When the Medici Palace was finished in 1459 the Pope said it was fit for a king. The palace immediately became a blueprint for the revival of classical Roman styles, yet it also nodded to the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence's medieval city hall. In every way, from the huge cornice on top to the Medici 'balls' on the corner, this was family ambition written in stone. Let Cosimo de’ Medici be your guide in ‘Master of Florence’, a free immersive audio trail on a Renaissance city map. Tap find out more.

To get to the top in Renaissance Florence you started by turning your neighbourhood into a power base. For the Medici this meant San Lorenzo and its parish church. Cosimo de’ Medici broadcast his rising status with Brunelleschi's trailblazing 'Old Sacristy', where he buried his parents. His own tomb was in front of the high altar, a space usually reserved for holy relics. Let Cosimo be your guide in the ‘Master of Florence’ audio trail. Tap find out more.

A bakery, an apothecary (pharmacy), a little church: in certain ways the Canto alla Macine, the Millstone Corner, hasn’t changed much since the fifteenth century. Streetcorners like this buzzed with local life, and the Medici were keen to draw the shop workers and residents at the Canto alla Macine into their network of neighbourhood ‘amici'. Let Cosimo de’ Medici tell you the story in ‘Master of Florence’, a free audio trail on a Renaissance city map. Tap find out more.

Like Leonardo’s, Andrea del Castagno’s Last Supper was painted for the refectory of a convent. In this case, the nunnery of Sant’ Apollonia. You can go in and see this hidden artistic gem from the 1440s. The nuns who paid for the artwork mostly started off as girls sent to the cloister whether they liked it or not. Yet once inside they wielded real spiritual and economic clout. Let Cosimo de’ Medici be your guide in the ‘Master of Florence’ audio trail. Tap find out more.

How did a Renaissance banker convert pride and earthly riches into humility and spiritual credit? It wasn’t easy. Cosimo de’ Medici tried to square the circle by spending a fortune to rebuild San Marco and support its poor Dominican friars. He even had his own prayer cell inside, frescoed with the lesson of the three Magi, who gave gifts of gold, incense and myrrh to Christ. Cosimo has more to tell you in the ‘Master of Florence’ immersive audio trail. Tap find out more.

Santissima Annunziata was home to the Renaissance city’s most potent miracle-working Madonna. Praying to be healed, people flocked here with wax gifts. Some even brought wax busts and life-sized sculptures of themselves. In the 1450s the Medici got involved, paying to house the Madonna in a sumptuous new tabernacle. As the inscription says, the marble alone cost 4,000 florins. Listen to Cosimo de’ Medici in the free ‘Master of Florence’ audio trail. Tap find more.

‘This is an awesome place’. They sang that here at celebrations to mark the completion of Brunelleschi's dome. It was March 25, 1436, the feast of the Annunciation and the new year's day in Florence. Above the door you enter to climb the dome, a mosaic depicts the Annunciation scene. On that day, Cosimo de' Medici was front and centre, soaking up the credit - as he tells you in ‘Master of Florence’, a free audio trail on a Renaissance city map. Tap find out more.