Florence Electric Car Tour

Piazza and Basilica of Santa Croce: Piazza Santa Croce is undoubtedly one of the most evocative places in Florence. Located in the eastern sector of the city, formerly a marshy and unhealthy area, the square and the surrounding neighborhood take their name from the imposing Basilica managed by the Franciscan order, who settled here since 1226.

National Library: Built in the 1930s in Pietraforte, the Library boasts an eclectic style that evokes medieval and Renaissance architectural elements at the same time.

Basilica San Miniato al Monte, panoramic point. The Basilica of San Miniato is one of the favorite churches of the Florentines, perhaps also because of the beautiful view that can be enjoyed over the whole city. The church represents, together with the Baptistery of San Giovanni, a splendid example of Florentine Romanesque and is located on top of the so-called "Mons Florentinus" where the first communities Christians dug their catacombs.

Piazzale Michelangelo The large square, a real balcony over the city, was built between 1865 and 1875 and introduced the tourist concept of panorama for the first time in Florence. It is the work of Joseph Poggi and was built at the time of Florence, the capital of the new kingdom of Italy, a title that it inherited from Turin in 1865 before selling it to Rome in 1871.

Oltrarno district and Basilica of Santo Spirito The Oltrarno district, literally "beyond the Arno", developed since 1200 with the growing arrival of population from the countryside. At first the tower houses were built near the river, then the area experienced a significant expansion in the sixteenth century with the arrival of the Medici court in Palazzo Pitti.

Ponte alla Carraia: Built in 1218, it was called alla Carraia in that it was used to transport goods on "wagons".

Basilica of Santa Croce its construction began in 1294 on a design by Arnolfo di Cambio and was completed in 1444. Thanks to the funding of the important families of the district, Santa Croce became one of the largest and most beautiful churches in the city. Its large size also reflects the vastness of the population of the district, with which the Franciscans had immediately established a close and fruitful relationship.

Medici Riccardi Palace The powerful Medici dynasty has its origins in Mugello, a hilly region north of Florence. Urbanized during the 1200s, the Medici soon became one of the richest and most influential families in the city; the building here in front of us is proof of this: Palazzo Medici Riccardi. The palace is a project by Michelozzo, commissioned around 1445 by Cosimo the Elder, patriarch of the Medici family.

Basilica of San Lorenzo The Basilica of San Lorenzo stands on the ruins of the previous paleochristian place of worship bore the name and that it was the Basilica outside the walls of Roman Florentia before the construction of Santa Reparata, the city's first cathedral. By the will of Giovanni di Bicci, father of Cosimo il Old de 'Medici, it was completely rebuilt by the young architect Filippo Brunelleschi starting from 1419.

Medici Chapels The New Sacristy, in the left transept of the church, and the so-called Chapel of the Princes behind it, form the Medici Chapels, a real mausoleum of the ruling family.

Basilica and Piazza Santa Maria Novella it is one of the first great basilicas Florentine and mother church of the powerful Dominican order established in this place as early as two hundred with a large convent. The square in front welcomed the numerous faithful recalled by the sermons by the friars and was enlarged several times to become one of the largest squares in the city.

Neighborhood and Church of Ognissanti In the western part of the historic center opens the area of Borgognissanti, an area that in medieval Florence housed the Umiliati friars, one of the most industrious mendicant orders in the city, famous above all for the processing of wool, an activity favored by the proximity of the river.

Santa Trinita bridge the most beautiful and one of the most loved by Florentines. Erected in 1252, it was destroyed by a flood of the Arno in 1557 and rebuilt on a project by Bartolomeo Ammannati, a pupil of Michelangelo.

Ponte Vecchio and Vasari Corridor Dating back to Roman times, built at the narrowest point of the river with stone pillars and floor of decking in wooden planks, the bridge was destroyed by a flood of the river in 1333 and rebuilt in 1345 so solidly that it has reached the present day, resisting all the numerous floods of the Arno over the centuries, including that of 1966, the most devastating absolutely. and Vasari Corridor, so called from the name of his builder, Giorgio Vasari. Built in 1565 in just five months, this one-mile long airway kilometer, it served as a private passage between the government buildings in Palazzo Vecchio and the Court Medici in Palazzo Pitti.

Palazzo Pitti and Piazza Pitti in Piazza Pitti, dominated on its top by the grandiose. Palazzo Pitti, built in 1440 by Luca Pitti on a project by Filippo Brunelleschi. Such was the ambition of the enterprising and wealthy merchant to overcome the pomp of the Medici and the Strozzi, another very rich Florentine family, that Luca Pitti wanted its construction of such a size as not to find equal in the whole city.