2H30’ – Walking tour
With its artistic masterpieces, colored marbles and architectural works Florence is the capital of Culture and of the Renaissance. The beating heart of Florence is Piazza (square) del Duomo, with its monumental complex of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore and Brunelleschi’s majestic dome; St. John’s Baptistry, a magnificent example of the Florentine Romanesque; and Giotto’s Campanile or Bell Tower, a Florentine Gothic architectural master work.
Piazza della Signoria represents the historical civil and political heart, hosting the 13th-Century Loggia dei Lanzi, the Fountain of Neptune and Palazzo della Signoria or Palazzo Vecchio, one of the city’s most symbolic monuments. Next to the Piazza is the marvelous Uffizi Gallery, home to one of the most important museums in the entire world exhibiting works by Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and numerous other master artists. A remarkable architectonic element of the Uffizi Gallery is the Vasari Corridor conceived by Giorgio Vasari himself around the mid-Fifteenth Century; the Corridor connects the Gallery to Palazzo Vecchio and Palazzo Pitti. Between Piazza del Duomo and Piazza della Signoria, innumerable architectural treasures, e.g. the Church of Orsanmichele.
Particularly striking is the Medieval quarter of Santa Croce with its predominant Basilica, Santa Croce; known for its famous frescoes by Giotto and its tombs of many illustrious and historical Italians such as Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli. Not to be missed, the extraordinary San Lorenzo complex and the Convent of Santa Maria Novella.
Crossing the very old and suggestive Ponte Vecchio, with its storied goldsmiths’s shops, we get to the Oltrarno district to admire the scenic square with Palazzo Pitti, an imposing, sumptuous palace that was the Medici’s and Lorena’s residence surrounded by the glorious Boboli Gardens. It’s worth visiting the Church of San Miniato al Monte, memorable work of the Florentine Romanesque.