Florence Self-Guided Walking Audio Tour

The walk stop by stop: Santa Maria Novella, the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, Piazza della Repubblica

10 stops · about 62 min walking · start: Basilica of Santa Maria Novella · finish: Piazza della Repubblica

First stop is the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, minutes from the trains. From there the route climbs north to the Basilica of San Marco, comes back down by way of the Basilica of San Lorenzo to the Duomo and Piazza della Signoria, reaches east to the Basilica of Santa Croce, then returns towards the river past the Uffizi Gallery, over Ponte Vecchio to Ponte Santa Trinita. Piazza della Repubblica closes the loop. The app allows another opening stop or another order, and no stop needs an entry ticket.

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1. 

   1Basilica of Santa Maria NovellaStart

   The Dominican basilica beside the main railway station has a green-and-white marble façade completed by Leon Battista Alberti around 1470. Inside is Masaccio's Holy Trinity fresco, one of the first paintings to use linear perspective.

2. 

   2Basilica of San Marco

   The church and convent of San Marco were rebuilt for the Dominicans with money from Cosimo de' Medici in the 1430s and 1440s. The friar-painter Fra Angelico decorated the convent, and the preacher Girolamo Savonarola was its prior before his fall in 1498.

3. 

   3Basilica of San Lorenzo

   San Lorenzo was the parish church of the Medici, rebuilt from the 1420s to designs by Filippo Brunelleschi. Its rough brick front was never finished: Michelangelo designed a marble façade that was never built, and the Medici Chapels lie behind the church.

4. 

   4Duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore)

   Florence Cathedral was begun in 1296, and Brunelleschi's dome, completed in 1436, is still the largest brick dome ever built. Beside it stand Giotto's bell tower and the Baptistery, whose gilded east doors by Ghiberti Michelangelo is said to have called the Gates of Paradise.

5. 

   5Piazza della Signoria

   Florence's political square is overlooked by Palazzo Vecchio, the town hall since the 14th century. A copy of Michelangelo's David stands where the original stood until 1873, next to Ammannati's Neptune Fountain and the statues of the Loggia dei Lanzi, and a plaque in the paving marks where Savonarola was executed in 1498.

6. 

   6Basilica of Santa Croce

   Santa Croce is one of the largest Franciscan churches in the world and holds the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli and Rossini, plus a memorial to Dante, who is buried in Ravenna. Its marble façade was only added in the 19th century.

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7. 

   7Uffizi Gallery

   Giorgio Vasari designed the Uffizi from 1560 as offices (uffizi) for Duke Cosimo I de' Medici's administration. Today it is one of the world's great art museums, home to Botticelli's Birth of Venus, and statues of famous Tuscans line its long courtyard.

8. 

   8Ponte Vecchio

   The Old Bridge was rebuilt in stone in 1345 after a flood, and in 1593 Grand Duke Ferdinando I replaced its butchers with goldsmiths, who are still there. The Vasari Corridor runs along its top, and it was the only Florence bridge the retreating German army did not blow up in 1944.

9. 

   9Ponte Santa Trinita

   Bartolomeo Ammannati built this bridge in 1567–1569 with three graceful elliptical arches, and statues of the Four Seasons stand at its ends. Blown up in 1944, it was rebuilt by 1958 with stones recovered from the Arno; the head of the Spring statue was only found in the river in 1961.

10. 

    10Piazza della RepubblicaFinish

    The square lies on the site of the forum of Roman Florentia, and a column topped by a statue of Abundance marks the old centre. Its present look, with the large arch and the historic cafés, dates from the late 19th century, when the old market and the Jewish ghetto were demolished.