Things to Do in Florence Tuscany Italy - Travel Guide & Information

This description page of Florence in the Italian region of Tuscany Italy, will guide you in planning your trip to Italy and help you to find useful travel information about the Things to Do in this Italian Region.

Monuments and Museums

Galleria degli Uffizi

One of the most famous museums of paintings and sculpture in the world, the Uffizi Gallery collection of Primitive and Renaissance paintings comprises several of the world’s greatest masterpieces, including works by Giotto, Simone Martini, Piero della Francesca, Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Mantegna, Correggio, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo and Caravaggio. German, Dutch and Flemish masters are also well represented with important works by Dürer, Rembrandt and Rubens.

Occupying the top floor of a large building erected by Giorgio Vasari between 1560 and 1580 to house the administrative offices of the Tuscan State, the Gallery was created by Grand-duke Francesco I and subsequently enriched by various members of the Medici family -- collectors of paintings, sculpture and works of art. The collection was rearranged and enlarged by the Lorraine Grand-dukes, who succeeded the Medici, and finally by the Italian State.

The Uffizi buildings house other important collections: the Contini Bonacossi Collection and the Collection of Prints and Drawings (Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi).  The Vasari Corridor, built by Vasari in 1565, is a raised passageway connecting the Uffizi with the Pitti Palace. This private corridor, that enabled the Medici to move freely between their private residence and the seat of government without having to have an escort, is hung with an important collection of 17th-century paintings and the famous collection of artists’ self-portraits.

Bargello Museum

Containing the most comprehensive range of medieval and Renaissance sculpture in Italy, the Bargello Museum, holds notable works like Michelang's drunken Bacchus, Donate's David, the designs submitted by Brunelleschi for the Baptistry Doors Competition (won by Ghiberti) and Giambolo's Mercury.  Once a police headquarters and prison where many people were tortured in medieval times, the Barge's heavily fortified exterior is a reminder of the build's former life. Adjacent to the Museum is Mary Magdal's chapel which contains frescoes by Gio's workshop.

Duomo

Though Brunelles's sloping, red-tiled dome - predominant on Fire's skyline – may be identified from afar, it is the first site of the Duomo (cathedral) from the crowded streets around its square (Piazza del Duomo) with its pink, white and green marble façade that is breathtaking.  Brunelleschi won a public competition to design the enormous dome, the first of its kind since antiquity.  Now severely cracked and under restoration, it remains a remarkable achievement of design.

The great tem's full name is Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore and it is the wo's fourth-largest cathedral. Started in 1296 by Arnolfo di Cambio, it took almost 150 years to complete. At 153m long and 38m wide, with the transept extending another 90m, the cathedral it replaced, dedicated to Santa Reparata, could fit into an area extending less than halfway down from the entrance to the transept.

Piazza della Signoria

A massive meeting place for tourists, the c's most splendid piazza created virtually by accident in the 13th century, remains the hub of Florentine political life.  Lined with replicas of famous sculptures and historical buildings, it was here that the public would be summoned during times of political crisis to decide on issues like the fate of conflicting families.   Emotions would be stirred up by political speeches delivered from an arringhiera (oration platform) in front of Palazzo Vecchio, from where we get the word “harangue”, frequently resulting into frenzied riots.

Today, it is predominantly tourists who make up the mob, sipping coffee at overpriced restaurants, photographing the famous scenes, or posing in front of Ammann's Mannerist Fountain of Neptune (a waste of a perfectly good block of marble, according to Michelangelo) or to view Cell's Perseus, the finest original work on the piazza, holding Med's severed head, served to warn Cosim's enemies of what would happen should they cross the line.

Piazza San Lorenzo

This is an area that reflects Firenze in its prime, when Cosimo' Medici was king and cultural creativity abounded. San Lorenzo Basilica, begun by Brunelleschi in 1425, is regarded as one of the c's purest Renaissance churches.  Its eastern façade, sparsely decorated, reveals the antique brickwork of its time. This was the Medici fam's parish church, and many of the members of the family are buried here. Passing through the cloister, you reach the Laurenziana Library, commissioned to house the fam's huge collection of books and featuring an exquisite staircase by Michelangelo. The Medici Chapels, lavishly decorated with precious marble and semiprecious stones, is where most of the powerful Medicis are buried. The New Sacristy, designed by Michelangelo, contains his Night and Day, Dawn and Dusk sculptures and Donatello who designed the bronze pulpits, is buried in one of the chapels.

Pitti Palace

Designed by Brunelleschi for the Pitti family, rivals of the Medicis, the Pitti Palace is one of the most visited sites on the southern bank of the Arno.  A massive and imposing building, it holds a treasure of the Medici fam's massive art collection including works by Raphael, Filippo Lippi, Tintoretto, Veronese and Rubens, all hung in lavishly decorated rooms, along with a gallery of modern art and a costume collection. The restored apartments convey the extravagant lifestyles of the Medicis, and the Savoys, who later usurped their position. Behind the Pitti Palace are some of Fire's most beautiful parks like the Boboli Gardens, a perfect example of formal Renaissance landscaping.  The gardens include pools, fountains, geometric borders, tree-lined vistas, a grotto and the star-shaped Forte di Belvedere.

If you love palazzo, visit the Strozzi Palace, an impressive Renaissance palace, and the Rucellai Palace designed by Leon Battista Alberti that today is a photographic museum.

Santa Croce

The geometrically coloured marble that decorates the façade of this building is only the beginning of the breathtaking spectacle inside!  For here is where many famous Florentines, among them Michelangelo, Macchiavelli, Galileo and Bardi, lie in peace in tombs that line the walls and amongst a floor paved with 276 tombstones.  Bedazzling is how French writer Stendahl described the experience, while many others who have visited the church since remark on the inexplicable, almost disquieting feeling they experience from their visit.  Continue through the church to the chapels that feature works of art by Giotto and della Robbia, and the serenity of the Brunelleschi designed cloisters and the museum that houses the partially restored crucifix by Cimabue, which was damaged in the 1966 flood.

Other Churches

Other equally moving churches move throughout the city -- the statue-filled Orsanmichele, Santa Trinità, featuring frescoes by Ghirlandaio; All Sai' with frescoes by Botticelli and Ghirlandaio, Santa Maria Novella where Masac's groundbreaking Trinity and other significant artworks can be viewed.  The popular SS Annunziata, Giambolo's remodelled San Marco and the Church of the Holy Spirit, one of Brunelles's last commissions, and featuring Filippino Li's Madonna and Child.

At the Accademia Gallery, see Michelang's extraordinary David along with the other masterpieces like Botticelli, Fra Bartolommeo, and Giambologna, among others.

The Baptistry

One of the oldest buildings in Florence, the balanced geometrical layout of The Baptistry with its decorations in white and green marble from Prato, represents the harmonious integration of Romaneque and Paleochristian architecture developed between the 11th and 13th centuries.  Its magnificent gilded bronze doors made by Andrea Pisano in 1336 (the south facing door) and by Lorenzo Ghiberti in 1427 and 1452 (the north and east facing doors,) the latter, known as the Gate of Paradise, are said to represent the highest level of art ever achieved by the artist.

Inlaid floors laid at the end of the 12th century, displays of large mosaics with gilded backgrounds on the apse and ceiling created between 1266 and the beginning of the 14th century by Byzantine artists from Venice who collaborated with Tuscans like Meliore, Coppo di Marcovaldo and above all Cimabue, the master of Giotto, add to the splendor of The Baptistry.  Other sculptures include the tomb of Giovanni XXIII, designed by Donatello and Michelozzo, and the beautiful wooden Magdalene sculptured by Donatello and originally exhibited in The Baptistery but is currently displayed in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo.

Museo dell’Opera del Duomo

Founded in 1891, the museum continues to receive all the works removed from S. Maria del Fiore and from The Baptistery for their preservation. The collection is therefore the best guide to the many changes that have occurred in Florentine official sculpture originating with the building of the cathedral and extending over the centuries.

Masterpieces of the 15th century like the sculptures of Nanni di Banco and of Donatello, the two large Cantorie by Luca della Robbia and Donatello have been removed from the cathed's interior. Important works recently moved are the Magdalene, a wooden sculpture by Donatello, originally placed in the Baptistry and the Pietà by Michelangelo, which was removed from the cathedral in 1980.  An independent room exhibits a collection of working tools and materials, recovered during the restoration works of the Cathedral and the Dome.

Loggia del Bigallo

The Loggia of Bigallo, built in the mid 14th century for the Compagnia della Misericordia became the seat of the Compagnia del Bigallo in 1425, was named after the Hospital of Bigallo, the hospital it directed at Santa Maria a Fonteviva. The works directly purchased by the Brotherhood or donated to it were reunited in this museum in 1904. The collection, reorganized in 1976, comprises both religious and historical works that offer evidence on the life of the Brotherhood between the 14th and 16th centuries. Among its most remarkable pieces are the Crucifix of the “Master of Bigallo”, the works of Bernardo Daddi and his pupils and those of Niccolò di Pietro Gerini.  The collection also displays important sculptures like those of Alberto Arnoldi (mid 14th century) who sculptured the niches and loggia.

Basilica di Santa Maria Novella

Hosting many masterpieces of the early Renaissance this church, built by Domenicans in the 13 century, and its marvelous facade remodeled between 1456 and 1470 by Leon Battista Alberti.  It is home to exquisite frescoes, painted to teach religion to the illiterates -- The Trinita’ fresco by Masaccio, which is considered the first perspective work, the Vas's Madonna of the Rosary (1568), the bronze crucifix by Giambologna and a fresco cycle by Ghirlandaio in the Cappella Maggiore (main chapel), Filippini Lippi’s frescoes in the Cappella strozzi and the unique wood crucifix by Brunelleschi in the Capella Gondi.

The Romanesque style gate built in 1350 leads to the First Cloister that is frescoed with Scenes from the Old Testament by Paolo Uccello.  The Refectory, the Large Cloister, the Chiostrino dei Morti, the Cappellone degli Spagnoli, and the Strozzi Chapel, are filled with others frescoes by Florentine masters of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries.

Galleria dell’Accademia (Accademia Gallery)

The Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo united all the Florentine drawing schools into one Academy in 1784.  The most enlightened prince of the Lorraine family who ruled Tuscany for over a century; he also founded a gallery to exhibit earlier paintings with the objective of facilitating the study of the Acad's pupils. The present location of the Museum, a building that originally housed the Hospital of St. Matthew, enlarged in time to include several adjoining spaces.  Over time the Gallery has become one of the main museums in town, having acquired extraordinary masterpieces like the Pieta by Giovanni da Milano (14th century), the Annunciation by Lorenzo Monaco (15th century), the splendid frontal called Cassone Adimari showing a sumptuous marriage procession (c. 1450) and the Madonna of the Sea attributed to Botticelli (1445-1510).

But the Accademia’s most extraordinary masterpiece is the famous Michelangelo’s David, removed in 1873 for protection purposes from Piazza Signoria where it had represented the strength and dignity of the Florentine Republic for over four centuries.  In the early years of the 20th century, this statue was joined by other astonishing works of art by the same artist, such as St. Matthew and the four Prisoners originally made for the tomb of Pope Julius II in Rome, but placed in the grotte (caves) of the Boboli gardens at the end of the 15th century, and finally by the Pieta di Palestrina.

Cappelle Medicee (Medici Chapels)

The Medici Chapels, a monumental complex developed over almost two centuries, was a project that began in 1520 at the request of Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, the future Pope Clemens VII, for the intent of providing a proper family mausoleum.  Connected to the adjoining church of S. Lorenzo, considered the “official” church of the Medici and where Michelangelo was working at the New Sacristy, Michelangelo completed the architectural works in 1524 and then worked until 1533 on the sculptures that would have decorated the walls and the very original sarcophagi. The only ones actually completed were the statues of Lorenzo Duke of Urbino and of Giuliano Duke of Nemours, in addition to the allegories of Day and Night, Dawn and Dusk, and the group representing the Madonna with Child flanked by Saints Cosma and Damian (protectors of the Medici), executed respectively by Montorsoli and Baccio da Montelupo, both pupils of Buonarroti.

Following a philosophical concept that was closely linked with Michelang's spirituality, the articulated architectural structure and the strength of Michelang's sculptures clearly reflect a complex symbolism that offers an interpretation of Human Life where active and contemplative life interact to free the soul after death.  Numerous charcoal sketches by Michelangelo were found in a small space beneath the apse.

This Chapel, a grandiose and pompous display of richness and abundance with its large dome and lavish interior decorated with marbles, further confirms the power of the Medici dynasty. The octagonal room designed to receive the bodies of the grand dukes is in fact almost entirely decorated with semi-precious stones and marbles. The grand ducal sarcophagi are completed with bronze statues and inserted in niches.  The dome, originally planned with an internal coating of lapis lazuli, was left incomplete at the end of the Medici period and frescoed in 1828 by Pietro Benvenuti with scenes of the New and Old Testament.

Palazzo Vecchio

Palazzo della Signoria, or Palazzo Vecchio, that today contains the offices of the City Council was built in three stages between the 13th and 16th centuries to be the exclusive political representative of the city.  Gradually losing its importance from 1565 for three centuries, being partly replaced by the Uffizi and the new Palace at Pitti, it came to the fore again at the end of this last century.  It became the seat of United It's provisional government from 1865-71, when Florence was the capital of the kingdom of Italy, and housed the Chamber of Deputies and returned to its original function as the seat of the City Council in 1872.

Today, much of the palace can be visited. The public can admire the Hall of the Five Hundred, the little Study of Francesco I and the four monumental apartments: the Quarters of the Elements, the Quarters of Eleonora of Toledo, the Residence of the Priors and the Quarters of Leo X, where the reception rooms of the mayor and the council that governs the city are situated. The Hall of the Two Hundred is once more being used for the meetings of the City Council and therefore not always open to the public.

San Miniato a Monte

One of the c's most striking examples of Florentine Romanesque architecture, San Miniato is characterized by its bicoloured (white and green) marble façade. The altar, pulpit and transept recess feature fine marble decor, while the floor, in keeping with the Romanesque style, is decorated with symbolic ornamental motifs.  Along the nave another chapel, t'Cappella del cardinale Portoga', designed by one of Brunelles's pupils, represents the architectural and decorative style of one of Brunelles's first creations, t'Sagrestia Vecc' (Old Sacristy), which can be seen in San Lorenzo church.

Giotto Belltower

One of the most striking views of the town is the bell tower by Giotto with its huge dome. The famous painter, Giotto, the architect of the project for the bell tower, completed only the lower part by the time of his death in 1337, but the works continued under the direction of Andrea Pisano (c. 1290-1349) and Francesco Talenti (not. 1325-1369) who completed the project.

Ponte Vecchio

Although few traces of the 10th century bridge still remain due to centuries of flooding, this best known of all Flore's treasures, the only one spared by the retreating Germans in the summer of 1944, is still a favorite spot to visit. To's bridge, built in the middle of the 14th century, was originally filled with a wide variety of shops that included wool merchants and greengrocers, but it was Grand Duke Fernandino I who replaced the merchants with goldsmiths to gentrify roya's route to Pitti Palace, reached via the Vasari Corridor that passes over the bridge.

Events

Scoppio del Carro on Easter Sunday

An event dating back to the Crusades, a wagon full of fireworks is pulled by six white oxen to the Duomo

Festa del Grillo, 40 days after Easter

Mass release of crickets in Cascine Park

Festa del Patrono, 24 June

Feast in honor of the patron St John the Baptist

Gioco del Calcio Storico, June

Featuring football matches played in 16th-century costume, is held in Piazza della Signoria and ends with a fireworks display over Piazzale Michelangelo.

Festa delle Rificolone, 7 September

View children marking the Virgin’s birthday with a lantern-lit procession.

Shopping

There is shopping for everyone in Firenze -- from the famous Italian high fashion boutiques to the more affordable outlets in the countryside around Florence, the expensive handcraft jewelry and exquisite leathers.  Items of every quality and price range can be found around the city with the best deals made in the open-air markets.

San Lorenzo Market

Find a special souvenir of marbleized paper -- an old paper craft.

Santa Croce Leather School

This special School passes on the tradition of the ancient art of leather craftsmanship, producing fine leather goods inside the Monastery of Santa Croce. The Leather School of Florence was created in an informal way immediately after the war with the collaboration between the Franciscan Friars of the Basilica of Santa Croce and the Gori family, leather artisans in Florence from the 1's. The entire district of Santa Croce benefited from the presence of the Leather School, now considered the shopping center for leather goods. Many stores have copied the Leather School and offer demonstrations to the public on how to guild and personalize items with gold initials.

Designer Outlets (outside Firenze)

Thirty minutes from Florence is The Mall -- a huge outlet in the Tuscan hills that offers shoppers discount purchases from retailers like Bottega Veneta, Emanuel Ungaro, Ermenegildo Zegna, Fendi, Giorgio Armani, Gucci, Hogan, La Perla, Ferragamo, Sergio Rossi, 's, Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent and others. Future plans will The Mall to other prestigious brands.  Nearby are the factory outlets of Dolce & Gabbana, Prada and Roberto Cavalli.

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