Florence

The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, with its facade of white, green and pink marble, is crowned by the dome Filippo Brunelleschi built without a supporting frame in the fifteenth century, still the largest brick dome in the world. The climb of more than four hundred steps passes between its two shells, with a view of the frescoed interior on the way up.

TipThe dome climb must be booked in advance for a specific time; the bell tower next door, Giotto's Campanile, is a good alternative with a view of the dome itself.

One of the world's great art museums, built as offices for the Medici, holds masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance: Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera, Leonardo's Annunciation, works by Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian and Caravaggio.

TipBook a timed entry online and go early; allow at least three hours.

A medieval fortress and former prison that now holds Italy's finest collection of Renaissance sculpture, including Donatello's bronze David, works by Michelangelo and Cellini, and the competition panels for the Baptistery doors. It's usually far quieter than the Uffizi.

Michelangelo's David, more than five metres tall and carved from a single block of marble between 1501 and 1504, stands at the end of a hall lined with his unfinished Prisoners, figures that seem to struggle out of the stone. Seeing the original is a remarkable experience.

TipBook ahead: the queues without a reservation can be very long.

The mausoleum of the Medici family behind the basilica of San Lorenzo. The domed Chapel of the Princes is clad in coloured marble and semi-precious stone, and the New Sacristy, designed by Michelangelo, holds his sculptures of Night and Day, Dawn and Dusk on the Medici tombs.

The only bridge in Florence not destroyed in the Second World War, lined with jewellers' shops that replaced the butchers in the sixteenth century. Above the shops runs the Vasari Corridor, a private passage built for the Medici to walk between their palaces.

The vast palace of the Medici across the river holds several museums, including a gallery of Renaissance and baroque paintings. Behind it, the Boboli Gardens climb the hillside with fountains, grottoes, statues and views over the city.

A terrace above the river with the classic panorama of Florence: the dome, the towers and the bridges. Climb a little further to the Romanesque church of San Miniato al Monte, one of the most beautiful in Tuscany, where the monks sing Gregorian chant at vespers.

TipWalk up at sunset, then back down through the old rose garden or the San Niccolò district.

A Franciscan basilica holding the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli, with frescoes by Giotto. The square in front is one of the city's largest, and the surrounding streets are full of leatherworkers.

The neighbourhood "beyond the Arno" is where Florence's artisans still work, restoring furniture, binding books and making jewellery and shoes. Its squares, especially Santo Spirito, fill with locals in the evening, and its restaurants are often better value than those in the centre.

The nineteenth-century iron-and-glass market hall of San Lorenzo, with stalls of meat, cheese, vegetables and Tuscan specialities on the ground floor and a food hall above. The streets outside are lined with leather market stalls.