Palazzo Vecchio - 4 Things to Know Before Visiting

The Loggia dei Lanzi is a beautiful arched gallery that was built in the 14th century at the Piazza della Signoria right in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. It consists of wide arches open to the street. The arches rest on clustered pilasters with Corinthian capitals. The wide arches appealed so much to the Florentines that Michelangelo proposed that they should be continued all around the Piazza della Signoria.

Piazza Della Signoria is the central square of Florence, the seat of civil power and the heart of the city's social life. L-shaped, it is located in the central part of medieval Florence, south of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. In the past, it has taken on various names, such as piazza Dei Priori or piazza del Granduca. It is the meeting place of Florentines as well as the numerous tourists, located near Palazzo Vecchio and Piazza del Duomo and gateway to Uffizi Gallery.

The Galileo Museum of Florence is located in Piazza dei Giudici, near the Uffizi Gallery, in the Palazzo Castellani, a building of ancient origins, known in Dante's time as Castello d'Altafronte. It preserves one of the most important collections of scientific instruments in the world, material testimony of the importance attributed to science and its protagonists by the exponents of the Medici dynasty and the Lorraine grand dukes.

This tall structure halfway down Via dei Calzaiuoli looks more like a Gothic warehouse than a church—which is exactly what it was, built as a granary/grain market in 1337. On the ground floor of the square building are the 13th-century arches that originally formed the loggia of the grain market. The second floor was devoted to offices, while the third housed one of the city's municipal grain storehouses, maintained to withstand famine or siege.

The Uffizi Gallery is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza Della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany. The Gallery entirely occupies the first and second floors of the large building constructed between 1560 and 1580 and designed by Giorgio Vasari. It is famous worldwide for its outstanding collections of ancient sculptures and paintings. It also has an invaluable collection of ancient statues and busts from the Medici family.

The Bargello Museum is located in the impressive Palazzo del Bargello, a fortress with powerful embattlements which surround the austere facade. Begun in 1255, the building was the headquarters of the Capitano del Popolo and later of the Podestà and Council of Justice. In 1574, it became the living quarters for the Captain of Justice (chief of police) and was used as a prison.