The City as a Workshop

Brunelleschi won the dome commission without ever revealing how he would build it — no plans survive because he kept them in his head, wary of rivals. The answer turned out to be herringbone brickwork that locks each course in place as it rises, letting the dome hold itself up during construction with no scaffolding from the ground. The climb on Day 1 walks you straight through the gap between his two shells — you are inside the solution.

Keep an eye out for the buchette del vino — small arched hatches cut into palazzo walls at shoulder height. Renaissance wine producers used them to sell directly to the street, and they became contactless service windows during plague outbreaks. Dozens survive around the center and the Oltrarno, and a handful have reopened to pour wine through the wall again; the sunset tour in this guide stops at one.

Three stops in this guide are really one statue's biography. David was carved for the cathedral's roofline, stood guard outside Palazzo Vecchio in Piazza della Signoria for nearly four centuries, and now lives a five-minute walk from the hotel in the Accademia — with his replicas holding both of his old posts, one in the square and one in bronze above the city at Piazzale Michelangelo.