Explore Pontassieve

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.

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.

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.