The Piazzale Michelangiolo ★

The greatest viewpoint over Florence

View from the Piazza Michelangelo The panorama of Florence from Piazzale Michelangiolo. (Photo by Leo1383)This is the cityscape you see on all the postcards, a low-level panorama across the medieval and Renaissance domes and spires of the city.

This is why every tour of Italy makes an obligatory stop at this piazza laid out in 1875, so there's usually a horde of giant buses rumbling and belching as they wait for their charges to scurry out, snap a few photographs, and hop back on board.

The monument at the center of the piazza is an 1871 composite of several famous Michelangelo works, a pastiche (the official art word for a mashup) of The David (real one in the Accademia) perched atop a base around which lounge the Dawn, Night, Day, and Dusk figures from the Medici tombs.

The composite Michelangelo monument on Piazzale Michelangiolo. (Photo by Maksim)By the way, I did not misspell the name of this place. "Michelangiolo" is an old variant on "Michelangelo" and it is the square's official name—though you will frequently find guidebooks, brochures, and even official maps that almsot invariably (yet incorrectly) label it "Piazzale Michelangelo."