Basilica of San Lorenzo

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Photo by flickr user laura padgett

Florence is known for its art, but the galleries and art museums aren't the only places you need to schedule a visit to to see it, art lovers should also visit some of Florence's great churches. The Basilica of San Lorenzo is one to be included on this list, in part because it's where you can see funerary monuments by Verrocchio, frescos by Bronzino and Rosso Fiorentino and friezes, reliefs, pulpits and bronze doors by Donatello – and you can also visit Donatello's tomb.

The grandest part of San Lorenzo are the Medici Chapels. The Medici family paid for the church to be made and it's logical that they would reserve the right to be buried in the beautiful crypt they'd so carefully commissioned. Around 50 Medicis are buried here, below the Chapel of the Princes where the Grand Dukes were buried. One of One of the other famous reasons to visit Florence is to admire the architecture, and if that's why you're reading over this review then you'll be interested to know that it's thought of as an important site along the evolution of Renaissance architecture, begun round 1419 and finally finished in 1480. The Medicis were still paying for it when the last of the family died in the 18th Century.

Written by  Sophie Edgerton.

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