This abbey was founded as a Benedictine institution in 978 by Willa, the mother of Margrave Ugo of Tuscany. It’s best known as being the parish church of Beatrice Portinari, the love of Dante’s life. The church’s main attraction is the 1480 oil painting Apparition of the Virgin to St. Bernard, by Renaissance painter Filippino Lippi. As you enter the...

Facing the Duomo, the octagonal, green and white Baptistry is most famous for the gilded bronze bas-reliefs adorning its eastern doors, designed by Lorenzo Ghiberti in 1401 and completed 20 years later. The panels on the Baptistry are duplicates. The original panels are now housed safely in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo. The moniker “Porta del Paradiso” (Gate of Paradise)...

A long walk from the center, to be sure, but rewarding. Occupying one of the highest points in Florence, uphill from the panoramic views on Piazzale Michelangelo, construction of this church began in 1013. The neighboring monastery, formerly a Benedictine community, was given over to the Olivetans in 1373, who still run it. The marble façade, begun around 1090, has...

The tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo Galilei, and Dante (tomb only, his remains are in Ravenna) are among the names you’ll recognize in this jaw-slackening church, designed by Arnolfo di Cambio starting in 1294, though work of the initial church continued through 1385. The church’s marble front facade was was added in the 19th century. This is the largest Franciscan church...

Mostly completed in 1360, work on the church’s interior and exterior ornamentation picked along until the 15th century. The upper section of the front marble facade as well as the doorway were designed by Leon Battista Alberti (completed around 1470). The interior nave is an impressive 100 meters (328 feet) long. About halfway up the north (left) aisle is Masaccio’s...

Though he did not live to see its completion, it’s believed that Filippo Brunelleschi began designs for this church as early as 1428. After his death in 1446, work continued guided by Antonio Manetti, Giovanni da Gaiole and Salvi d’Andrea. Various additions and elements were later added, including a bell tower (1503) designed by Baccio d’Agnolo. Brunelleschi’s planned facade was...

It’s worth a quick detour to see the well-preserved 11th century facade of this Romanesque church sitting in a square that once served as a cemetery for unbaptized babies. The side chapels, dating from the 15th and 16th centuries, contain faded late baroque decorations. The terracotta tabernacle at the end of the church’s north aisle was done by Giovanni della...

The interior contains frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio and a painted alterpiece by Lorenzo Monaco (master of Fra Angelico) in the fourth chapel on the south aisle, as well as the frescoes on the chapel’s walls.

Founded in 1250 and rebuilt in the 15th century, though this church is only a block off Piazza San Marco it gets precious few tourist visitors. Its modest offerings include frescoes by Perugino, Jacopo Pontormo and Andrea del Sarto. The current edifice was designed by Michelozzo. The church holds, count ’em, seven masses each morning, during which time idle visitors...

This church was completed during the 1250s, then almost completely rebuilt using Baroque designs around 1627. A fresco by Domenico Ghirlandaio (circa 1472) above the second alter on the right side depicts Madonna della Misericordia, protector of the Vespucci family. The young face of Amerigo Vespucci, a navigator from Florence who famously gave the American continent his name, is said...

Prior to its 14th-century transformation, this was a grain market. By order of the city government, the market was walled up and sculptors were commissioned to decorate the church with statues of the patron saints of the city’s guilds, which were places in the niches in the building’s exterior. The statues, many of which are now housed in the museum...

Santa Felicita is an 18th century remake of a 4th century church (for some time, Florence’s oldest church). Brunelleschi’s Cappella Barbadori is inside the door on the right and Jacopo Pontormo’s excellent frescoes of the Annunciation and Deposition (depicting Christ being brought down from the Cross) are here as well. Though Medici fans will want to gawk at the section...

Sharing space with Rome’s Colosseum and Pisa’s Leaning Tower, Florence’s Duomo is one of Italy’s defining sights. Construction began in 1296 and ensued for nearly 150 years, though its eye-widening neo-Gothic white, green and pink marble facade wasn’t put into place until the 19th century. Entering the cathedral itself is free and wholly worthwhile, though in truth it probably won’t...

The reason that the ground floor of the Duomo looks so spare is because much of its treasures have been moved here. There are also items here taken from the Baptistry and the campanile (bell tower). The museum won’t make your jaw go slack like the Duomo, but this relatively uncrowded place has a stockpile of treasure that most museums...

Housed in the refectory off the first cloister (designed by Brunelleschi) of the Basilica di Santa Croce, the museum was hit hard by the flood of the Arno River in 1966, when water height reached four meters (over 13 feet). Painstakingly restored items include a Crucifixion by Cimabue, the bronze statue St Louis of Toulouse (1424) by Donatello and a...

Built between 1874 and 1882, copper (now pea-green) Moorish revival style onion domes crown this edifice, integrating Islamic and Italian architectural styles. Italian Fascist soldiers used the synagogue as a garage during World War II and then attempted to destroy it with help from retreating German soldiers in August 1944. Members of the Italian resistance defused most of the explosives,...