Florence
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21. Croce al Trebbio
Santa Maria NovellaIn 1338, the Dominican friars (the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella is down the street) erected this little granite column near Piazza Santa Maria Novella to commemorate a famous local victory: it was here in 1244 that they defeated their avowed enemies, the Patarene heretics, in a bloody street brawl.
Via del Trebbio, Florence, Tuscany, 50123, Italy -
22. Duomo
A stark medieval interior yields many masterpieces. In the raised presbytery, the Cappella Salutati was frescoed by 15th-century artist Cosimo Rosselli, but it was his contemporary, sculptor Mino da Fiesole (1430–84), who put the town on the artistic map. The Madonna on the altarpiece and the tomb of Bishop Salutati are fine examples of the artist's work.
Piazza Mino da Fiesole, Fiesole, Tuscany, 50014, Italy -
23. Florence American Cemetery
About 8 km (5 miles) south of Florence on the road to Siena is one of two American cemeteries in Italy (the other is in Nettuno). It contains 4,392 bodies of Americans who died in Italy during World War II. Spread across a gently rolling hill, the simple crosses and Stars of David bearing only name, date of death, and state seem to stretch endlessly. Atop the hill is a place for reflection and large mosaic maps depicting the Allied assault in 1943. The two fronts—called the Gothic Line and the Gustav Line—are vividly rendered. So, too, is the list containing 1,409 names of those missing in action.
Via Cassia, Florence, Tuscany, 50100, Italy055-202–0020Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free -
24. Galleria dell'Accademia
San MarcoThe collection of Florentine paintings, dating from the 13th to 18th century, is largely unremarkable, but the sculptures by Michelangelo are worth the price of admission. The unfinished Slaves, fighting their way out of their marble prisons, were meant for the tomb of Michelangelo's overly demanding patron, Pope Julius II (1443–1513). But the focal point is the original David, moved here from Piazza della Signoria in 1873. It was commissioned in 1501 by the Opera del Duomo (Cathedral Works Committee), which gave the 26-year-old sculptor a leftover block of marble that had been ruined 40 years earlier by two other sculptors. Michelangelo's success with the block was so dramatic that the city showered him with honors, and the Opera del Duomo voted to build him a house and a studio in which to live and work. Today, David is beset not by Goliath but by tourists, and seeing the statue at all—much less really studying it—can be a trial. Save yourself a long wait in line by reserving tickets in advance. A plexiglass barrier surrounds the sculpture, following a 1991 attack on it by a self-proclaimed hammer-wielding art anarchist who, luckily, inflicted only a few minor nicks on the toes. The statue is not quite what it seems. It is so poised and graceful and alert—so miraculously alive—that it is often considered the definitive sculptural embodiment of High Renaissance perfection. But its true place in the history of art is a bit more complicated. As Michelangelo well knew, the Renaissance painting and sculpture that preceded his work were deeply concerned with ideal form. Perfection of proportion was the ever-sought Holy Grail; during the Renaissance, ideal proportion was equated with ideal beauty, and ideal beauty was equated with spiritual perfection. But David, despite its supremely calm and dignified pose, departs from these ideals. Michelangelo didn't give the statue perfect proportions. The head is slightly too large for the body, the arms are too large for the torso, and the hands are dramatically large for the arms. The work was originally commissioned to adorn the exterior of the Duomo and was intended to be seen from below and at a distance. Michelangelo knew exactly what he was doing, calculating that the perspective of the viewer would be such that, in order for the statue to appear proportioned, the upper body, head, and arms would have to be bigger, as they would be farther away. But he also sculpted it to express and embody, as powerfully as possible in a single figure, an entire biblical story. David's hands are big, but so was Goliath, and these are the hands that slew him. Music lovers might want to check out the Museo delgli Instrumenti Musicali, also within the Accademia; its Stradivarius is the main attraction.
View Tours and ActivitiesVia Ricasoli 60, Florence, Tuscany, 50122, Italy055-294883-reservationsSight Details
Rate Includes: €12, Closed Mon. -
25. Giardino Bardini
San NiccolòGarden lovers, those who crave a view, and those who enjoy a nice hike should visit this lovely villa, whose history spans centuries. It had a walled garden as early as the 14th century; its "Grand Stairs"—a zigzag ascent well worth scaling—have been around since the 16th. The garden is filled with irises, roses, and heirloom flowers. It also has a Japanese garden and statuary.
Via de'Bardini, Florence, Tuscany, Italy055-263–8599Sight Details
Rate Includes: €10, Closed Mon. (with occasional exceptions) -
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26. Giardino dei Semplici
San MarcoCreated by Cosimo I in 1550, this delightful garden was designed by favorite Medici architect Niccolò Tribolo. Many of the plants here have been grown since the 16th century. Springtime, especially May, is a particularly beautiful time to visit, as multitudes of azaleas create a riot of color.
Via Pier Micheli 3, Florence, Tuscany, 50100, Italy055-275–6799Sight Details
Rate Includes: €3, Closed Mon. -
27. Giardino di Boboli
Palazzo PittiThe main entrance to these gardens is from the right side of the courtyard of Palazzo Pitti. The landscaping began to take shape in 1549, when the Pitti family sold the palazzo to Eleanor of Toledo, wife of the Medici grand duke Cosimo I. A visit here can be disappointing because the gardens are somewhat sparse, but the pleasant walk offers excellent views.
View Tours and ActivitiesPiazza de' Pitti, Florence, Tuscany, 50125, Italy055-294883Sight Details
Rate Includes: €10, Closed 1st and last Mon. of month Nov.–May -
28. Gucci Garden
DuomoThis museum has all the class and elegance associated with the Gucci name. Tasteful displays of the design house's famous luggage, shoes, and sporting goods (including snorkels and flippers) fill the 14th-century Palazzo del Tribunale di Mercatanzia. Centuries ago, this building heard and tried cases by disgruntled guildsmen. Today, it offers some interesting juxtapositions, including an early 15th-century fresco of Christ crucified located in a room that's now filled with displays of 20th-century jewelry.
Piazza della Signoria 10, Florence, Tuscany, 50100, Italy055-7592–7010Sight Details
Rate Includes: €8 -
29. Le Cascine
In the 16th century, this vast park belonged to the Medici, who used it for hunting, one of their favorite pastimes. It was opened to the public in the 19th century. The park runs for nearly 3 km (2 miles) along the Arno and has roughly 291 acres. It's ideal for strolling on sunny days, and there are paths for jogging, allées perfect for biking, grassy fields for picnicking, and lots of space for rollerblading (as well as a place to rent skates). At the northern tip of the park is the Piazzaletto dell'Indiano, an oddly moving monument dedicated to Rajaram Cuttraputti, Marajah of Kolepoor, who died in Florence in 1870. The park hosts sports enthusiasts, a weekly open-air market, and discotheques. But be warned: at night there's a booming sex-for-sale trade.
Main entrance: Piazza Vittorio Veneto, Viale Fratelli Roselli (at Ponte della Vittoria), Florence, Tuscany, 50100, Italy -
30. Mercato Nuovo
Piazza della RepubblicaThe open-air loggia, built in 1551, teems with souvenir stands, but the real attraction is a copy of Pietro Tacca's bronze Porcellino (which translates as "little pig" despite the fact the animal is, in fact, a wild boar). The sculpture is Florence's equivalent of the Trevi Fountain: put a coin in his mouth, and if it falls through the grate below (according to one interpretation), it means you'll return to Florence someday. What you're seeing is a copy of a copy: Tacca's original version, in the Museo Bardini, is actually a copy of an ancient Greek work.
Via Por Santa Maria at Via Porta Rossa, Florence, Tuscany, 50123, ItalySight Details
Rate Includes: Closed Sun. -
31. Museo Archeologico
Santissima AnnunziataOf the Etruscan, Egyptian, and Greco-Roman antiquities here, the Etruscan collection is particularly notable—one of the most important in Italy (the other being in Turin). The famous bronze Chimera was discovered without its tail, which is a 16th-century reconstruction by Cellini. If you're traveling with kids, they might particularly enjoy the small mummy collection. Those with a fondness for gardens should visit on Saturday morning, when the tiny but eminently pleasurable garden is open for tours. If you're going to the Uffizi, hang on to your ticket, as admission to this museum is free.
Piazza Santissima Annunziata 9/b, Florence, Tuscany, 50121, Italy055-23575Sight Details
Rate Includes: €8, Closed 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Sun. of month -
32. Museo Bardini
OltrarnoThe 19th-century collector and antiquarian Stefano Bardini turned his palace into his own private museum. Upon his death, the collection was turned over to the state and includes an interesting assortment of Etruscan pieces, sculpture, paintings, and furniture that dates mostly from the Renaissance and the Baroque.
Via dei Renai 1, Florence, Tuscany, 50125, Italy055-234–2427Sight Details
Rate Includes: €7, Closed Tues.–Thurs. -
33. Museo dei Ragazzi
Piazza della SignoriaFlorence's Children's Museum may be the best-kept public-access secret in Florence. A series of interactive tours includes "Encounters with History," during which participants meet and talk with Giorgio Vasari or Galileo Galilei and explore secret passageways. Events occur at different venues (Palazzo Vecchio, Museo Stibbert, Cappella Brancacci, and the Museo Galileo). Tours are in English and must be booked in advance. Though most of the tours are geared for the three- to eight-year-old crowd, adults will find them lots of fun, too.
Piazza della Signoria 1, Florence, Tuscany, 50122, Italy055-276–8224Sight Details
Rate Includes: €10 -
34. Museo del Cenacolo
This way-off-the-beaten-path museum has a stunning fresco by Andrea del Sarto. Begun sometime around 1511 and finished in 1526–27, the fresco depicts the moment when Christ announced that one of his apostles would betray him. Andrea has rendered the scene in subtle yet still brilliant colors. Also on display are a couple of lesser-known works by Pontormo and copies of other 16th-century works. Down the street is the church of San Salvi, founded by John Gualbert and begun in 1048. Though it suffered damage during the siege of 1529–30, the interior has a modest but lovely Madonna and Child by Lorenzo di Bicci as well as a 16th-century wooden cross on the altar. To get here, take Bus 6 from Piazza San Marco and get off at the Lungo L'Affrico stop—it's the first stop after crossing the railroad tracks.
Via San Salvi 16, Florence, Tuscany, 50121, Italy055-064–9489Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free, Closed Mon. -
35. Museo dell'Opificio delle Pietre Dure
San MarcoAdjacent to this fascinating small museum is an opificio, or workshop, that Ferdinand I established in 1588 to train craftsmen in the art of working with precious and semiprecious stones and marble (pietre dure means hard stones). Four hundred–plus years later, the workshop is renowned as a center for the restoration of mosaics and inlays in semiprecious stones. The museum is highly informative and includes some magnificent late-Renaissance examples of this highly specialized and beautiful craft. If you're going to the Uffizi, do keep your ticket, as entrance to this museum is free.
Via degli Alfani 78, Florence, Tuscany, 50121, Italy055-26511Sight Details
Rate Includes: €4, Closed Sun. -
36. Museo di Casa Martelli
San LorenzoThe wealthy Martelli family, long associated with the all-powerful Medici, lived, from the 16th century, in this palace on a quiet street near the Basilica of San Lorenzo. The last Martelli died in 1986, and, in October 2009, the casa-museo (house-museum) opened to the public. It's the only nonreconstructed example of such a house in all of Florence, and for that reason alone it's worth a visit. The family collected art, and while most of the stuff is B-list, a few gems by Beccafumi, Salvatore Rosa, and Piero di Cosimo adorn the walls.
Via Zanetti 8, Florence, Tuscany, 50123, Italy055-294883Sight Details
Rate Includes: Closed Sun.–Fri., €18, Reservations essential. -
37. Museo di San Marco
San LorenzoA former Dominican convent adjacent to the church of San Marco houses this museum, which contains many stunning works by Fra Angelico (circa 1400–55), the Dominican friar famous for his piety as well as for his painting. When the friars' cells were restructured between 1439 and 1444, he decorated many of them with frescoes meant to spur religious contemplation. His unostentatious and direct paintings exalt the simple beauties of the contemplative life. Don't miss the famous Annunciation, on the upper floor, and the works in the gallery off the cloister as you enter. Here you can see his beautiful Last Judgment; as usual, the tortures of the damned are far more inventive and interesting than the pleasures of the redeemed.
View Tours and ActivitiesPiazza San Marco 1, Florence, Tuscany, 50129, Italy055-294883Sight Details
Rate Includes: €8, Closed 1st, 3rd, and 5th Sun. and 2nd and 4th Mon. of month -
38. Museo Galileo
Piazza della SignoriaAlthough it tends to be obscured by the glamour of the neighboring Uffizi, this science museum has much to brag about: Galileo's own instruments, antique armillary spheres, and other reminders of the artistic and scientific feats of the Renaissance.
View Tours and ActivitiesPiazza dei Giudici 1, Florence, Tuscany, 50122, Italy055-265311Sight Details
Rate Includes: €11, Reservations are recommended. -
39. Museo Horne
Santa CroceEnglishman Herbert P. Horne (1864–1916), architect, art historian, and collector, spent much of his life in his 15th-century palazzo surrounded by carefully culled paintings, sculptures, and other decorative arts mostly from the 14th to 16th century. His home has since been turned into a museum, and the jewel of the collection is Giotto's St. Stephen. The rest of the collection is decidedly B-list (he owned plenty of minor works by major artists such as Masaccio and Bernini), but it's still worth a visit to see how a gentleman lived in the 19th century. Many of the furnishings, such as the 15th-century lettuccio (divan), are exemplary. Note that this museum has been undergoing development and may be closed; check ahead on its status before visiting.
Via dei Benci 6, Florence, Tuscany, 50122, Italy055-244661Sight Details
Rate Includes: €7, Check ahead on opening days and hrs -
40. Museo Marino Marini and Cappella Rucellai
Santa Maria NovellaA 21-foot-tall bronze horse and rider, one of the major works by artist Marino Marini (1901–80), dominates the space of the main gallery here. The museum itself is an eruption of contemporary space in a deconsecrated 9th-century church, designed with a series of open stairways, walkways, and balconies that allow you to peer at Marini's work from all angles. In addition to his Etruscanesque sculpture, the museum houses Marini's paintings, drawings, and engravings. The Cappella Rucellai, commissioned by one of Florence's most powerful families, shows Renaissance man Leon Battista Alberti (1404--72) at the height of his architectural powers.
Piazza San Pancrazio, Florence, Tuscany, 50123, Italy055-219432Sight Details
Rate Includes: €6, Closed Tues.–Fri.
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