Florence › Places and landmarks
Places and landmarks in Florence
13 landmarks of Florence, and the streets, squares and waterways around them, each with its story and where to find it.
Photo: Dllu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Landmarks
DuomoFlorence’s cathedral, crowned by Brunelleschi’s dome, still the largest brick dome ever built.
Giotto’s Bell TowerThe slender bell tower beside the cathedral, clad in white, green and pink marble.
BaptisteryThe octagonal baptistery with Ghiberti’s bronze doors, which Michelangelo called the Gates of Paradise.
Piazza della SignoriaThe square of the Palazzo Vecchio, with a copy of Michelangelo’s David at its door.
Palazzo VecchioFlorence’s fortress-like town hall since 1299, with its tall tower off to one side.
Loggia dei LanziAn open arcade on the square, full of statues, among them Cellini’s Perseus with the head of Medusa.
UffiziThe Medici’s offices turned into one of the world’s great museums, with Botticelli’s Birth of Venus.
Ponte VecchioThe bridge of goldsmiths over the Arno, the only one the retreating Germans left standing in 1944.
Piazza della RepubblicaWhere the Roman forum was, now a square with a carousel and old cafés under a triumphal arch.
Santa CroceThe great Franciscan church where Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli are buried.
Santa Maria NovellaThe Dominican church with its white and green marble front by Alberti, by the station that bears its name.
Il PorcellinoThe bronze boar at the Mercato Nuovo: rub its nose and you will come back to Florence.
Also part of Florence
Streets, squares and waterways
The places that hold the centre of Florence together. Point at one to find it on the map.
-
1
Piazza del Duomo square
The square around the cathedral, Giotto’s bell tower and the octagonal Baptistery with its gilded bronze doors.
-
2
Via dei Calzaiuoli street
Florence’s main pedestrian street, from the cathedral to Piazza della Signoria past the guild church of Orsanmichele, named after the hosiers who once had their shops here.
-
3
Piazza della Repubblica square
The square that the city cleared from the 1880s on the site of the Roman forum, the old market and the Jewish ghetto, with its triumphal arch and old cafés.
-
4
Piazza della Signoria square
The political heart of Florence for seven centuries, in front of Palazzo Vecchio, with a copy of Michelangelo’s David at its door.
-
5
Piazzale degli Uffizi square
The long, narrow courtyard between the two wings of the Uffizi, which Vasari built from 1560 as offices for the Medici government. Statues of famous Tuscans stand in its niches.
-
6
Ponte Vecchio bridge
The bridge of 1345 lined with shops, where in 1593 Grand Duke Ferdinando I replaced the butchers with goldsmiths.
-
7
The Arno waterway
Florence’s river, between the stone embankments of the lungarni, crossed by the Ponte Vecchio and a string of other bridges.
-
8
Ponte Santa Trinita bridge
Ammannati’s graceful bridge of 1569, blown up in 1944 and rebuilt in 1958 with stones fished out of the river.
-
9
Via de’ Tornabuoni street
Florence’s grandest shopping street, lined with fashion houses and Renaissance palaces such as Palazzo Strozzi.
-
10
Piazza Santa Maria Novella square
The wide square in front of the Dominican church with the black-and-white marble front that Leon Battista Alberti finished.
-
11
Piazza della Santissima Annunziata square
A calm square of arcades, with Brunelleschi’s loggia of the Hospital of the Innocents, the city’s old foundling hospital, along one side.
-
12
Piazza Santa Croce square
The square in front of the Franciscan church where Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli lie buried. In June it becomes the pitch for the calcio storico.
-
13
Piazza Pitti square
The sloping square below Palazzo Pitti, the palace the Medici moved into in the 16th century, with the Boboli Gardens behind it.
-
14
Piazza Santo Spirito square
The village square of the Oltrarno, in front of Brunelleschi’s church with its plain, unfinished front, with a morning market and bars in the evening.