The historic center of Florence was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1982, when the city was deemed “the symbol of the Renaissance” based on its 600 years of cathedral building and master artwork creations. In truth, though, the story of Florence begins much earlier than the Renaissance — way back in 59 B.C., when Julius Caesar founded a settlement called Florentia as a home for his veteran soldiers. The army camp's location, between Rome and the agricultural lands to the north, soon helped the settlement grow into a center of commerce. By the time Michelangelo, da Vinci, and Botticelli burst onto the scene in the 1400s, the city was home to 60,000 to 80,000 people.

After various struggles that for a time had Tuscany falling under the authority of Austria, Florence emerged as Italy's capital in 1865 and kept the title for six years, after which Rome succeeded it. Tourism began to grow in the early 1900s, until German forces occupied Florence for a year during World War II. Allied troops fought for the city's liberation, and since the end of the 1940s, Florence has flourished as a travel destination.

You could spend a lifetime in Florence uncovering its history and admiring its architecture, but if you have only a few days to explore, the five must-see sights are Uffizi Gallery, the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence Cathedral, Campanile, and Ponte Vecchio.

Uffizi Gallery

Housing works by Botticelli, da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael, the Uffizi Gallery is one of the most important art museums not just in Italy, but in the world. It was built as a palace of offices in the mid-1500s (uffizi means offices in Italian), and the ruling Medici used the space for displaying its artistic treasures until the family fell out of power. The collection remained in their wake, and the site was opened as a public museum in 1765, after which its curators continued to collect important pieces. The museum is currently working to complete a massive expansion to finally bring the majority of works out of storage and into the light of day.

Masterworks on Display

The Botticelli works typically on display include The Birth of Venus, an instantly recognizable canvas to even the most peripheral of art students. It depicts the flowing-haired blonde goddess emerging nude from the ocean atop a shell, an iconic portrayal that has been recreated in film and television alike.

Da Vinci's works include the early oil-on-wood The Adoration of the Magi, which historians cite as one of the artist's earliest efforts at chiaroscuro, or the contrast between light and dark. There was some controversy about the work in 2002, when a restoration technician claimed that da Vinci had only drawn the lines beneath the paint and not done the brushwork himself, but that claim has not been corroborated.

Michelangelo's Doni Tondo is also part of the Uffizi collection. It is the artist's only known preserved panel painting in its original frame, which is round. Michelangelo completed the work before taking on the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City.

The Raphael work that most patrons visit at Uffizi is Portrait of Leo X, considered by many to be the artist's greatest masterpiece. It is one of the last works he composed without assistance before his death. When he first displayed the portrait in the early 1500s, it created a sensation because it portrayed the pope in a group setting with two cardinals, instead of on his own in a more regal pose.

Museum Admissions

The Uffizi is open Tuesday through Sunday from 8:15 A.M. until 6:30 P.M. It is closed on Mondays, as well as on New Year's Day, May 1, and Christmas Day. During the popular summer tourism months, the museum sometimes extends its evening hours until 10 P.M. on weeknights. If that's the case, the hours are posted on the website, www.polomuseale.firenze.it. Exhibition prices typically range from 10.

Galleria dell'Accademia

This museum, which is within walking distance of the Uffizi, is home to Michelangelo's magnificent marble sculpture David — which has been housed here since the late 1800s. It stands just inside the museum's entrance and is one of the first stops on the tour, housed within a spectacular domed enclave built specifically for it. At seventeen feet tall, David towers above all the tourists, leaving a lasting impression.

You can't get close enough to touch the statue, but you can walk all the way around it and spend some time sitting on nearby benches, pondering every knuckle and muscle that Michelangelo carved. If you purchase the museum's audio tour, you can also hear the story of how the statue was moved through the streets to its current location to protect it from the wind and rain that used to batter it when it stood outside.

Countless online travel agencies sell advance-purchase tickets for the Galleria dell'Accademia. Surcharges apply, and the lines at this museum tend to be shorter than at the Uffizi. Weigh your financial options against the thought of a half-hour's wait when deciding whether to buy in advance.

Florence Cathedral

The Florence Cathedral's proper name is Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, originally designed in the late 1200s. The dome was completed in the 1430s, and the current fa çade was finished in the 1880s. It is neo-gothic with white, pink, and green marble panels, plus three massive bronze doors that date to the turn of the twentieth century.

Inside, the sense of space and volume is extraordinary. Arches in the cathedral are 75 feet tall, and the cathedral itself is just a hair more than 500 feet long (if stood on one end, it would rival modern skyscrapers). There is less artwork in this church than many of the others you can tour in Italy, but Florence Cathedral is noted for its forty-four stained glass windows.

At the website www.operaduomo.firenze.it, you will find hours and fees (in English) for visiting the various parts of the cathedral. There's the main cathedral, the dome, the bell tower (also known as the campanile), and the archaeology site, each with different hours and costs of entry. The cathedral itself is free to visit and has an entrance for people who use wheelchairs. Note that if you want to tour the dome, there are 463 stairs and no elevator. The view is worth the effort if you have the stamina.

Campanile

The word “campanile,” derived from the Italian campana (bell), means a free-standing bell tower. The world's tallest free-standing campanile is at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, but Italy is well known for its campaniles, too, including the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Giotto's Bell Tower is the campanile in Florence, located next to the Florence Cathedral. It's just shy of 280 feet tall and is named for Giotto di Bondone, a local painter who is widely recognized as one of the first Renaissance artists. He died in 1337, some twenty-two years before the tower was completed. The artist who was in charge of finishing the tower failed to include a spire Giotto had designed, so the artist went to his grave believing his namesake creation would actually be 400 feet tall.

Again, consult the website www.operaduomo.firenze.it for hours and fees, including dates when the tower is closed.

Ponte Vecchio

This Medieval bridge, one of Europe's oldest (the name translates as “old bridge”), crosses the Arno River and offers a view of the river from its midpoint. The structure is unusual in that it has shops built along it that once housed butchers and fishmongers who threw their waste over the side and into the river. Later, the shops became the workplace of goldsmiths and silversmiths, and today, jewelry sellers dominate the landscape. Interestingly, this is the only bridge in Florence that Hitler's troops left standing during their 1944 retreat from the city. Rumor has it that the dictator himself gave the order to let the historic bridge stand, though he did authorize destruction of all the buildings at its ends, thus blocking any access to it for the Allies.

Today, you will find not just shops but also street performers and portrait artists along the bridge — especially during the warm summer months, when tourism peaks. It's free to walk across the bridge and look around, but expect to pay a pretty euro if you stop at any of the nearby shops or restaurants, all of which are considered to be part of the tourist district.