| Boboli Gardens |
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The Boboli Gardens are the most popular sight to see in Florence. The gardens are rich and extravagant pleasure-gardens with large expanses to explore, and photogenic views over Florence. Designed by the Grand Dukes as a venue for extravagant parties and celebrations, the garden is dotted with statuary, fountains and a variety of features commissioned specially, or taken from the fabulous Medici art collections. The Boboli Gardens spread over the steep hillside behind the vast Pitti Palace, over the Arno from central Florence. |
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| Ponte Vecchio |
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There has been a bridge spanning the river Arno close to this spot since Roman times. The current stone bridge was built in 1345, bearing 43 shops on its three arches, and replaced an eleventh-century wooden structure. Over the top of the medieval shops runs the Vasari Corridor ( Corridoio Vasariano ), built in 1565 as a private passageway for the Grand Dukes, linking the Palazzo della Signoria and the Uffizi with the Pitti Palace. |
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| Pitti Palace |
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The sloping frontage that forms the Piazza de' Pitti is closed on three sides by the circling wings of the Palace, which the Florentines have always been reluctant to call the Royal Palace because of their innate tendency for understatement, in spite of the fact that the building has hosted all the ruling dynasties (the Medicis, the Lorraines, the Bourbons, the Bonapartes, the Savoys) ever since Cosimo I's wife, the beautiful and rich Duchess Eleonora of Toledo, bought it from Buonaccorso Pitti in 1550 to turn it into the new home of the Medici family. |
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| Santa Croce |
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Although the origins of the first Franciscan oratory are still lost in the mists of time, the construction of the new Basilica of Santa Croce is well documented and was officially started on May 3rd 1294, when the architect, Arnolfo di Cambio, laid the first stone of what was to become a masterpiece of Gothic art. His design was based on spatial grandiosity, with the structural elements carried out with rational clarity and sobriety. |
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| Duomo |
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The Florence Duomo is dedicated to Santa Maria del Fiore and is typical of Italian Gothic architecture. The present building was designed by Arnolfo di Cambio (c. 1245-1302), one of the greatest architect- sculptors of his age, who considerably enlarged the existing structure. This was finished in around 1367 and was completely covered with coloured marbles like the earlier Baptistery, although the uncompleted facade was given its covering in the nineteenth century. The Cupola remained unfinished, and in 1421 the polygonal base was erected. |
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