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Piazza della Signoria is one of the rare great squares that doubles as a free sculpture gallery. Under the arches of the Loggia dei Lanzi stand Cellini's bronze Perseus holding the head of Medusa and Giambologna's twisting marble group, and you can walk right up to them without a ticket. Behind the square rises Palazzo Vecchio, still Florence's town hall after seven centuries, with a painted hall more than twice the length of a tennis court, a tower you can climb and a study most visitors walk straight past.
We at Travelmyth, the hotel search engine that ranks stays by your interests and needs across 60 stay categories, have put this guide together so you can read the square and the palace as one visit rather than two. Most pages cover the museum or the open-air statues, rarely both. Here you get the inside of Palazzo Vecchio, the climb up the Arnolfo Tower, the sculptors who fill the Loggia, the fountain and the David copy out front, and the practical details to plan it all.
Palazzo Vecchio was built between 1299 and 1314, to a design traditionally attributed to Arnolfo di Cambio, the same architect who began the cathedral, and it has been the seat of the city's government for most of the time since. Its fortress-like front and the bell tower above it, the Torre d'Arnolfo, which stands about 95 metres tall, have anchored the square for seven centuries.
The name is a clue to its history. When Duke Cosimo I de' Medici moved his residence across the river to the Pitti Palace, the older building became the "Old Palace", which is what Palazzo Vecchio means. It kept its civic role, and it keeps it now: parts of the building are still council offices, so you are touring a working town hall, not a museum frozen in the past. Because Palazzo Vecchio remains an active civic building, check the official page before visiting in case of temporary closures or route changes.
The room everyone comes for is the Salone dei Cinquecento, the Hall of the Five Hundred, built in 1494 and running about 52 metres in length. Vasari and his workshop covered the walls with battle frescoes and the ceiling with painted panels glorifying Cosimo I and Florence, and at one end stands Michelangelo's marble Genius of Victory. The scale is the point: the hall was built to seat a council of five hundred, and standing in it gives you the measure of the republic that ran Florence.
The hall also holds one of art history's great unsolved questions. Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were each commissioned to paint a battle mural here, Leonardo's the Battle of Anghiari, but neither man ever finished his work. One theory holds that Leonardo's unfinished scene may survive behind a later wall carrying Vasari's frescoes, and a tiny banner in one of those frescoes bearing the words "Cerca trova", meaning "seek and you shall find", has fuelled the hunt for the lost Leonardo ever since.
Beyond the Salone, the palace rewards a slow walk through its smaller rooms. The Studiolo of Francesco I, a windowless jewel-box of a study lined with paintings and cabinets, is the kind of space most visitors pass without realising it is there, and the upper floors carry on through painted apartments and a map room.
For a different angle on the city, the Arnolfo Tower is open to climb. The tower itself has 223 steps, with 418 steps in total to reach the top, and it delivers a high, close view over the rooftops of the historic centre and across to the Duomo.
A couple of practical points are worth knowing before you commit. The tower closes in rain, since the upper walkway is exposed, and children under six are not admitted to the climb. If the weather looks unsettled, check on the day rather than counting on the view.
The square in front of the palace has been the stage for Florence's public life, and one of its darkest moments. This is where the friar Girolamo Savonarola staged his Bonfire of the Vanities, burning books, art and luxuries he judged sinful. The story has a grim symmetry: in 1498, Savonarola was hanged and his body burned in the same square.
Today the piazza is an open-air gallery you cross for free. The statues are arranged across it and under the Loggia along one side, and you can stand in front of any of them at any hour, which is part of what makes the square worth lingering in rather than hurrying through.
The Loggia dei Lanzi is the arched, open-sided gallery on the south side of the square, built between 1376 and 1382. Its name comes from the Landsknechts, the German pikemen Cosimo I stationed nearby, whose name Italians corrupted to "lanzi". Over the centuries it filled with sculpture, and it now works as a public museum with no door and no fee.
Two works draw the eye first. Benvenuto Cellini's bronze Perseus with the Head of Medusa, worked between roughly 1545 and 1554, shows the hero holding the severed head aloft, and it remains one of the most admired bronzes of the Renaissance. Beside it stands Giambologna's marble Rape of the Sabine Women, a single spiralling block of three figures that has stood in the Loggia since 1583.
At the corner of the palace sits the Fountain of Neptune, commissioned under Cosimo I and associated with Florence's new waterworks and the Medici wedding celebrations. The huge pale figure of Neptune at its centre was carved by Bartolomeo Ammannati, and Florentines nicknamed it "il Biancone", the big white one, a name it has never shaken.
Nearby stands the figure many visitors come hoping to see: Michelangelo's David. This one, though, is a copy. The original stood on this spot for centuries before it was moved indoors to the Galleria dell'Accademia in 1873 to protect it from the weather, and the marble copy that took its place dates to 1910. To see the real David, you need the Accademia, which we cover in its own guide.
The square, the Loggia and the fountain are always free and open, so you can take in the statues, the David copy and Savonarola's square without spending anything or booking ahead. A museum ticket covers the inside of Palazzo Vecchio, the Salone and the rooms, while the Arnolfo Tower is a separate ticket.
As of 2026, the Palazzo Vecchio museum ticket is EUR18 full and EUR12 reduced, following an increase by the Comune di Firenze that took effect on 1 February 2026; under-18s go free. The separate Tower and Battlements ticket is EUR20 full and EUR13 reduced. The official online box office adds a EUR1 advance-sale fee to paid tickets. The museum is open Friday to Wednesday from 9:00 to 19:00, and on Thursdays from 9:00 to 14:00, while the tower is open from 9:00 to 17:00 most days and from 9:00 to 14:00 on Thursdays. For the tower, book a timed ticket in advance, as reservation is mandatory. Because the square outside never closes, a good plan is the statues first, then the interior, with the tower climb saved for a clear hour.
Piazza della Signoria sits at the centre of Florence, so basing yourself anywhere in the historic core puts the square, the Uffizi and the Ponte Vecchio within an easy walk. Travelmyth lists stays across the city and lets you filter by what matters to your trip, a boutique-style room near the square, somewhere with a rooftop pool, a stay taking steps towards sustainability, and you can combine any two filters to narrow the list. You can browse the options at Travelmyth's Florence page.
Palazzo Vecchio and its square are one stop among many in the city, and if you are mapping out the rest, see our full guide to things to do in Florence for the Duomo, the Uffizi, the Accademia and more.