Our Virtual Florence

Virtual Florence

We kicked off our summer vacation by renting an apartment in Florence, the cradle of the Renaissance. Subsequently, we led two student trips while at the Singapore American School, so we got to know the city reasonably well. This site offers two ways to tour Florence:

Florence Web Tour: this is a less graphics-intensive tour that features a clickable image map that will open web pages for each site.
Florence 360: this is the more comprehensive approach, featuring twenty four 360-degree spherical panoramas. Each offers an audio overview, web links with photos and text, as well as 360-degree video walkthroughs. It is designed to make the tour as close to a real-life visit as possible. For even more immersion, there is a "VR" version listed below the tour that allows you to use a headset such as Google Cardboard with a smartphone. This is a wonderful experience if you have access to a headset. Either way, please enjoy Florence, one of our favorite spots on the planet.

Note: there may be some extra green real estate to the right of this page, as it was purposely made smaller for formatting reasons. If this is annoying, simply shrink the page from the right side and restore to the orginal 1336 pixel size when viewing other spots on the website.

Florence Web Tour

Instructions: to visit the sites below, either click on the map "hotspots" indicated where the cursor changes into a hand, or click on the sites listed in the table below. In either case, a separate window will open. Simply click on the "Close" button at the bottom of each page to return to this map. This may not work on mobile devices, in which case please close the popup and use the browser's "Back" button to return to the map. Your ad-blocker must be turned off for this page to access the popups.

1. Galleria dell'Accademie	7. Baptistry	13. Basilica di Santa Croce	19. Ponte Vecchio
2. Basilica di San Lorenzo	8. Campanile	14. Piazza della Signoria	20. Palazzo Pitti
3. Cappelle Medicee	9. Santa Maria Novella	15. Palazzo Vecchio	21. Boboli Gardens
4. Florence Duomo	10. Piazza della Republica	16. Loggia dei Lanzi	22. Capella Brancacci
5. Piazza del Duomo	11. Bargello	17. Uffizi Gallery	23. Forte de Belvedere
6. Piazza Santo Spirito	12. Piazza G. Roggi	18. Piazzale Michelangelo	24. San Miniato al Monte

VR Florence: A 360-Degree Tour of "The Cradle of the Renaissance"

Galleria D'AccademiaSnap Content

Virtual Reality Tour for VR Headsets:

QR Code

There is also a version of this tour designed specifically for VR headsets such as Google Cardboard, and it works with both iPhone and Android devices. It may be access by scanning on the QR code to the left. If you are viewing this on a mobile phone, you may access the VR tour by following this link.

For iOS devices: scan QR code with your device's camera app, tap on the prompt to open Safari. Select "Allow Device Motion" and the next prompt, "Allow Access to Motion Orientation." Turn the device to landscape mode and a split screen will appear. When the screen turns white, swipe up for fullscreen mode, and place in headset. Here is a video of how to do this--it is simpler than it sounds! [The video opens in a new window--close when done to return to this page]

For Android devices: Open the camera app and use the built-in scanner to scan the QR code above. Confirm that you want to open the website, and wait for it to load--it should load in stereo view. Select the fullscreen ("X" option) from the menu at the bottom. Turn the device to landscape mode and you are ready to go. Here is a video of how to do this--it is simpler than it sounds! [The video opens in a new window--close when done to return to this page]

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