4 Best Sights in Around the Duomo, Florence

Here, in 1497 and 1498, the famous "bonfire of the vanities" took place, when the fanatical Dominican friar Savonarola induced his followers to hurl their worldly goods into the flames. It was also here, a year later, that he was hanged as a heretic and, ironically, burned. A plaque in the piazza pavement marks the spot of his execution.

Cellini's famous bronze Perseus, shown holding the severed head of Medusa, is among the most important sculptures in the Loggia dei Lanzi. Also noteworthy are The Rape of the Sabine Women and Hercules and the Centaur, both late-16th-century works by Giambologna (1529–1608). But it's the Neptune Fountain, created between 1550 and 1575 by Bartolomeo Ammannati, that dominates the square. The Florentines call it "il Biancone," which may be translated as "the big white man" or "the big white lump." Giambologna's equestrian statue, to the left of the fountain, portrays Grand Duke Cosimo I. Occupying the steps of the Palazzo Vecchio is a copy of Michelangelo's David, as well as Baccio Bandinelli's Hercules.

This charmingly simple bridge was built in 1345 to replace an earlier one that was swept away by a flood. Its shops first housed butchers, then grocers, blacksmiths, and other merchants. But, in 1593, the Medici grand duke Ferdinand I (1549–1609), whose private corridor linking the Medici palace (Palazzo Pitti) with the Medici offices (the Uffizi) crossed the bridge atop the shops, decided that all this plebeian commerce under his feet was unseemly. So he threw out the butchers and blacksmiths and installed 41 goldsmiths and eight jewelers. The bridge has been devoted solely to these two trades ever since.

Take a moment to study the Ponte Santa Trinita, the next bridge downriver. It was designed by Bartolomeo Ammannati in 1567 (probably from sketches by Michelangelo), blown up by the retreating Germans during World War II, and painstakingly reconstructed after the war. The view from the Ponte Santa Trinita is also beautiful, which might explain why so many young lovers hang out there.

The open-air loggia, built in 1551, teems with souvenir stands, but the real attraction is a copy of Pietro Tacca's bronze Porcellino (which translates as "little pig" despite the fact the animal is, in fact, a wild boar). The sculpture is Florence's equivalent of the Trevi Fountain: put a coin in his mouth, and if it falls through the grate below (according to one interpretation), it means you'll return to Florence someday. What you're seeing is a copy of a copy: Tacca's original version, in the Museo Bardini, is actually a copy of an ancient Greek work.

The square marks the site of an ancient forum, which was the core of the original Roman settlement and which was replaced in the Middle Ages by the Mercato Vecchio (Old Market). The current piazza, constructed between 1885 and 1895 as a neoclassical showpiece, is lined with cafés that are the perfect spots from which to people-watch.