5 must-see sights with Firenzecard in February

February is the month of love, and there's no better way to celebrate it than spending a few days in the cradle of the Renaissance.
Florence is a city that will offer you endless emotions, romantic glimpses and unforgettable moments immersed in art and culture. You'll find works and experiences that speak to you about love in all its forms in each museum.

We wish to suggest you an itinerary to share with your special people:

1. Villa Bardini Garden
The Bardini Garden can truly be considered a lovers' paradise and a walk through it is a must.
The Garden extends around the homonymous villa, on the southern hills of the city, near the Forte di Belvedere and not far from Piazzale Michelangelo.
The most scenic and romantic part of the garden is the long baroque staircase that reaches the top of the hill, from which you can enjoy one of the most charming views of Florence.
The Garden recounts seven centuries of Florentine and gardening history, botanical introductions, fashions, and changes, and it comprises three distinct areas for era and style: the Italian garden, with its magnificent baroque staircase; the English woodland which, with its exotic elements, represents a rare example of an Anglo-Chinese garden; and the agricultural park, which features a new orchard and a splendid wisteria pergola.
Today, there are also approximately two hundred pieces of sculpture, thirteen fountains, three grottoes and a botanical heritage consisting largely of centuries-old trees such as holm oaks and phillyrea, olive trees and numerous collections of plants such as hydrangeas, roses, camellias, azaleas and the splendid wisteria pergola.

2. Arnolfo's Tower
The second must-see sight is the Arnolfo Tower, also known as the Tower of Palazzo Vecchio, proudly dominating Piazza della Signoria.The Tower with the crenelated Chemin de Ronde, 95-metre high, overlooks the city and is one of its distinctive symbols and reference points.
It belongs to the first hub of the building erected between 1299 and the early 14th century, likely designed by Arnolfo di Cambio. A stone stairway of 223 steps is located inside the Tower and leads to the last crenelated lookout storey with a spectacular view on the city.
A small cell called Alberghetto is found along the path: here Cosimo il Vecchio was imprisoned in 1433 (before being exiled from Florence for one year for being accused to have plotted against the republic) and Girolamo Savonarola in 1498 (while waiting to be executed as heretic in Piazza della Signoria). 
On the façade is a clock, which was the first public clock, as well as the first mechanical clock in Florence. It was built in 1353 by Niccolò Bernardo, who owned a shop on Via Albertinelli, which has since been renamed Via dell'Oriuolo, which in ancient Florentine dialect means clock.
At the top of the tower is a rampant lion, the Marzocco, a symbol of Florence's power.

3. Basilica of Santa Croce
The third place on our itinerary is the Franciscan Basilica of Santa Croce, dedicated to the love story between Vittorio Alfieri and Countess Luisa Stolberg, Countess of Albany, formerly married to Charles Stuart of England. It was here, inside the basilica, that the spark between the two lovers ignited, and here they still rest together today.
For Vittorio Alfieri, Luisa was his muse, and he wrote of her, "My only woman, the life of my life, the better half of myself." It was an intense and passionate love story, born in 1777 and lasting until the poet's death in 1803, a source of literary inspiration. Alfieri and Luisa never married, but lived together in Florence, creating an important literary salon and challenging the social conventions of the time.
And upon Alfieri's death in 1803 Luisa, his last companion, commissioned Antonio Canova to build a monumental tomb for the sum of ten thousand scudi. Canova developed an initial design, creating a plaster bas-relief of Italy weeping before Alfieri's bust, but the Countess, with the advice of the painter François Xavier Fabre, expressed a desire for a more visually striking monument that included at least one statue in the round. Thus Canova conceived a monumental tomb, with the majestic figure of Italy weeping before the sarcophagus, which at its center features a medallion with a bust of Alfieri in profile. A cornucopia lies before the coffin, the masks on the sides allude to the tragic arts, the laurel wreaths and lyre to poetry. And she too will rest in Santa Croce twenty years later, symbolizing an eternal love and an unbreakable bond.

4. Dante's House Museum
Love pervades all of Dante's works, reaching its triumph in the Divine Comedy, where the Supreme Poet celebrates the figure of woman as capable of saving man from eternal perdition, thus overturning the medieval conception of woman as a symbol of perdition and a temptress.
Dante emphasized the spiritual nature of love: Beatrice is the one who saves the Poet, love takes on a transcendent aspect, the feeling rises above simple passion.
At the Dante's House Museum, you can retrace the stages of the life and literary and political career of the Supreme Poet.

5. Palazzo Davanzati Museum
Some of the panels and works housed here are dedicated to the theme of love. In particular, the "Triumph of Love," a painted panel dedicated to Petrarch's unfinished poem and his dreamy vision of love, painted between 1440 and 1460 by Guidi Giovanni Di Ser Giovanni, known as Scheggia; and the "Stories of Andromeda and Perseus," painted by the Maestro di Serumido, active in Florence between 1500 and 1530, and based on Ovid's Metamorphoses, which also features the scene depicting Perseus freeing Andromeda from the monster holding her prisoner.
The "Stories of Andromeda and Perseus," dating from 1515 to 1520, once belonged to Cardinal Carlo de' Medici, brother of Grand Duke Cosimo II, and were likely intended to decorate a domestic setting on the occasion of a wedding, as suggested by the theme drawn from Ovid's Metamorphoses. In particular, the scene depicting Perseus freeing Andromeda from the monster holding her prisoner has an iconographic precedent in the painting by Piero di Cosimo, now housed in the Uffizi Gallery and commissioned for the wedding of Filippo Strozzi and Clarice de' Medici.