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City guide · Italy
Florence holds 361,625 residents and the visitor numbers of a far larger place, and that compression is the whole experience. The Roman colony of 59 BC was laid out like an army camp, and its right angles still govern a historic centre that has been a UNESCO site since 1982 and can be walked across without hurrying. The Arno splits it, the Uffizi on the north bank and Palazzo Pitti on the south, a few minutes apart over the bridges. Standard Italian is the Florentine dialect, carried out of these same few streets by the writers who lived in them. Rome is 275 km to the southeast.
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The Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore is the cathedral of Florence and the church the whole of Piazza del Duomo is arranged around.
The Baptistery of San Giovanni stands free in Piazza San Giovanni, directly in front of the cathedral facade, and it is the older of the two buildings by several centuries.
The Basilica di San Lorenzo stands on its own square a short walk north-west of the Duomo, and the Opera Medicea Laurenziana, the body that runs it, describes it as the oldest cathedral in Florence: the first building raised for…
Set your days, your pace and the hours you actually want to be out. The planner works around closing days and travel time, and leaves room to eat.
