The start of this tour takes us through 'Dante' territory, as reflected in the name of the street, the via Dante Alighieri. But more of Italy's greatest poet a little later.

Half way along the street at the junction with the Piazza San Martino, stands a remarkable little oratory, one of Florence's many hidden gems.

The Oratory of San Martino: 10-12; 15-17; Closed Fri. & Sun. (Free).

The chapel was built in 1479 when it became the seat of La Compagnia dei Buonomini (the Company of Good Men), a charitable organisation, which had been founded in 1442. The beneficiaries of the charity were the poveri vergognosi, poor people who were too proud to beg. The chapel is decorated with a charming series of frescoes, which illustrate a variety of good works. The artist is unknown, but is believed to be a member of the school of Ghirlandaio.

The charity is still active to this day, although they no longer confine their giving to the 'proud poor'.

 A little further along the via Dante Alighieri is the so-called Casa di Dante, which is where the poet is said to have born born.

Casa di Dante, via Santa Margherita, 1: 10-17. Closed Monday. (€4).

Dante's 'house' is, in reality, nothing more than a group of 13th century style houses, which were restored in 1911. It now houses a small museum with few original exhibits. There is no evidence, whatsoever, that he was born here.

Dante Alighieri, Florence's most famous son and the author of La Divinia Commedia, was born somewhere in this area in 1265. At the age of nine he saw and fell in love with Bice Portinari, whom he called Beatrice, an experience he likened to a vision. The young Dante, however, was already betrothed to another girl, Gemma Donati, whom he married in 1285.

The church in which the marriage took place, Santa Margherita de' Cerchi, lies a stone's throw away from the Casa di Dante.

In spite of his marriage to another woman, Dante remained devoted to Beatrice for the rest of his life and when she died in 1290. he sought distraction in study and work.

At the end of the via Dante Aligheri, before it meets the via del Proconsolo, is the entrance to La Badia Fiorentina, known simply as La Badia, a Benedictine monastic complex dating back to the end of the 10th century. It was in the church of the Badia that Dante is supposed to have first seen Beatrice.

La Badia

The Badia, easily picked out by its unique hexagonal bell tower, contains three gems in the form of a painting by Filippino Lippi, a sumptuously carved wooden ceiling by Felice Gamberai and the frescoed Cloister of the Oranges (artist unknown).

The painting has hung in the church (in its original frame) since the 1480s when it was painted for Piero del Pugliese, a wealthy cloth merchant, whose portrait we see in the bottom right hand corner.

In the 17th century the interior of the church was radically re-modelled and re-oriented north and south. At this point, an exquisitely carved ceiling was built by Felice Gamberai.

The cloister is reached by a door to the right of the Choir (open only Monday 15-18). Two of the walls of the top floor are decorated with frescoes illustrating the life of St Benedict. Dating from the middle of the 15th century, it is not known for certain who was the artist. He referred to simply as Il Maestro di Chiostro degli Aranci (the Master of the Cloister of Oranges).

The medieval Palazzo del Bargello was the first public building to be erected under the early Republic. It was built for the Capitano del Popolo, also known as the Podesta, who was the city's chief magistrate. In 1574, it became the residence of the Capitano di Giustizia, the Chief of Police. The name bargello comes from a slang word for police.

The Palace is now home to one of the greatest collections of Renaissance sculpture in the world. Its most famous exhibit must surely be Donatello's enigmatic image of 'David', which once stood in the courtyard of the Palazzo Medici. There are also masterpieces in marble and bronze by Verrocchio, Michelangelo, Cellini, Giambologna to name but a few. 

Donatello’s ‘David’ is thought to be the first free-standing, life-sized, nude statue since antiquity. Its fame is largely due, however, to its unconventional and completely unexpected appearance. The Old Testament hero is portrayed as a rather effeminate, young boy dressed only in a pair of beautifully tooled, leather boots and pointed hat. His right foot rests on a laurel wreath (a symbol of victory), while his left foot rests on the head of Goliath, whose great sword he casually holds in his right hand. The dreamy mood of the figure is not quite in keeping with the dramatic representation of the biblical story. The body language of the pose reveals less a sense of triumph than of meditation. Much comment has been made over the link between the erotic nature of the sculpture and Donatello’s own sexual inclinations. Note how one of the wings of the giant’s helmet caresses the inside of the boy’s thigh. The statue made a powerful impression on everyone who saw it. Vasari thought that the work was so lifelike that it must have been made from the cast of a living model. Nothing in the sculptor’s earlier work has prepared us for this image.

This is also where may be found the two bronze panels which Ghiberti and Brunelleschi submitted in 1401, as their entries in the famous competition to see who would be awarded the commission for the north doors of the Baptistery.

Casa Buonarroti

The road which runs along the north side of the Bargello is the via Ghibellina.

At number 70, Via Ghibellina, is the Casa Buonarroti, which is made up of three properties that Michelangelo bought in 1508. the year he started work in the Sistine Chapel. The properties were left to Michelangelo's only descendant, his nephew, Lorenzo, who combined them into one house. Almost 300 years later, the house was turned into a museum dedicated to one of the greatest artists who ever lived.

The museum is home to a small, but fascinating collection of Michelangelo's drawings, sculptures, and models in wax, terracotta, wood and plaster. The exhibits range from all periods of Michelangelo's long and extremely productive life. 

Santa Croce

When we step inside the cavernous interior we are reminded that the churches of the Franciscans and Dominicans were once described as giant preaching barns. It took almost a century to build the church, which was finally ready in 1385. Santa Croce is the resting place of, among others, Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli and Rossini. The Florentines would also dearly like the church to contain the body of Dante, but in 1302 Dante was sentenced to death (in absentia) for political reasons, at which point he went into exile. He died, almost twenty years later, in Ravenna, where he is buried. Florence has repeatedly asked Ravenna to have his remains returned, but their requests have always been denied. All that remains of Dante, in the context of Santa Croce, is the statue, which sits outside the church.

Santa Croce only received its marble facade in the 19th century. The large piazza in front of the church was originally to accommodate the huge crowds who would come to hear the Franciscans preach. It was also used for a wide variety of their activities ranging from jousting to the burning of heretics. For centuries it has also been used as the venue for the games of calcio storico, a curious cross between football and rugby, which takes place in June.

The church contains more fresco cycles than any other in the city and one of the most famous can be found in the chapel to the right of the High Altar. The Bardi Chapel was painted by Giotto between 1320 and 1325. Sadly, the frescoes have suffered with the passage of time and also from human intervention. At the beginning of the 18th century, taste for such art was at its lowest ebb and the frescoes were actually covered in whitewash! The paintings only came to light again in the the 19th century.

At some point, a tomb was actually embedded into the wall thus destroying part of Giotto's moving fresco of the 'Death of St Francis.

The Pazzi Chapel was commissioned as a Chapter House by Andrea de' Pazzi in 1429. It was designed by Brunelleschi, who was still working on the project when he died, in 1446. It was finally finished in the 1470s.

The beautifully proportioned interior is one of the masterpieces of the early Renaissance.