Florence Art & Culture [iPhone]

FLORENCE, the latest app in the Art & Culture series, is a cultural travel guide with a difference, an app that offers comprehensive, expert coverage of all the sights and attractions in the great city that gave birth to the Renaissance, an essential companion for anyone who wants to understand how Florence became Florence. How did Brunelleschi build the city’s landmark dome, and teach the city’s artists about perspective? Which great Florentine architect invented gelato? Who was the model for Botticelli’s Venus?

Whether you only have a couple of days to visit Florence’s museums, or want to spend a vacation seeking out every single work by Donatello or every Medici villa, this is the app for you. The 400 entries cover not only the tourist sights, but also the biographies of the artists, sculptors, architects and writers who changed the history of the western art and thought from Masaccio and Michelangelo to the most obscure.

Along with a lively account of Florence’s fascinating, turbulent history, Florence Art & Culture includes quirky anecdotes and special insights into everything from the importance of guilds in the Middle Ages and the rules of Calcio Storico, the Renaissance version of football still played today, to the city’s passion for a juicy tripe sandwich. It covers the hills of Florence and goes beyond into the nearby beautiful landscapes of Chianti and the Mugello, the homeland of the Medici.

Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls, authors of the best-selling Cadogan Guides to Tuscany and Italy have been exploring and enjoying Florence since 1981. This new app carries on the inspiration behind their Art & Culture series: bringing the old ideal of an informed, serious guidebook into the digital world. You won’t find listings of hotels, restaurants and shopping—those are available in a thousand places at the click of a button.

Instead, this app gives you what no one else can. No other guide comes close in its coverage of Florence’s history, architecture, art, festivals, personalities and oddities. Maps and up-to-date practical information on opening hours and tickets, plus the app’s easy to use search facility and favourites button make planning your trip to Florence a cinch.