2. ■ Florence, the symbol of the Renaissance, rose to
economic and cultural pre-eminence under the Medici in
the 15th and 16th centuries. Its 600 years of
extraordinary artistic activity can be seen above all in the
13th-century cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore), the
Church of Santa Croce, the Uffizi and the Pitti Palace,
the work of great masters such as Giotto, Filippo
Brunelleschi, Sandro Botticelli and Michelangelo.
3. ■ The spiritual center of the city is the
Piazza del Duomo with the
cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore
flanked by Giotto's bell tower and
facing the baptistery of San
Giovanni with the Porta del
Paradiso by Lorenzo Ghiberti.
4. ■ The Baptistery of San Giovanni
Battista stands in front of the
cathedral of Santa Maria del
Fiore, in Piazza San Giovanni.
Dedicated to the patron saint of
the city of Florence, it was the
investiture place of knights and
poets, as Dante Alighieri recalls
in Paradise.
5. ■ In the political-cultural center of Florence there are
Palazzo Vecchio and the nearby Uffizi Gallery, where are
the most conspicuous existing collections of Raphael and
Botticelli. Nearby there are the Bargello Museum and the
Basilica of Santa Croce.
6. ■ Palazzo Vecchio is located in
Piazza della Signoria in
Florence and is the seat of the
Municipality. It represents the
best synthesis of the city's
fourteenth-century civil
architecture and is one of the
most famous civic buildings in
the world
7. ■ Crossing the Ponte
Vecchio you arrive at
the Oltrarno district
with the Pitti Palace
and the Boboli
gardens. Still in the
Oltrarno, there are
the Basilica of Santo
Spirito by Filippo
Brunelleschi and the
church of Santa Maria
del Carmine, with
frescoes by Masolino,
Masaccio and
Filippino Lippi.
8. ■ The church of Santo Spirito is one of
the main basilicas of the city of
Florence. It is located in the Oltrarno
district, the southern part of the
historic center, and with its simple
façade dominates the square of the
same name. It was built on the
remains of the thirteenth-century
Augustinian convent destroyed by a
fire in 1371.
9. ■ In the area to the
west of the
Duomo stands the
imposing Palazzo
Strozzi (home to
major exhibitions
and prestigious
cultural
institutions) and
the basilica of
Santa Maria
Novella, with the
façade designed
by Leon Battista
Alberti.
10. The historic center can be
appreciated in its entirety
from the surrounding hills,
especially from the Forte
Belvedere, from Piazzale
Michelangelo with the
Romanesque basilica of San
Miniato al Monte.
