Welcome toFirenze

Brunelleschi's red-tiled dome crowns Florence's Gothic cathedral, begun in 1296 and still one of the largest masonry domes ever built, at the heart of the historic centre.

One of the world's great art museums, built as Medici government offices by Giorgio Vasari from 1560 and home to Botticelli's Birth of Venus and masterpieces spanning centuries.

Florence's medieval bridge over the Arno, rebuilt in 1345 and lined with jewellers' shops since 1593, and the only city bridge to survive the Second World War intact.

Cult schiacciata counter on Via dei Neri, opened in 1989 in a former wine cellar, famous worldwide for its "La Favolosa" sandwich and queues that wrap around the block.

Cast-iron-and-glass market hall from 1874 in San Lorenzo, its ground floor still a working produce market and its upper floor a food hall of 20-plus artisan vendors.

Florence's oldest gelateria, opened as a dairy in 1929 near Santa Croce and still run by the Vivoli family four generations later, cups only, no cones.

An open-air street market of leather stalls wrapping around the Basilica di San Lorenzo, running since the late 19th-century risanamento of the city centre.

Florence's grand shopping boulevard, named for the family into which Lorenzo the Magnificent's mother married, running from Piazza Antinori to Ponte Santa Trinita.

The world's oldest pharmacy, tracing its roots to 1221, still selling perfumes, waters and remedies from a frescoed 13th-century chapel beside the church.