Completely updated, this is an essential handbook for any traveler who wants to fully understand the story of this unique city, the cradle of the Renaissance: how it emerged and how it spread across the world and who were the main players. History, art, architecture, and culture all come together here. The centre of the city, on both sides of the River Arno, with major sights such as the Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio and Piazza della Signoria, is given detailed treatment alongside a wealth of less-visited museums, palaces, churches and monuments. Fiesole and the famous Medici villas in the hills around Florence are also included.
Blue Guides are the best-presented, best-researched cultural guidebooks in the English language. Some key features of Blue Guide Florence:

• In full color, with photographs, plans and illustrations, as well as detailed maps
• Illustrations that inform as well as decorate. Each photo is chosen to explain a key point of history, architecture or to give examples of the work of a major artist or sculptor
• Find out not just what you are looking at, but why: the Blue Guide contains awealth of background detail, explaining how things are interconnected
• Understand the part Florence played in world art history, as a center of learning and great innovator in the pictorial arts
• Learn to recognise the work of some of the key artists who left their mark not just on Florence but on the world: Giotto, Fra Angelico, Brunelleschi, Filippino Lippi, Ghirlandaio, Botticelli
• Find out why each building in this city matters and how its influence spread
• Alongside in-depth coverage of the main districts, there are also extensive chapters on the outlying hills--with their famous Medici villas--and Fiesole with its Roman remains
• Detailed glossaries covering specialist terms, and key artists and sculptors
• Beautifully printed and laid out, a book that is a pleasure to own, and perfect either for use on the street or for armchair research at home.

See more, understand more, and enjoy more of Florence with the Blue Guide.