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Roots Earth in Florence: audio stories about 48 places

Roots Earth has audio stories about 48 places in Florence, Italy, in Europe. The Florence stories are in all seven Roots Earth languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The app needs no account: open Florence, pick a place on the city's map of places and play. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. The stories are written by local people.

The 48 places are listed below in the order the app shows them, and again further down with their coordinates. The lists were taken from the Roots Earth catalogue on 15 September 2026.

Published 16 September 2026. Markdown: florence.md

The 48 places in Florence with audio stories

In the order the app shows them.

  1. Florence Cathedral (Duomo / Santa Maria del Fiore)
  2. Brunelleschi's Dome
  3. Giotto's Campanile
  4. Florence Baptistery (Gates of Paradise)
  5. Uffizi Gallery
  6. Ponte Vecchio
  7. Palazzo Vecchio
  8. Piazza della Signoria
  9. Loggia dei Lanzi
  10. Galleria dell'Accademia (David)
  11. Pitti Palace
  12. Boboli Gardens
  13. Basilica of Santa Croce
  14. Basilica of Santa Maria Novella
  15. Basilica of San Lorenzo
  16. Medici Chapels
  17. Bargello National Museum
  18. Piazzale Michelangelo
  19. San Miniato al Monte
  20. Mercato Centrale (San Lorenzo Market)
  21. Orsanmichele
  22. Medici Riccardi Palace
  23. Brancacci Chapel
  24. Basilica of Santo Spirito
  25. Piazza della Repubblica
  26. Palazzo Strozzi
  27. Basilica della Santissima Annunziata
  28. Ospedale degli Innocenti
  29. Galileo Museum
  30. Piazza Santa Trinita
  31. Ponte Santa Trinita
  32. Forte di Belvedere
  33. San Marco (Museum & Convent)
  34. Badia Fiorentina
  35. Santa Maria del Carmine
  36. Museum of the Opera del Duomo
  37. Oltrarno Artisan Workshops
  38. Sant'Ambrogio Market
  39. San Niccolò Neighborhood
  40. Wine Windows (Buchette del Vino)
  41. Le Cure Neighborhood
  42. San Frediano District
  43. Cloisters of Santo Spirito
  44. Piazza Santo Spirito (Local Evening)
  45. Fiesole
  46. Bardini Garden
  47. Historic Gelaterie of Florence
  48. Traditional Florentine Trattorie

Is there an audio guide for Florence Cathedral (Duomo / Santa Maria del Fiore)?

Yes. Florence Cathedral (Duomo / Santa Maria del Fiore) has its audio stories in the Roots Earth app: a short introduction and a deeper story, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian.

It is place 1 of the 48 Florence places in the app, at 43.77306, 11.25611. Every one of the other 47 places in the list above has the same two stories.

Roots Earth is not a guided tour: you choose the place on the city's map of places and play its story yourself.

How to use Roots Earth in Florence

Open Roots Earth and choose Florence. The city has its own map of places with all 48 of them on it. Tap the place you are standing in front of, or any other, and play its short introduction or its deeper story. You decide what to listen to and in which order.

You can listen in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian, and there is no account. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection.

In full

All 48 places in Florence, in the app's order, with their coordinates.

All 48 places in Florence, with coordinates

Every place below has a short introduction and a deeper story in the Roots Earth app, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The names, the coordinates (latitude, longitude) and the one line descriptions are the app's own catalogue values of 15 September 2026; a place without a line here has none that this page can print.

1. Florence Cathedral (Duomo / Santa Maria del Fiore)

Coordinates
43.77306, 11.25611
In one line
Florence's cathedral, dedicated to Santa Maria del Fiore, was begun in 1296 to a design by Arnolfo di Cambio and consecrated in 1436. Wrapped in white, green, and red marble, it ranks among the largest churches in Europe.

2. Brunelleschi's Dome

Coordinates
43.77361, 11.25667
In one line
Filippo Brunelleschi raised this dome between 1420 and 1436 with no wooden centering beneath it. Its double shell and self-locking herringbone brickwork solved a problem no one had cracked, and it remains the largest masonry dome ever built.

3. Giotto's Campanile

Coordinates
43.7725, 11.25556
In one line
The cathedral's bell tower, begun by the painter Giotto in 1334 and finished around 1359, rises nearly 85 meters in white, green, and red marble. Carved reliefs and statues by Andrea Pisano, Donatello, and others ring its lower stories.

4. Florence Baptistery (Gates of Paradise)

Coordinates
43.77306, 11.255
In one line
One of Florence's oldest buildings, this octagonal Romanesque baptistery rose in the 11th and 12th centuries. Its three bronze doors, among them Ghiberti's gilded Gates of Paradise, and a glittering Byzantine mosaic ceiling draw visitors from across the world.

6. Ponte Vecchio

Coordinates
43.76795, 11.25305
In one line
Florence's oldest bridge, rebuilt in 1345 on three low stone arches, still carries goldsmiths' and jewelers' shops established by a Medici order in 1593. The Vasari Corridor runs above it, and it survived the destruction of the Second World War.

7. Palazzo Vecchio

Coordinates
43.76944, 11.25611
In one line
Florence's fortress-like town hall, begun in 1299 and attributed to Arnolfo di Cambio, rises over the Piazza della Signoria beneath a 94-meter tower. Long the seat of the republic and later the Medici, it remains the city hall today.

8. Piazza della Signoria

Coordinates
43.76963, 11.25556
In one line
Florence's open-air political heart since the late 1200s, an L-shaped civic square fronting the Palazzo Vecchio. Lined with monumental sculpture, it staged republican assemblies, grand-ducal ceremonies, and the 1498 execution of the friar Savonarola.

9. Loggia dei Lanzi

Coordinates
43.76889, 11.25556
In one line
A vaulted open arcade built between 1376 and 1382 on Piazza della Signoria for state ceremonies. Its three wide Gothic arches now shelter a celebrated outdoor sculpture gallery, including Cellini's bronze Perseus and Giambologna's Rape of the Sabine Women.

10. Galleria dell'Accademia (David)

Coordinates
43.7767, 11.2589
In one line
Florence's art gallery founded in 1784 as a teaching collection, now famous above all for Michelangelo's David, moved here in 1873. Alongside the towering marble figure stand his unfinished Prisoners, Florentine paintings, and a collection of historic musical instruments.

11. Pitti Palace

Coordinates
43.765, 11.25
In one line
A vast Renaissance palace begun in 1458 for the banker Luca Pitti, bought by the Medici in 1549 and made their grand-ducal residence. Behind its massive rusticated stone front lies Florence's largest museum complex, with the Palatine Gallery and Royal Apartments.

12. Boboli Gardens

Coordinates
43.7625, 11.24806
In one line
A formal Italian Renaissance garden laid out from 1549 behind the Pitti Palace for the Medici. Rising across the hillside with an amphitheater, fountains, grottoes, and an Egyptian obelisk, it became a model for European royal gardens and an open-air museum of sculpture.

13. Basilica of Santa Croce

Coordinates
43.76861, 11.26222
In one line
The principal Franciscan church of Florence, begun in 1294 and the largest of its order in the world. Known as the Temple of the Italian Glories, it holds the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli, alongside frescoes by Giotto and a chapel by Brunelleschi.

14. Basilica of Santa Maria Novella

Coordinates
43.77472, 11.24917
In one line
The principal Dominican church of Florence, begun around 1279 and consecrated in 1420. Its green and white marble facade, completed by Leon Battista Alberti, fronts a Gothic interior holding Masaccio's pioneering Holy Trinity and frescoes by Ghirlandaio and Filippino Lippi.

15. Basilica of San Lorenzo

Coordinates
43.77472, 11.25389
In one line
One of Florence's oldest churches and the parish of the Medici, rebuilt from 1419 to a design by Brunelleschi. Behind its bare brick front lie Donatello's bronze pulpits, Michelangelo's library, and generations of Medici tombs.

16. Medici Chapels

Coordinates
43.77528, 11.25361
In one line
The Medici dynasty's mausoleum at San Lorenzo, joining Michelangelo's New Sacristy, with its allegorical tombs of Dawn, Dusk, Day, and Night, to the vast Chapel of the Princes, an octagon lined floor to dome in colored marble and semiprecious stone.

17. Bargello National Museum

Coordinates
43.77028, 11.25833
In one line
Florence's oldest public building, begun in 1255 as a seat of government and later a prison and place of execution. Since 1865 it has been a national museum, home to the finest collection of Renaissance sculpture in Italy, including Donatello's bronze David.

18. Piazzale Michelangelo

Coordinates
43.76278, 11.265
In one line
A panoramic terrace above the Arno, laid out from 1869 by Giuseppe Poggi when Florence was capital of Italy.

19. San Miniato al Monte

Coordinates
43.75972, 11.265
In one line
A hilltop basilica above Florence, begun by Bishop Hildebrand on 27 April 1018 and counted among the finest Romanesque churches in Tuscany. Its green and white marble facade, inlaid 13th-century pavement, and working Benedictine monastery crown the city with both art and devotion.

20. Mercato Centrale (San Lorenzo Market)

Coordinates
43.77667, 11.25361
In one line
Florence's covered central market, opened in 1874 in cast iron and glass to a design by Giuseppe Mengoni. Its ground floor still sells fresh Tuscan food, while an upper food hall added in 2014 draws crowds to a single roof above the San Lorenzo district.

21. Orsanmichele

Coordinates
43.77083, 11.25472
In one line
A square stone building that began in 1337 as a grain market and became a church. Its outer niches once held statues of guild patron saints by Donatello, Ghiberti, and Verrocchio, making the exterior a gallery of early Renaissance sculpture.

22. Medici Riccardi Palace

Coordinates
43.77528, 11.25583
In one line
Designed by Michelozzo for Cosimo de' Medici and commissioned around 1444, then completed in 1460, this rusticated palace became the model for Florentine Renaissance residences. Its chapel holds Benozzo Gozzoli's celebrated Magi frescoes.

23. Brancacci Chapel

Coordinates
43.76778, 11.24333
In one line
A chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine frescoed by Masaccio and Masolino in the 1420s and finished by Filippino Lippi around 1485. Its scenes from the life of Saint Peter helped launch Renaissance painting.

24. Basilica of Santo Spirito

Coordinates
43.76722, 11.24694
In one line
One of Brunelleschi's last designs, this Augustinian basilica in the Oltrarno was begun in 1444. Behind its bare facade lies a serene Renaissance interior of uniform chapels, and a sacristy holding a wooden crucifix attributed to Michelangelo.

25. Piazza della Repubblica

Coordinates
43.77139, 11.25444
In one line
Built on the site of the Roman forum and the medieval Old Market, this grand square was created during the urban renewal of the 1880s and 1890s. A triumphal arch, a historic column, and famous literary cafes define it today.

26. Palazzo Strozzi

Coordinates
43.77083, 11.25222
In one line
A monumental Renaissance palace begun in 1489 for the banker Filippo Strozzi, a rival of the Medici. Its rusticated stone block, grand cornice, and arcaded courtyard make it one of Florence's finest palaces, now a major exhibition venue.

27. Basilica della Santissima Annunziata

Coordinates
43.77639, 11.26083
In one line
The mother church of the Servite order, founded in 1250 and rebuilt by Michelozzo in the fifteenth century. Florence's most revered Marian shrine, it holds a miraculous Annunciation fresco and an entrance cloister frescoed by Andrea del Sarto and Pontormo.

28. Ospedale degli Innocenti

Coordinates
43.77361, 11.26139
In one line
Designed by Brunelleschi from 1419 for the Silk Guild, this foundling hospital was among Europe's first. Its elegant loggia, with della Robbia roundels of swaddled infants, is a landmark of early Renaissance architecture and now houses a museum.

29. Galileo Museum

Coordinates
43.76778, 11.25611
In one line
A museum of historic scientific instruments set in the medieval Palazzo Castellani beside the Arno, near the Uffizi. Its Medici and Lorraine collections include Galileo's surviving telescopes and the lens through which he first glimpsed the moons of Jupiter.

30. Piazza Santa Trinita

Coordinates
43.77028, 11.25083
In one line
An elegant square where Florence's grandest streets converge, named for the Vallombrosian church on its edge. At its center stands the Column of Justice, an ancient Roman granite shaft given to Cosimo the First and crowned with a statue marking a Medici victory.

31. Ponte Santa Trinita

Coordinates
43.76889, 11.24972
In one line
A graceful three-arched bridge over the Arno, designed by Bartolomeo Ammannati in the 1560s and regarded as the oldest elliptic-arch bridge in the world. Destroyed in 1944, it was faithfully rebuilt using stones recovered from the riverbed.

32. Forte di Belvedere

Coordinates
43.7625, 11.25361
In one line
A star-shaped hilltop fortress above the Boboli Gardens, built in the 1590s for Grand Duke Ferdinando the First.

33. San Marco (Museum & Convent)

Coordinates
43.77778, 11.25861
In one line
A Dominican convent rebuilt by Michelozzo for Cosimo de' Medici and now a national museum. Its monks' cells and corridors hold luminous frescoes by Fra Angelico, while the building remains tied to the fiery preacher Savonarola.

34. Badia Fiorentina

Coordinates
43.77056, 11.25778
In one line
A Benedictine abbey founded in 978 by Willa of Tuscany, among the chief buildings of medieval Florence. Its slender bell tower marks the skyline, and inside hangs Filippino Lippi's painting of the Virgin appearing to Saint Bernard.

35. Santa Maria del Carmine

Coordinates
43.76806, 11.24333
In one line
A Carmelite church in the Oltrarno, founded in 1268 and largely rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1771. The blaze spared the Brancacci Chapel, whose early Renaissance frescoes by Masaccio, Masolino, and Filippino Lippi made it a school for generations of painters.

36. Museum of the Opera del Duomo

Coordinates
43.77361, 11.25778
In one line
The cathedral's own museum, established in 1891 to shelter the original sculpture too precious to remain outdoors. It holds Ghiberti's gilded Baptistery doors, Michelangelo's late Pietà, Donatello's singing galleries, and a full reconstruction of the demolished medieval façade.

37. Oltrarno Artisan Workshops

Coordinates
43.76667, 11.24722
In one line
South of the Arno, behind open ground-floor doors, craftspeople still gild frames, restore old paintings, carve wood, and bind books by hand. The Oltrarno has been Florence's workshop quarter for centuries and remains a neighborhood that makes and mends.

38. Sant'Ambrogio Market

Coordinates
43.77139, 11.26861
In one line
Opened in 1873 in a cast-iron-and-glass hall by Giuseppe Mengoni, this market east of the center stays a true neighborhood institution. Florentines shop here daily for produce, fish, meat, and flowers, well away from the tourist crowds.

39. San Niccolò Neighborhood

Coordinates
43.76389, 11.26056
In one line
A quiet medieval quarter on the south bank below Piazzale Michelangelo, marked by the tall Porta San Niccolò, first raised in 1324. Long a craftsmen's district, it keeps a village feel of workshops, wine bars, and steep lanes climbing the hill.

40. Wine Windows (Buchette del Vino)

Coordinates
43.77028, 11.25333
In one line
Small arched hatches cut into Florentine palazzo walls, once used by noble families to sell estate wine straight to the street. Rooted in a 1559 Medici decree, around 150 survive across the city, and a few have reopened to serve drinks again.

41. Le Cure Neighborhood

Coordinates
43.78889, 11.27
In one line
A residential neighborhood north of central Florence, strung along the Mugnone stream. Named for the women who once washed and whitened cloth on its banks, it grew with the city's railways and factories and centers on busy Piazza delle Cure and its market.

42. San Frediano District

Coordinates
43.76889, 11.23972
In one line
A historic working-class quarter in the western Oltrarno, named for an Irish-born bishop of Lucca. Behind its medieval gate of 1332 lie artisan workshops, the Carmine church with its Brancacci Chapel, and the lively bars that made San Frediano famous.

43. Cloisters of Santo Spirito

Coordinates
43.76694, 11.2475
In one line
Two quiet courtyards behind the Augustinian basilica of Santo Spirito in the Oltrarno. The Great Cloister, built by Bartolomeo Ammannati in the 1560s, and the older Cloister of the Dead lined with worn tombstones still hold the convent's contemplative calm.

44. Piazza Santo Spirito (Local Evening)

Coordinates
43.76722, 11.24806
In one line
The social heart of the Oltrarno, a tree-shaded square opened in front of Brunelleschi's basilica in the early 14th century. By day a morning market, by evening one of Florence's liveliest gathering places, where locals drink, talk, and linger on the church steps.

45. Fiesole

Coordinates
43.80722, 11.2925
In one line
A hilltop town five kilometres northeast of Florence, founded by the Etruscans and later the Roman Faesulae. Its Roman theatre, baths, and temple, medieval cathedral, and sweeping views over the valley have drawn Florentines up the hill for centuries.

46. Bardini Garden

Coordinates
43.76389, 11.25778
In one line
A terraced hillside garden in the Oltrarno, descending from Villa Bardini toward the Arno.

47. Historic Gelaterie of Florence

Coordinates
43.77, 11.26056
In one line
Florence's tradition of artisanal gelato, traced to the Medici court where Renaissance innovators served the first frozen creams. Denser, less airy, and lower in fat than ice cream, the city's historic gelaterie still make it fresh daily in small batches.

48. Traditional Florentine Trattorie

Coordinates
43.77222, 11.25333
In one line
Florence's traditional family-run eating houses, serving the robust Tuscan cooking of simple, high-quality ingredients. Their tables hold the city's signature dishes, from the towering bistecca alla fiorentina to humble peasant fare like ribollita, lampredotto, and beans.

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