Explore Pontassieve

Tenuta Bossi is a wine and olive estate in the Chianti Rufina hills near Pontassieve, owned by the Gondi family since 1592. Its centre is Villa Bossi, a Renaissance villa with a park, a chapel and vaulted cellars beneath it. The estate covers 315 hectares, with 19 hectares of vineyards and 32 of olive groves.

The Museo del Calcio is the museum of the Italian national football team, in a rebuilt farmhouse at the Italian Football Federation's training centre in Coverciano. Opened in 2000, it displays shirts, balls, medals, boots and cups from the national team's history since the 1920s, alongside a digital archive of photographs and films.

The Great Synagogue of Florence, on Via Luigi Carlo Farini, was completed in 1882 in Italian and Moorish Revival styles, with a green dome and a painted interior. The Jewish Museum of Florence, inside the building, shows ceremonial objects and the history of the city's Jewish community from its first settlement to the post-war years.

Piazzale Michelangelo is a terrace on the hill south of the Arno, laid out by the architect Giuseppe Poggi in 1869 during the years Florence was Italy's capital. It looks over the river, its bridges and the historic centre with the Cathedral dome, and in its middle stands a bronze copy of Michelangelo's David.

San Miniato al Monte is a Romanesque basilica on one of the highest points of Florence, above Piazzale Michelangelo, begun in 1013 over the tomb of the martyr St Minias. Its white and green marble façade carries a 13th-century mosaic of Christ, and Olivetan Benedictine monks in the adjoining abbey sing their services in Gregorian chant.

The Basilica of Santa Croce is the principal Franciscan church of Florence, begun in 1294 on Piazza Santa Croce. It holds the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli and Rossini, chapels frescoed by Giotto, and the Pazzi Chapel by Brunelleschi in the cloister; the marble façade was added in the 19th century.

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.

The Museo di San Marco occupies the Dominican convent of San Marco, rebuilt by Michelozzo for Cosimo de' Medici from 1437. It holds a large collection of works by Fra Angelico, including the frescoes he painted in 44 friars' cells and the Annunciation at the top of the stairs, as well as Michelozzo's library and the cells of Savonarola.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.