FAST VISIT AROUND THE HOSTEL
PIAZZA AND CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA NOVELLA
Piazza Santa Maria Novella is where you can admire the recently renovated square with its beautiful Santa Maria Novella Church. The church's facade in white and green marble was designed by Leon Battista Alberti while the stunning Tornabuoni Chapel has frescoes by Ghirlandaio - a must see!
PONTE VECCHIO
Ponte Vecchio is one of Florence’s landmarks and certainly the most photographed bridge in the city. Admire houses and shops built on top of it in the narrowest point of the Arno. Here, there was the Vasari Corridor built for Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici in 1565. It was a passageway, from Vecchio to Pitti Palace. The jewelleries were brought to the bridge in 1593, on command of Ferdinando De Medici heir who thought that the previous tenants – butchers – smelled too bad to have their shops right below his corridor.
THE UFFIZI GALLERY
One of the world's top art museums, the Uffizi Gallery, houses some of the most important works of the Renaissance, including works by Leonardo da Vinci, Giotto, Botticelli and Michelangelo and a large collection of Greek and Roman sculptures. Visitors to the Uffizi may also visit the famous Vasari Corridor linking Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi to the Pitti Palace on the other side of the Arno river.
PITTI PALACE AND BOBOLI GARDENS
Crossing Ponte Vecchio while admiring the spectacular goldsmith shops, you reach the Oltrarno area where the Pitti Palace stands magnificently, home today to several splendid museums such as the Palatine Gallery and the Modern Art Gallery, with the impressive Boboli Gardens as its backyard. While the museums take time to visit, if your time is limited and the day is shining, we recommend you visit the gardens.
PIAZZA DELLA SIGNORIA AND THE LOGGIA DEI LANZI
This broad square has been the centre of the power in Florence since its 14th-century origins - and perhaps even before, as Etruscan and Roman remains have been found below its pavement. Today, it is the social centre as well as a favourite meeting place filled with tourists and locals. At its centre there is the Neptune Fountain, at one side the Vecchio Palace, still housing the city's government. Against the wall of the Uffizi, which forms one end of the piazza, there is the Loggia Dei Lanzi, an outdoor sculpture gallery with several notable pieces. Most widely recognized of these is Benvenuto Cellini's best-known work, Perseus with the Head of Medusa. In front of the Vecchio Palace, there is a copy of Michelangelo David.