The Florence travel guide

Florence is the Renaissance condensed into a two-day walking radius. The Uffizi, the Accademia (home to Michelangelo's David), the Palazzo Pitti and the Duomo Complex all sit inside the same medieval centre. The Uffizi holds the world's strongest single-room collection of early-Renaissance painting: Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera, Leonardo's Annunciation, Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch and Caravaggio's Bacchus and Medusa. The Accademia is smaller (45-minute visit) but holds the original David that stood for 369 years in Piazza della Signoria before relocating indoors in 1873.

The Duomo Complex pass covers Brunelleschi's dome climb (463 steps, no lift, 91-metre rise), Giotto's Bell Tower, the Baptistery (Ghiberti's bronze Gates of Paradise), the Opera del Duomo Museum and the cathedral interior. The pass is valid for 3 days, single visit per attraction. The dome climb has a strict timed-entry slot (7 to 14 days ahead in peak summer); the bell-tower climb is unticketed but holds a similar 30-minute queue at midday. The Opera del Duomo Museum holds the original Ghiberti panels and Donatello's wooden Magdalene.