What to Expect
Florence After Dark
Florence's elegant Renaissance surface conceals layers of genuine darkness — the Pazzi Conspiracy, the Inquisition, plague and pestilence, political murder, and the burning of Savonarola. The Dark Side walking tour takes these stories out of history books and walks you through the streets and piazzas where they actually happened.
The tour typically covers: the site of Savonarola's execution in Piazza della Signoria, the notorious Bargello prison (now a museum), the medieval history of the Florentine guilds and their occasional brutality, and the stories behind several of Florence's less tourist-friendly corners.
Stories You'll Hear
History's Darker Chapters
The Pazzi Conspiracy (1478)
The Pazzi banking family attempted to assassinate Lorenzo de' Medici and his brother Giuliano in Florence Cathedral — during High Mass. Giuliano was stabbed 19 times. Lorenzo escaped, wounded, by barricading himself in the sacristy. The Medici response was swift and savage: the Pazzi were hunted down across Florence, several hanged from the windows of the Palazzo della Signoria, their family name erased from all city records and even their coat of arms chiseled off buildings. Lorenzo then had Leonardo da Vinci sketch the face of one of the hanged conspirators — Bernardo di Bandino Baroncelli — as a forensic exercise.
Fra Savonarola's "Bonfire of the Vanities" and Execution (1498)
The Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola turned Florence upside down in the 1490s — preaching against luxury, art, and secular culture. His followers collected "vanities" — mirrors, cosmetics, secular books, artworks — and burned them in Piazza della Signoria. Even Botticelli reportedly burned some of his own paintings. Savonarola's fall was equally dramatic: excommunicated by the Pope, arrested, tortured, and hanged and burned in the same piazza where he'd held his bonfires. A small disc in the paving stones marks the spot.
The Black Death
Florence lost 60% of its population to the plague between 1348 and 1363. Boccaccio's Decameron — 100 stories told by ten Florentines sheltering from the plague in a villa outside the city — was written in direct response. The city's physical layout still reflects the plague years: many of the wider streets were created by demolishing plague-affected housing.
Meeting Point & Practical Details
Finding Your Guide
📍 Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, 8 — one of Florence's most elegant Renaissance piazzas, designed by Brunelleschi. The equestrian statue in the centre is Cosimo I. The portico of the Spedale degli Innocenti (world's first orphanage, 1419) lines the right side.
Look for your guide with the green umbrella. Allow 15 minutes to walk from Gusto Leo restaurant.
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