The Duomo Complex, Piazza della Signoria and the Historic Core

Two squares anchor north-bank Florence, connected by the busy pedestrian promenade of Via dei Calzaiuoli: religious power at the Piazza del Duomo in the north, and civic power at the Piazza della Signoria five minutes south near the river.

Understanding the Duomo complex and its three passes

The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore is just one of five monuments managed together by the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore. Entering the ground floor of the Cathedral nave itself is free (though the unreserved queue wraps around the building by mid-morning and the interior is deliberately austere), while everything else uses one of three official 3-day passes:

• Brunelleschi Pass: covers all five sites including a mandatory timed slot to climb the 463 steps of Brunelleschi's Dome (Cupola). Built between 1420 and 1436 without wooden centering in a double-shell herringbone brick pattern, the climb lets you walk right beneath Giorgio Vasari's Last Judgement frescoes before emerging onto the exterior lantern.
• Giotto Pass: covers everything except the Dome climb, including a timed climb up the 414 steps of Giotto's Campanile (Bell Tower), which actually gives you the best head-on photograph of Brunelleschi's Dome right across from you.
• Ghiberti Pass: covers the Baptistery of San Giovanni (famous for its glittering 13th-century golden ceiling mosaics), the underground remains of Santa Reparata and the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, with no tower climbs.

Whatever pass you hold, do not skip the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo behind the cathedral apse: it holds Lorenzo Ghiberti's original gilded bronze Gates of Paradise from the Baptistery doors, Donatello's gaunt wooden Penitent Magdalene and the poignant Bandini Pietà that an aged Michelangelo carved for his own tomb.

Piazza della Signoria, Orsanmichele and Santa Croce

Walking south down Via dei Calzaiuoli, stop inside Orsanmichele, a 14th-century grain market converted into the church of Florence's powerful trade guilds, ringed with tabernacle niches made by Donatello, Ghiberti and Verrocchio. Ahead opens Piazza della Signoria, dominated by the rusticated stone fortress of the Palazzo Vecchio. Even if you do not tour the upstairs Medici apartments, step into the free ground-floor courtyard painted by Vasari and inspect the sculptures under the open arches of the Loggia dei Lanzi: Cellini's bronze Perseus with the Head of Medusa and Giambologna's twisting marble Rape of the Sabine Women. Ten minutes east lies the Basilica di Santa Croce and leather-craft streets leading into the Sant'Ambrogio neighbourhood; pair this walk with our Uffizi guide or Day 1 of our itinerary.