

Holy Spirit
The church of Santo Spirito, located in the Oltrarno district, is the latest work and the best example of rational and logical architecture of Filippo Brunelleschi, completed after his death affects the crystalline harmony in the combination of open spaces and full volumes, flooded with natural light. Inside is present among others, the crucifix by Michelangelo.

Orsanmichele
Its strange shape is due to the fact that in ancient times was a lodge for the sale and storage of grain; become the church of the Arts in Florence, in its fourteen external niches they vied with each other so that the statue of their patron saint primeggiasse.

Santissima Annunziata
The Basilica of the Annunciation is the Marian shrine of Florence, home of the order of the Servants of Mary, the church, very dear to the Florentines, it is literally crammed with important works of art from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century and is located in the homonymous square, one of the first examples of urban planning in Europe.

All Saints' Day
All Saints is among other things the family church of the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci, its harmonious appearance, with the facade that dominates the square with its Baroque tempered austerity, is the result of a difficult merger of interfering events for more than six centuries. important to his coterie.

The Carmine
The church of the Carmine is famous throughout the world for the absolute masterpiece of the Brancacci Chapel. Frescoes by Masaccio and Masolino, here for the first time appeared in painting a clear break from school late gortica with an entirely new language: the Renaissance.

Santa Trinita
Founded by vallombrosani was the first Gothic church in Florence, the Strozzi Chapel today with the current sacristy, designed by Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi. It originally housed the masterpieces of Cimabue, Fra Angelico then transferred to the Uffizi Gallery and the National Museum of the Bargello. Silent aura of spirituality that still transmits it's easy to be impressed by the masterpiece of Domenico Ghirlandaio's frescoes in the Sassetti Chapel.

San Marco
San Marco and its convent with sculptures by Giambologna back to the founding monastic institutions were one of the most modern in Europe, within the walls of San Marco were written important pages in the history of Florence, with protagonists such illustrious Cosimo the Elder, Pierozzi Antonino, Fra Angelico and, above all, Fra 'Girolamo Savonarola.

Church of Santa Felicita
It is the oldest church in Florence placed in the Oltrarno district, in point of intense transit, it is documented, thanks to the excavations, already as a church paleocristinana kind outside the walls, with the presence of evangelizers Syrians and Greeks, then as Romanesque church, and finally as the church of the fourteenth century later transformed several times in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Badia Fiorentina
The Badia Fiorentina, located in the heart of the ancient city in front of the National Museum of the Bargello, is the first abbey town and has undergone many transformations over the centuries, with the work of artists like Arnolfo di Cambio, Giorgio Vasari, Bronzino, Gian Domenico Ferretti . Here, as we read Dante Alighieri The Vita Nuova, Beatrice Portinari saw it for the first time during a mass. Following Boccaccio held in this church the famous reading of the Divine Comedy.

San Gaetano
The church of Santi Michele e Gaetano in Piazza Antinori in continuation of Via de 'Tornabuoni, and is the ultimate expression of simple and elegant Florentine Baroque, a period of artistic history of the city recently rediscovered, which is expressed here in all its solemn composure.

San Miniato
The Basilica of San Miniato al Monte is located in one of the highest places of the city of Florence, and, with its eight hundred years of history, is one of the best examples of Romanesque architecture in Italy and Europe.

The Charterhouse
Commissioned by the wealthy Niccolò Acciaiuoli in 1314 stands alone on a hill near Galluzzo, south of the city, rich in works of art, including frescoes by Pontormo, is still home to a monastery of the Cistercians. It consists of several buildings: church, chapter house, sacristy, refectory, cloisters, workshops and dwellings for the monks.

HISTORIC CENTRE OF FLORENCE (UNESCO/NHK)