Florence Travel Guide

Florence Cathedral (the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore) is the symbol of Florence and a great masterpiece of the Renaissance. This church, famed for its huge red dome and pink-and-green marble facade, is the pride of the city of art and a stunning, beautiful sight in Florence. Standing in the center of Florence's old town, it is the most magnificent and iconic building and symbol of this Renaissance birthplace and city of art. The church is vast and exquisite: its exterior is inlaid with white, pink and dark-green marble in intricate, fine floral and geometric patterns, with an elaborately carved facade, gorgeous, bright and elegant, like a delicate work of art. The church's greatest, most stunning and historic feature is its world-famous huge red dome (designed and built by the master architect Brunelleschi): this towering, rounded, magnificent octagonal red dome, with its unprecedented span and innovative construction (a double-shell dome built without scaffolding), was a marvel of engineering and architecture and sounded the clarion of the Renaissance, still the undisputed landmark of Florence's skyline. Beside the cathedral stand the graceful Giotto's Campanile and the ancient Baptistery (famous for its Gates of Paradise bronze reliefs). Visitors can admire this gorgeous church, or climb the stunning dome (and campanile) for views of Florence's endless red-tiled panorama. Visiting Florence and admiring the gorgeous, stunning Florence Cathedral is a breathtaking sight.

The Uffizi Gallery is one of the world's greatest treasuries of Renaissance art. This gallery, rich with masterpieces by Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, is a temple for art lovers and a breathtaking sight in Florence. The Uffizi Gallery, near Piazza della Signoria in Florence's old town, is one of the world's most famous and important art museums and the richest, finest collection of Renaissance masterpieces, grown from the collection of the Medici family, the greatest patrons of the Renaissance. Walking through its long galleries, you encounter countless masterpieces by Renaissance giants, each a treasure of human art, dazzling and awe-inspiring: Botticelli's dreamy, graceful The Birth of Venus and Primavera (the crown jewels), Leonardo's Annunciation, Michelangelo's Doni Tondo, and works by Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio and more, like walking through a three-dimensional history of Renaissance art, feeling the brilliant artistic light and humanist spirit of that great age. Besides paintings, the museum displays classical sculptures and its riverside corridor overlooks the Ponte Vecchio and the Arno. This gallery is a true temple for art lovers. Visiting Florence and wandering the Uffizi's rare treasures to admire Renaissance masterpieces is a breathtaking sight.

The Cathedral Museum, located within or adjacent to the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, Serbia, showcases the history of the Serbian Orthodox Church, religious art, and liturgical vessels. The Church of Saint Sava is one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world, built in the Byzantine Revival style. The museum's collections include medieval icons, hand-written gospels, religious ceremonial vessels, bishop vestments, and historical documents of the Serbian church. The most precious holdings are the relics of Saint Sava and medieval religious artifacts of the Serbian kingdom. The museum is a core place to understand Serbian Orthodox faith and national spirit, offering both religious pilgrimage and cultural study value. Visitors can explore centuries of Serbian ecclesiastical history through carefully curated exhibits that trace the church's role in shaping Serbian identity from medieval times through the Ottoman period to the modern era.

The Ponte Vecchio is Florence's oldest, most famous and most charming covered bridge. This medieval stone bridge, lined with goldsmith shops and surviving centuries of turmoil, crosses the Arno and is a quaint, romantic sight in Florence. The Ponte Vecchio (meaning old bridge) spans Florence's mother river, the Arno, the city's oldest, most famous and most historic bridge. Built in the Middle Ages, it survived centuries of storms and even war (said to be the only ancient bridge over the Arno in Florence not blown up in WWII) and survives today, quaint, weathered and precious. What is most unique and charming is the row of shops lining the bridge: on both sides and across the deck are densely packed ancient shops (some even jut out over the river, distinctive), once butchers and greengrocers, later becoming and remaining to this day a row of glittering jewelry and goldsmith shops, making the old bridge a veritable golden bridge, a jewelry bridge, quaint and gorgeous. Above the bridge runs the Vasari Corridor, an aerial passage linking the Uffizi and Pitti Palace. Strolling this quaint, gorgeous bridge, or viewing it from afar on the Arno at dusk when the sunset gilds the bridge and water, is enchanting. Visiting Florence and strolling the quaint, romantic Ponte Vecchio is a quaint sight.

The oldest span on the Arno, rebuilt in stone in 1345, its shop-lined deck a living fossil of medieval Florence - butchers at first, until Grand Duke Ferdinand decreed in 1593 that only goldsmiths and jewellers could trade here, a rule that still holds. The Vasari Corridor, added in 1565 for a Medici wedding, threads across the rooftops so the family could cross the river unseen. In 1944 the retreating Germans blew every bridge in Florence except this one. Viewed from the banks at sunset, it earns its postcard status.

The octagon facing the cathedral is one of Florence's oldest buildings, where Dante and generations of Medici were baptised. Three sets of bronze doors occupy three faces: Andrea Pisano's south doors, and Ghiberti's north doors and east doors - the latter dubbed the Gates of Paradise by Michelangelo, ten gilded Old Testament panels whose originals moved into the cathedral museum, copies standing in their place. Above spreads a 13th-century mosaic dome, Christ's outspread palms in the Last Judgment swallowing the entire ceiling. Ten minutes of neck-craning; worth every second.