Florence - 1 day itinerary

If you don’t have too much time to get to know the city, dedicate at least a day to Florence. Do not go to museums, just walk along the streets - you will find many genuine masterpieces here. I offer you a walking route through the brightest and most interesting places.

Florence

For some reason, Florence is often considered as a secondary city, unworthy of close attention. Many consider it an intermediate point of travel, which can be visited by "passage". But this is a great city - a treasury of architecture, the cradle of the Renaissance.

If you don’t have too much time to get to know the city, dedicate at least a day to Florence. Do not go to museums, just walk along the streets - you will find many genuine masterpieces here.

I offer you a walking route through the most striking and interesting places of the ancient Tuscan "flower city".

1. Piazza Signoria (Piazza della Signoria)

Signoria Square (photo: Been Around)

All tourists are eager for the magnificent Piazza Signoria. This is a landmark place for Florence - a square with a rich history. Even in ancient Roman times there was a theater, on its ruins the Uberti gibelins built their residential tower houses. Years passed, all the towers were destroyed, and the majestic Palazzo Vecchio was erected on the square.

Address: Piazza della Signoria.

2. Vecchio Palace (Palazzo Vecchio)

Vecchio Palace

The architecture of this palace sets it apart from the surrounding buildings. The Palazzo Vecchio is more like a fortress than a government palace. In 1299 it was erected for the priors of Florence, and today it houses the town hall. In addition to the administrative role, the building also has a tourist function - it works like an art museum.

Address: Piazza della Signoria
Hours and prices for entry tickets are available here.

3. Pavilion Loggia Lanzi (Loggia dei Lanzi)

Loggia Lanzi Pavilion, photo by Urim Gacaferi

An open gallery room with a colonnade, called the Loggia Lanzi (originally - Loggia dei Priori), was built in the XIV century. for the Florentine authorities. The government held formal events and ceremonies in the Loggia. Here, at one time, the guardsmen of the Duke Cosimo I of Medici were located, and later the pavilion was turned into a sculpture museum. In this capacity, it is now being used.

Address: Piazza della Signoria

From Piazza della Signoria, walk along the Via de Gondi. Turn left at the first intersection, and after a quarter you will see the oldest secular building of the city - the Palazzo Bargello.

4. Bargello Palace

Bargello photo HEN-Magonza

In this palace, existing since 1255, a museum is open today. Here are collected statues of the Renaissance - the work of the great Michelangelo, Giamboloni and Ammanati, the genius Cellini and Donatello. Within the walls of the Nazionale del Bargello museum, you can see collections of jewelry, majolica, and tapestries.

Address: Via del Proconsolo, 4.
Hours and prices for entry tickets are available here.

Go past the Palazzo Bargello through Via del Proconconsolo. Soon you will approach the altar of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, which translates as "flower of St. Mary".

5. Duomo of Florence (La Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore)

Santa Maria del Fiore

The huge cathedral was erected for six centuries. Six architects of different times contributed to the construction of the Duomo. The building was built capacious - the whole population of Florence of the 13th century could enter it at once. The dome of the temple (now the dome of Brunelleschi) was an outstanding engineering achievement of its time. The architect Brunelleschi managed to install it without forests. He applied unprecedented technologies for the installation of the dome, and used technical devices of his own invention. Today, the dome of the cathedral, its lace facade and graceful campaignana amaze observers with their grandeur, delight in their beauty.

Address: Piazza del Duomo
Hours of the cathedral see here.
Dome opening hours are here.
Prices for entry tickets here.

6. The bell tower of Giotto (Campanile di Giotto)

Giotto's bell tower

The Campanile of the Florentine Duomo was built by the great Giotto. The bell tower is part of the Cathedral, but it stands separately, to the right of it, in the square. For cladding the facade of the tower, marble was brought from three areas - the building turned out to be elegant, three-colored. According to the original plan of Cambio, the bell tower was supposed to be built Gothic - elongated, pointed. Giotto revised the design of his predecessor. The effect of the tower’s tendency towards the sky according to Giotto’s plan is achieved due to harmonious proportions and different window heights increasing from floor to floor.

Address: Piazza del Duomo
Watch opening hours here.
Prices for entry tickets here.

7. Baptistery of John the Baptist (Battistero di San Giovanni)

Arch of the dome, decorated with Byzantine mosaics of the XIII-XIV centuries.

The squat octagonal building of the Baptistery of San Giovanni is considered the oldest in the Duomo complex. It stood on the square long before the construction of the cathedral. Already in the V century there was the first baptismal. A modern version of the baptistery has existed since the 10th century.

The main decoration of the building are its gates, decorated with plot bas-reliefs on biblical themes. The sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti devoted the manufacture of the eastern and northern doors of the Baptistery of San Giovanni for more than half a century.

Address: Piazza del Duomo
Watch opening hours here.
Prices for entry tickets here.

From the Duomo, walk along the narrow street of Via dei Servi. You will be taken to the Piazza Santissima Annunziata. There is an educational home.

8. Shelter of the Innocent (Ospedale degli Innocenti)

Educational house

The renaissance building of the Orphanage with a unique facade stands on the square of the Holy Annunciation. The Ospedale degli Innocenti complex was built in the 15th century. This is another creation of the famous Brunelleschi - the first architectural example of the Renaissance in Florence. It contained orphans, street children. On the territory of the Educational House, workshops, a nursery for kids and a school worked. It was the first comprehensive orphanage in Europe.

Address: Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, 12.
Official website: istitutodeglinnocenti.it.

From Santissima Annunziata Square you can walk along Via Cesare Battisti to Piazza San Marco.

9. San Marco. Piazza and Monastery (Convento di San Marco)

San Marco complex, photo by Julien

The monastery of St. Mark was founded in the 13th century by the Sylvestrin monks. In the XV century, the monastery complex was transferred to the Dominicans, after which its renaissance reconstruction began. The patron of the work was the senior Cosimo Medici; the performer was Michelozzo di Bartolomeo. For the period 1437-42. the refectory and the Capitul Hall were re-planned, new cells were equipped, a library was created, a beautiful garden was built.

Address: Piazza di San Marco
Opening hours and prices for entrance tickets to the Museum of San Marco (Museo di San Marco) see here.

Via Piazza San Marco is Via Camillo Cavour. At the intersection of this street with Via de Gori (Gori) stands the Palazzo Medici Riccardi

10. Palace of the Medici Riccardi (Palazzo Medici Riccardi)

Medici Riccardi Palace

The elegant palazzo is a hundred meters from the Duomo. The facade of the palace is faced with rustic masonry from unpolished rough stone, so the building resembles a fortress. Under Medici, the first floor was occupied by a servant, the gentlemen lived on the second. In the family palace was a bank owned by Cosimo Sr.

Address: Via Camillo Cavour, 3
Hours and prices for entry tickets are available here.

If you go forward along the Via de Gori and then, at the second intersection, turn right, you will see one of the oldest Christian churches in Italy - San Lorenzo.

11. Basilica of San Lorenzo (Basilica di San Lorenzo)

Basilica of St. Lawrence

This temple has collected many works of art, but most tourists visit the Basilica of San Lorenzo to look at the Medici family chapel. Sacristy for a noble family was built and designed by Michelangelo Buonarotti in 1520-34. In the chapel you can see an allegorical sculptural group created by the greatest genius of the Renaissance. The compositions "Day", "Night", "Evening" and "Morning" impress with their elegiac mood and amazing harmony.

Address: Piazza di San Lorenzo, 9
Official website: operamedicealaurenziana.org
Hours and prices for entry tickets are available here.

From the basilica, walk along the Via del Giglio (Giglio). At the junction with Via dei Banchi there is a junction, cross the area. On the left side there is a beautiful temple, the facade of which is decorated with marble ornaments. This is Santa Maria Novella.

12. Basilica of Santa Maria Novella (Santa Maria Novella)

Santa Maria Novella

The beauty-basilica attracts tourists not only with its bright early Renaissance facade, but also with remarkable Byzantine frescoes preserved in the interior. The events of the Decameron Boccaccio developed in this church.

Address: Piazza di Santa Maria Novella, 18.
Watch opening hours here.
Prices for entry tickets are here.

Having examined the temple, the beautiful courtyard adjacent to it and the Spanish chapel of the XIV century, turn your back on the Piazza Santa Maria Novella. Go along Via del Sole to the junction with Via Tornabuoni. You will see one of the best examples of the Renaissance architecture of Florence - the Palazzo Strozzi.

13. Palace of Strozzi (Palazzo Strozzi)

Palazzo Strozzi

A three-story palace was built for the noble family of Strozzi, but the work was completed only in 1507, after the death of the customer. The main architect of the project was Benedetto da Mayano. The building has a flat facade, it is lined with blocks of rust stone and looks very harmonious. Now the Palazzo Strozzi is used for exhibitions and social events.

Address: Piazza degli Strozzi.
Watch opening hours here.
Prices for entry tickets are here.

Continue along Via Tornabuoni. In a small square of Santa Trinita you will see a tall monument - a pillar "Column of Justice". This column is a gift from Pope Pius IV to Duke Cosimo I. Prior to installation on the square, the colossus was in the baths of Caracalla.

Gothic temple stands on Piazza Santa Trinita - the medieval eponymous church of santa trinita. The facade of the building dates back to the 16th century - then the last reconstruction took place. The church is famous for the Sasseti Chapel, painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio himself. Leaving the square, you will exit to the Holy Trinity Bridge.

14. Ponte Santa Trinità

Santa Trinita Bridge

The Florentine Bridge of the Holy Trinity, connecting the banks of Arno, looks airy and weightless. Bartolomeo Ammanati, who implemented this project, sought to create both a reliable and beautiful building.

Cross the Santa Trinita Bridge to the opposite bank, then continue right - via Via Santo Spirito to Piazza del Carmine. There you will see the temple of Santa Maria del Carmine. In the Basilica of Santa Maria Del Carmine, a true gem is hidden - the Brancacci Chapel.

15. Chapel of Brancacci (Cappella Brancacci)

Brancacci Chapel, photo by Luke Canvin

The chapel was built by order of the Brancacci family in the XIV century. She became the brightest monument of the Renaissance period. The frescoes decorating the walls, lunettes and arches were made by artists Masaccio and Masolino in the 15th century. The main motifs of the frescoes were scenes of the life of St. Peter and the theme of original sin. This painting cycle is considered the most significant work of Masaccio - at the time of work in the chapel, the artist was a little over twenty years old. The chapel underwent two major restoration: in the XVIII and XX centuries. Since 1990, it was opened to the general public.

Address: Piazza del Carmine.
Official website: museicivicifiorentini.comune.fi.it

Leaving the basilica, go right. If you follow the Via Santa Monaca, which goes into Via Sant'Agostino, you will arrive at the Piazza di Santo Spirito, where the elegant basilica stands.

16. Church of Santo Spirito (Basilica di Santo Spirito)

Basilica of Santo Spirit, photo by Scott MacLeod Liddle

The architect Brunelleschi wanted to build the Basilica of the Holy Spirit so that its main facade was facing the banks of Arno. For such construction, it was necessary to demolish several city buildings, so it was not possible to complete the initial project. The temple building turned out to be strict, elegant in its simplicity.

Address: Piazza Santo Spirito, 30.
Official website: basilicasantospirito.it

After inspecting the basilica, turn left, go along a narrow street. She will lead you to the Pitti Palace.

17. Pitti Palace (Palazzo Pitti)

Pitti Palace

The three-story Renaissance Palazzo Pitti in the Oltrarno district was built for the family of the Florentine aristocrat Luca Pitti. In the middle of the XVI century the unfinished building passed into the possession of the Medici, was reconstructed and expanded to the taste of the new owners. The construction of the Pitti Palace was completed in 1560.

Now the palace houses one of the largest museum complexes. There are several diverse museums of art and history.

Address: Piazza de Pitti, 1.
Hours and prices for entry tickets are available here.

Not far from the Palazzo Pitti is the Arno Beach and the famous Ponte Vecchio - Old Bridge of Florence.

18. Old Bridge (Ponte Vecchio)

Ponte Vecchio

This bridge has existed since the time of the ancient Romans. He survived various events in the life of the city and the only one that survived during the Second World War.

Its present appearance dates back to the 14th century. In 1333, the Old Bridge was washed away by flood. Restored it by Taddeo Gaddy. Since 1442, Ponte Vecchio has become a trading bridge, and it retains this status today. It is difficult to pass here in the daytime - tourists besiege the bridge. However, you can appreciate the unique architecture of Ponte Vecchio.

Cross the bridge, turn right. Arno Embankment will lead to the Uffizi Gallery.

19. Uffizi Gallery (Galleria degli Uffizi)

Uffizi Gallery

The Uffizi Palace was originally intended for state magistrates. The construction was initiated by Cosimo I of the Medici. The building was built by 1581, but in the XVII century the design of its interiors continued.

For several generations, the Medici collected works of art, and the palace was eventually turned into a museum. He received his first visitors back in the 16th century, and finally became a public gallery since 1765. The Uffizi Gallery now houses the largest collection of Renaissance art. Tickets to this museum are booked in advance.

Address: Piazzale degli Uffizi, 6.
Official website: uffizi.firenze.it
Hours and prices for entry tickets are available here.

At the Uffizi Palace, the circular route of a walk through the beautiful Florence will end.

The article used materials from the site: redigo.ru

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