Painted in the 1480s, Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus shows the newly-born (and fully-grown) Roman goddess Venus emerging from the sea. Covering herself in forced modesty, she’s carried by seafoam and Zephyr-blown winds towards the island of Cythera on a seashell. One of the most famous Renaissance-era works of art, it pairs with the artist's lesser-known Primavera, also in the Ufizzi. While you’re there, swing by Titian’s Venus of Urbino, too.

In the early 15th century, Filippo Brunelleschi laid out designs to build the dome of Florence’s cathedral without traditional supporting structures, a feat of engineering not accomplished since antiquity. The masonry dome was the largest in the world when it was completed in 1436 and over 500 years later still holds the title today of the largest brick-and-mortar dome. Don't miss the narrow passageway to the lantern for a birdseye view of the Piazza del Duomo and the city beyond.

The Story of Saint Francis of Assisi by Domenico Ghirlandaio extends over three walls of the Sassetti Chapel in the Basilica di Santa Trinita. One of the city’s most famous Renaissance painters, Ghirlandaio transposed traditional story elements from Francis’ life with Florentine settings and people in six different scenes. The series of 15th-century frescoes is highly regarded for its realism, which is unmatched in works by Ghirlandaio's contemporaries.

Some say that the Renaissance began when merchants from Florence commissioned Lorenzo Ghiberti to design new bronze doors for the local baptistery in 1425. Ghiberti labored for nearly 30 years, adorning the doors, now known as The Gates of Paradise, with 10 scenes from the Old Testament in gold-leaf reliefs, demonstrating a new mastery of linear perspective. The original doors can be seen in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo while replicas adorn the entrance to the baptistery across the street.

David gets all the glory, but Michelangelo's 16th-century sculptures in the Medici Chapels are worth a visit for art lovers. His figures, the personifications of Dawn, Day, Dusk, and Night, lay in sensuous poses atop burial tombs designed for the Medici family. In 1530, during a power conflict between the Florentines and the Medicis, Michelangelo hid in a secret room underneath the chapel and sketched graffiti to pass the time. The secret room is sometimes open to the public.

While the medieval Old Bridge (Ponte Vecchio) is Florence’s most famous, the Renaissance-built Ponte Santa Trinita—with its three oval-shaped arches over the Arno River—is the most graceful. During World War II, German troops destroyed the original stone bridge, which had already replaced a 5-arched wooden version from the 13th century. During the reconstruction of war-damaged Italy, the Renaissance-era stone bridge was rebuilt in 1958 using stones recovered from the riverbed.

Michelangelo designed the Laurentian Medici Library in the 15th century. It holds perhaps the most important collection of rare books in Italy and includes manuscripts by Boccaccio, Dante, and Virgil. Located inside the Basilica of San Lorenzo (Basilica di San Lorenzo), the library features late-Renaissance architecture. Here, you’ll see an extraordinary and fantastical staircase that mixes disparate architectural styles that seem to magically work together.