Explorer Florence

Orsanmichele is a 14th-century building that began as a grain market and was converted into a church, with Andrea Orcagna's marble tabernacle inside. Niches on its outer walls hold statues of the guilds' patron saints by Ghiberti, Donatello and Nanni di Banco, now copies; the originals are displayed in the museum on the upper floors.

Palazzo Strozzi is a Renaissance palace begun in 1489 for the banker Filippo Strozzi, with rusticated stone façades on three streets and an arcaded inner courtyard. Today the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi uses its courtyard and piano nobile for temporary art exhibitions, ranging from Renaissance masters to contemporary artists.

Florence Baptistery is the octagonal Romanesque church of St John the Baptist on Piazza del Duomo, built in the 11th and 12th centuries and clad in white and green marble. Inside, a 13th-century mosaic ceiling shows the Last Judgement; its bronze doors are by Andrea Pisano and Lorenzo Ghiberti, whose originals are now in the cathedral museum.

The Museo dell'Opera del Duomo holds the original sculptures and works of art made for Florence Cathedral, the Baptistery and Giotto's Campanile. Opened in 1891 and enlarged in 2015 into the former Teatro Nuovo, it shows Ghiberti's original Gates of Paradise, a full-size model of the cathedral's medieval façade, Donatello's Mary Magdalene and Michelangelo's Bandini Pietà.

Giotto's Campanile is the free-standing bell tower of Florence Cathedral, begun to Giotto's design in 1334 and completed by Francesco Talenti in 1359 after work by Andrea Pisano. The square tower is 84.7 metres tall and clad in white, green and red marble with sculpted reliefs; 414 steps lead to the terrace at the top.

Piazza della Signoria is the square in front of Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of Florence's government since the 14th century. Around it stand the Loggia dei Lanzi with sculptures such as Cellini's Perseus, Ammannati's Fountain of Neptune, Giambologna's equestrian statue of Cosimo I and a copy of Michelangelo's David at the palace entrance.

Palazzo Vecchio is Florence's town hall on Piazza della Signoria, built from 1299 as the seat of the city's government and crowned by the 94-metre Arnolfo Tower. Its museum covers the Medici apartments and the Salone dei Cinquecento with frescoes by Giorgio Vasari; the tower and the battlement walkway can be climbed.

The Salvatore Ferragamo Museum occupies the lower floors of Palazzo Spini Feroni, the medieval palace on Piazza Santa Trinita that is the fashion house's headquarters. Opened in 1995, it presents annual themed exhibitions drawn from the company archive, which holds shoes Salvatore Ferragamo made from 1927 until his death in 1960.

Florence Cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, stands on Piazza del Duomo beside the Baptistery and Giotto's Campanile. Begun in 1296 to a design by Arnolfo di Cambio, it was crowned in 1436 with Filippo Brunelleschi's brick dome; its walls are faced with white, green and pink marble, and the façade was added in the 19th century.

The Bargello is a national museum in the Palazzo del Bargello, a fortified palace begun in 1255 for the city's magistrates and later used as police headquarters and prison. Opened in 1865, it holds Renaissance sculpture by Donatello, Michelangelo, Cellini and Giambologna, along with ivories, enamels, majolica, bronzes and arms.

The Uffizi Gallery is an art museum in the U-shaped building that Giorgio Vasari began in 1560 as offices for Cosimo I de' Medici, between Piazza della Signoria and the Arno. Its rooms show painting from the 13th to the 20th century, including Botticelli's Birth of Venus, and ancient sculpture from the Medici collections.

Ponte Vecchio is a medieval stone bridge over the Arno, rebuilt in 1345 after a flood and lined on both sides with shops, today mostly jewellers and goldsmiths. The Vasari Corridor, built in 1565 for the Medici, runs along its upper level, and it was the only bridge in Florence not destroyed in the Second World War.

The Basilica of San Lorenzo is the parish church of the Medici, rebuilt from 1419 to designs by Filippo Brunelleschi; its rough stone façade was never finished. A visit includes the church with Donatello's bronze pulpits, Brunelleschi's Old Sacristy decorated by Donatello, the cloisters, the treasury and the crypt. The Medici Chapels behind it are a separate museum.

The Medici Chapels are the burial chapels of the Medici family at the Basilica of San Lorenzo, a state museum since 1869. The visit leads from the crypt to the domed Chapel of the Princes, lined with coloured marble and hardstone inlay, and on to Michelangelo's New Sacristy of 1519–1534 with his figures of Night, Day, Dawn and Dusk.

Museo Galileo is a museum of the history of science in Palazzo Castellani, beside the Uffizi on the Arno, called the Institute and Museum of the History of Science until 2010. Its scientific instruments come from the Medici and Lorraine collections and include two telescopes made by Galileo, the lens of a third, globes, clocks and anatomical models.

Palazzo Medici Riccardi is the palace Michelozzo designed for Cosimo de' Medici, built from 1444; the Riccardi family later bought and enlarged it, and it now houses the Metropolitan City of Florence and a museum. Visitors see the arcaded courtyard and garden, the Chapel of the Magi frescoed by Benozzo Gozzoli and Luca Giordano's Gallery of Mirrors.

Santa Maria Novella is the Dominican basilica near Florence's main railway station, begun in the late 13th century and consecrated in 1420; Leon Battista Alberti completed its marble façade in 1470. Inside are Masaccio's Holy Trinity, Giotto's crucifix and Ghirlandaio's frescoes in the Tornabuoni Chapel, and the visit includes the cloisters and the Spanish Chapel.

Leonardo Interactive Museum is a private museum in Via dei Servi, between the Galleria dell'Accademia and the Cathedral, open for more than twenty years. It shows working full-size reconstructions of machines from Leonardo da Vinci's codices, such as a tank, a catapult, an aerial screw and an ornithopter, which visitors may operate themselves.

Museo de' Medici is a museum of the history of the Medici family, from Lorenzo the Magnificent to Anna Maria Luisa, the last of the dynasty. Since 2023 it occupies Brunelleschi's Rotunda, a centrally planned building begun in 1432 and left unfinished for five centuries, and rooms of the former monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli.

Santo Spirito is an Augustinian basilica in the Oltrarno, begun in 1444 to designs by Filippo Brunelleschi and finished after his death; its plain façade faces Piazza Santo Spirito. The interior has grey pietra serena columns and a ring of side chapels, and the sacristy by Giuliano da Sangallo holds a wooden crucifix carved by the young Michelangelo.