//
Photo: Bruno Barral, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Contains the monumental tombs of Galileo, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Dante, Rossini, and many other notables in addition to artistic decorations. There is also great artwork in the church. The Museo dell'Opera di Santa Croce (included in ticket) displays a flood-damaged but still beautiful Crucifix by Cimabue (Giotto's teacher), which has become a symbol of the disastrous floods of 1966. The ticket also includes Pazzi Chapel, a perfectly symmetrical example of sublime neo-Classic Renaissance architecture.
The Basilica di Santa Croce is a minor basilica and the principal Franciscan church of Florence, Italy. It is situated on the Piazza di Santa Croce, about 800 metres (2,600 ft) southeast of the Duomo, on what was once marshland beyond the city walls. Being the burial place of notable Italians, including those from the Italian Renaissance such as Michelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli, as well as the poet Foscolo, political philosopher Gentile and the composer Rossini, it is also known as the Temple of the Italian Glories.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
Guided rafting trips on the Arno through the historic centre, passing beneath Ponte Vecchio. Tours last about one hour, require no previous experience and are run in inflatable rafts with an instructor in each boat. Equipment is provided; participants should expect to get wet. Booking in advance is required.
Museo Nazionale del Bargello
Used as a barracks and prison until the 19th century, this museum houses some of the best Renaissance and Mannerist sculpture. Big names here include Michelangelo, Donatello, Ammannati, Bandinelli, Andrea and Jacopo Sansovino, Desiderio da Settignano, Giambologna, and Antonio Rossellino. It also displays ceramics, textiles & tapestries, ivory, silver, armour and coins. Allow two hours. Not nearly as crowded as the Uffizi or Galleria dell'Accademia and paying a fee to book in advance is likely not necessary.
Old city palace/city hall, adorned with fine art. The replica of Michelangelo's "David" is placed outside the main door in the original location of the statue, which is a symbol of the Comune of Florence. The site displays an important collection of Renaissance sculptures and paintings, including the Putto by Verrochio and the series of murals by Giorgio Vasari at the Salone dei Cinquecento (Hall of the Five Hundreds) - the hall which used to display the now lost Renaissance masterpiece, that is, the so-called Battaglia di Anghiari, by Leonardo da Vinci.
This museum shows the evolution of the instruments used in various scientific fields such as mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, astronomy. The room of Galileo Galilei shows some of his original instruments as well as models from his drawings. The room of Spheres and Globes houses an excellent cartographic collection. In a rather macabre twist the museum also has the middle finger of Galileo's right hand on display. The museum offer some descriptions in Italian and English but you can access other languages by scanning QR codes (Chinese, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, German). The museum offers an open WiFi. It is recommended to have an idea of the principles behind the instruments (as the descriptions on the labels are rather generic). For that, you can download their free audio-guide app available in Italian and English (Google Play, Apple Store) and get an idea of the instruments displayed.
Outstanding fine art museum with Renaissance paintings and sculptures from classical antiquity. It's in a late 16th-century palazzo designed by Vasari, in two wings enclosing a long narrow courtyard, effectively a street, an innovation in its day. Originally the palazzo was magistrates' offices (hence "Uffizi") and state archives; then it came to house the Medici's vast art collection. However, one collections seems to have crossed purposes: the massive number of standardized portraits, placed in the hallway, seem to have been an ID system for identifying important foreigners when they came to town. The artworks are on the first and second floors, they keep the lifts well hidden. Highlights include Birth of Venus by Boticelli, Dukes of Urbino by della Francesca, Medusa by Caravaggio, Venus of Urbino by Titian, Annunciation by da Vinci, Pope Leo X and family by Raphael, Velasquez' self-portrait, Rembrandt's final self-portrait, and many other big names. Allow three hours for a visit. Uffizi specialises in the Renaissance, so although later styles are represented, examples are few: you don't really come here for the 18th- to 20th-century material. The restaurant/cafè has a large balcony overlooking the main piazza with good views of the Palazzo Vecchio, and naturally their prices reflect the views.
Sinagoga e Museo Ebraico Firenze
Lovely Moorish-style synagogue built in 1882 and a museum with many artefacts and documentation of Florentine Jewish life going back many centuries; audio tours in multiple languages are available.