Basilica of Santa Croce

They call it the Temple of Italian Glories, which sounds grandiose until you realize Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, and Rossini are all buried here, in the same building, steps from each other. The largest Franciscan church in the world has nearly 300 tombs spanning five centuries, making it less a place of worship and more an Italian Hall of Fame carved in marble.

Galileo's tomb tells its own story of power and pettiness. When he died in 1642, the Catholic Church — still fuming about the whole Earth-goes-around-the-Sun thing — refused him a Christian burial. His body was stashed in a small room next to the novices' chapel for 95 years. It wasn't until 1737 that admirers were finally allowed to move him to a proper monument in the nave. During the transfer, someone snapped off three of his fingers and a tooth as souvenirs. His middle finger is now displayed, pointing skyward, in the Galileo Museum across town.

Opposite Galileo's tomb sits Michelangelo's. He died in Rome, but Florence essentially kidnapped his body — his nephew smuggled the corpse out of Rome in a bale of merchandise so that the city of his birth could claim him. Machiavelli's monument was added much later, in 1787, after his political theories came back into fashion.

The church also contains important frescoes by Giotto in the Bardi and Peruzzi Chapels — some of the earliest masterpieces of Western art. The square outside, Piazza Santa Croce, hosts Florence's violent annual calcio storico, a no-rules football game played in Renaissance costume that makes rugby look like a tea party.