Fly over history: a hot air balloon cruise above Florence and its surroundings

Built between 1296 and 1436, the main cathedral in town was, at its completion, the largest ever built. Nowadays it is considered the third in the world, after St. Peter in Rome and St.Paul in London. Indeed, the dome by Filippo Brunelleschi is still the largest brick dome ever built and - at the inner side - the widest frescoed surface worldwide (3600 sqm). The architectural style, influenced by the pristine design by Arnolfo di Cambio and later modified by Francesco Talent and Filippo Brunelleschi, marks the turning from a mature Gothic manner to the first Reinassance.

Standing between Piazza San Giovanni and Piazza Duomo, this Romanesque building was completed around 1059. The exteriors are characterized by the alternation of white marble from Carrara and green "serpentine" from Prato, with three majestic bronze portals designed by Andrea Pisano and Lorenzo Ghiberti.

One of the masterpieces of Gothic architecture in Italy, it was built between 1294 and 1385, to give a proper seat to the growing Franciscan community in Florence. It has been attributed to Arnolfo di Cambio, one of the most outstanding artists and architects in town at the time. The present facade was only built between 1853 and 1863, since it had been previously left unfinished, just like other churches in Florence, as San Lorenzo.

The Dominican motherhouse in Florence stands on the same site of the pristine church of Santa Maria delle Vigne and was initiated in 1279. The Gothic building was completed within the 14th century but only consecrated in 1420. The facade, in its current and most known look, was designed by Leon Battista Alberti and completed in 1470, in a already recognizable Reinassance manner.

One of the symbols of Florence, well known all around the world, it was initially built in 1345, after the collapse of a previous bridge on the same site. Since 1442, the city authority ordered the local butchers to gather on the stores of Ponte Vecchio, for hygienic reasons. This, together with the construction of the "Vasarian Corridor" in 1565 - to connect safely Palazzo Vecchio and Palazzo Pitti, gave to Ponte Vecchio its characteristic and unique look of a "inhabited bridge".

Destroyed several times between the 13th and the 16th century, due to Arno floods, the bridge was reconstructed in its current appearance in 1557, under the direction of Bartolomeo Ammannati and on Michelangelo Buonarroti's design. Broken down by the retiring German Army in 1944, it was later rebuilt with the same features between 1952 and 1958.