Between the Palazzo Vecchio and the Arno stands the Palazzo degli Uffizi, built late in the 16th century to house government offices and law courts. It is famous for its art gallery, the Uffizi Gallery, one of the finest in Europe, which contains an unsurpassed collection of works by the greatest painters of Italy and a rich sampling of works by Flemish and French masters. The nearby Ponte Vecchio, which is lined with goldsmiths' and jewelers' shops, was built about 1350; it is the only bridge in Florence spared during World War II and leads across the Arno to the Palazzo Pitti on the left bank. This building, begun in 1458 and subsequently much enlarged, was the residence of the grand dukes of Tuscany from 1550 to 1859. It contains another famous art collection, particularly rich in works by Andrea del Sarto , Raphael , Il Perugino , Titian , and Tintoretto. Behind the Pitti are the vast Boboli Gardens, used for outdoor concerts during the music festival held each year in May. Near the cathedral is the Bargello, or Palazzo del Podestà, a fortresslike building of the 13th and 14th centuries, which houses a National Museum. The latter has collections of enameled terra-cottas by the della Robbia family and sculpture by Donatello . The Piazza della Signoria, containing the Fountain of Neptune (completed 1576), is dominated by the majestic Palazzo Vecchio, or Palazzo della Signoria, a rough and sturdy but pleasingly harmonious building surmounted by a crenellated 94-m (308-ft) bell tower.

Museum: Galleria degli Uffizi -Piazzale degli Uffizi 6 - Firenze - Tel. 055 2388651 feriale: 8.15 am – 6.50 pm festivo: 8.15 am - 6.50 pm ; Gallery of Modern Art -Piazza Pitti - Firenze - Tel. 055 2388616 feriale: 8.15 am - 18.50 pm - festivo: 8.15 am - 1.50 pm; The Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts, Via Ricasoli 60 - Firenze - Tel. 055 2388609 feriale: 8.15 am – 6.50 pm - housing many works of Michelangelo, including his David (1501-1504); and the Archaeological Museum, with an outstanding Etruscan collection Via della Colonna 38 - Firenze - Tel. 055 23575 feriale: Monday: 2 pm - 7 pm festivo: 8.30 am - 2.00 pm; Museo Botanico - Via La Pira 4 - Firenze - Tel. 055 2757462

History: "Florentia" , the florid, was the name given by the Romans to this small settlement located at the foot of the ancient Etruscan Fiesole and founded in the first century BC. The Etruscans, an ancient and mysterious race, of whom we know very little, but who left numerous testimonies around about Florence , had settled on the hills surrounding the plain of the river Arno as far back as the VII-VI centuries BC. At first erected as a Roman "castrum", Florentia soon assumed the appearance of a real town with a Forum (now Piazza della Repubblica), thermal baths (via delle Terme), and amphitheater (via Tòrta).
Then the period of the decline of the Empire arrived , with the political fragmentation from which the feudal system sprang up. The town, constituted as a Commune at the beginning of the twelfth century, began to expand until it spread over half of Arno valley and surrounding hillsides.
Despite the internal struggles, first between rival families and then between the Guelfs (loyal to the Pope) and the Ghibellines (loyal to the Emperor), from the thirteenth century onwards it began to flourish as a city of art, culture and international trading, reaching its zenith in the fifteenth century under the Signoria of Cosimo and Lorenzo de' Medici . After Lorenzo's death in 1492, Florence witnessed a long period of wars that led to the end of the Florentine Republic and saw the birth of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, ruled first by a younger branch of the Medici family and following, by the Hapsburg-Lorena family. Despite alternating events the Grand Duchy survived up until the political unification of Italy , of which Florence was capital from 1865 to 1871. This marked the beginning of a profound restructuring of the city that led to the knocking down of the walls and the erasing of several ancient quarters in the center that endowed Florence with its present-day appearance.