Standing atop Brunelleschi's Dome in Florence, reliving memories A VIEW FROM THE TOP

Pontormo's "Deposition" - The mourners seem trapped in a nightmare behind the picture plane IN A LITTLE CHURCH BY THE OLD BRIDGE

In Siena’s Duomo, Pinturicchio’s frescoes tell the story of Pope Pius II in scenes as colorful as the man himself AENEAS SILVIUS

In Pisa, did an ancient Roman coffin inspire Nicola Pisano's creation of the first truly Renaissance sculpture? THE PHAEDRA SARCOPHAGUS

Giardino Bardini - Clipped hedges, manicured terraces, and a grand staircase climb the once roughly wooded slope THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN

There was a time when Florence’s artistic abundance was in grave danger of being lost. Enter Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici ... THE ANGEL OF THE UFFIZI

“I heard last night a little child go singing, neath Casa Guidi windows, by the church ..." Elizabeth Barrett Browning CASA GUIDI WINDOWS

Piero della Francesca's "Resurrection" - the painting that saved Sansepolcro OF SEPULCHRES AND MIRACLES

Niccolò Machiavelli, that sinister cynic, was also the author of a bawdy and successful comic play called "La Mandragola" THE LIGHTER SIDE OF MACHIAVELLI

The great artist revealed much of himself in his grumpy but loving letters to his favorite nephew, Lionardo, in Florence MICHELANGELO'S NEPHEW

Robert Browning imagines himself accompanying Filippo Lippi on a boozy pub crawl in Renaissance Florence BROTHER LIPPO'S NIGHT OUT

Benvenuto Cellini's memoirs are replete with feuds, seduction, vendettas, murder, and heroism – mostly his own A STORMY WELCOME