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Jewel of a Gothic church: all pointy arches, spires and statuettes.

An ancient Roman town of metal workers – the industry’s thin daggers, which evolved into handguns, were called pistole after the city. It is an artistic crossroads where the striking Romanesque stripes in San Giovanni Fuoricivitas and the Duomo (see Pistoia’s Duomo) meet the Florentine Renaissance glazed terracottas festooning the Ospedale del Ceppo. Gothic art comes in the form of colourful 1372 frescoes covering the Cappella del Tau, and a Giovanni Pisano carved pulpit (1298–1301) in the church of Sant’Andrea.

Andrea della Robbia’s enamelled terracotta entrance accents the Romanesque exterior’s zebra stripes. The Altar of St Jacobo (1287–1456) contains some of Italy’s finest silversmithing. Ask the custodian to show you Verrocchio’s Madonna di Piazza (1485).

In the heart of the Etruscan Maremma, surrounded by valleys full of ancient tombs, Pitigliano is built upon an outcrop of tufa rock. In fact, it is difficult to tell where the cliff sides end – pockmarked as they are with cellar windows – and the walls of the houses and castle begin.

Etruscan Pitigliano seems to grow right out of its rocky terrain. This hill town’s greatest sight is its medieval self, though the Palazzo Orsini castle (a 13th-century structure, enlarged by Giuliano da Sangallo) houses a few modest museums of local Etruscan finds (“Museo Civico Archeologico”) and its own rooms (“Palazzo Orsini”). The synagogue offers tours (Wednesday, Friday and Sunday) of Pitigliano’s significant Jewish heritage, which all but vanished with Nazi deportations.

A refined little wine bar with good snacks, conveniently situated just across the square from the Pitti Palace.

Highest-quality pietre dure – “mosaics” of semi-precious stones.

This brawny Mannerist mansion served as Florence’s royal home from 1560 until the 1860s, when Florence did a stint as Italy’s capital. Backed by the elaborate Boboli Gardens, the palace’s seven museums include the excellent Galleria Palatina of late Renaissance/early Baroque painting.

The Grand Ducal home has many works from the Medici’s collections.

Massive Medici palace with a painting collection to rival the Uffizi, museums of porcelain, carriages, and modern art, and formal gardens.