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Hidden Florence

  • Stories
    • Cosimo: Master of Florence
    • Niccolosa: Saints and Sinners
    • Marietta: City of Women
    • Ercole: Crime and Punishment
    • Giovanni: Politics and People
    • Giovanni: Neighbourhood World
  • HF-3D
    • About San Pier Maggiore 3D
    • Researching San Pier Maggiore
    • A Neighbourhood Story
    • Rebuilding a church in 3D
    • Contributors
  • About
    • Contributors
    • Reviews
    • Credits
    • About Bonsignori’s map
    • News
  • Research
  • Contact
  • Media

Welcome to Hidden Florence. This website accompanies the award winning and free smartphone app that invites you to experience Renaissance Florence through the eyes of five contemporary characters. Each guide takes you on a unique walking tour through the city’s rich past, linking the sites you visit to stories from their own lives and times.

Get it on Google Play

With the app, you navigate Florence toggling between a modern and a superbly detailed sixteenth-century map. On this website, you can read about each guide and the places they take you (‘Stories’), discover more about the project team (‘About’), and find out how we designed the characters (‘Blog’).

Our guide characters are:

Cosimo: Master of Florence, 1459
First citizen or godfather? Cosimo de’ Medici takes you through the city he’s spent a lifetime trying to make his own.

Giovanni: Neighbourhood World/People and Politics, 1490
Discover local worlds and get a different perspective on the heart of Florence as Giovanni, a wool worker, walks you through a day in his life.

Niccolosa: Saints and Sinners, 1492
Explore Florence’s sacred foundations with Niccolosa Alessandri as the city faces an uncertain future after the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent.

Marietta: City of Women, 1561
Join Marietta as she traces her journey from the city orphanage to life as a silk weaver.

Ercole: Crime and Punishment, 1566
From the torture chamber to the gallows, Ercole shows you how justice was done in the Renaissance city.

The app and website have been written by an international team of researchers and is a collaboration between the universities of Exeter, Cambridge and Toronto, with project partners at the National Gallery (London), Polo Museale della Toscana and Firenze Patrimonio Mondiale (UNESCO).

Hidden Florence was funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (UK) through the University of Exeter, is led by Prof Fabrizio Nevola and produced by Calvium. Read more about the project, news coverage and the research team in ‘About’.

Hidden Florence won the App Award at the Conference on Cultural Heritage and New Technologies, Vienna (November 2019).

Hidden Florence 3D was winner of App of the Year AR/3D for innovative use of 3D/AR in 2020 and is currently also shortlisted for the same category int SPARKies 2020.

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Stories

Meet the guides, learn their stories

Read more Stories

Teaching with Hidden Florence

As the full launch of four new Hidden Florence walks fast approaches, I’ve found myself reflecting on the project and my collaborations with the larger Hidden Florence team. I joined the project in 2018 to help develop the “Marietta: City of Women” and “Ercole: Crime and Punishment” walks. My own research specializes in gender and…

Read more Teaching with Hidden Florence

About

All about the app and its creators

Read more About

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Two new trails on Hidden Trento!
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Protest against Henry VIII at Exeter's St Nicholas Priory in 1536 was led by Elizabeth Glandring, the inspiration behind the character speaking in this clip from the Hidden Exeter app. You’ll also hear Elizabeth’s brother William, who is far more sympathetic to the Protestant cause and the dissolution of England’s monasteries.
Trento, 1658. Explore a city threatened by plague, and political turmoil.

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Hidden Florence is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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