Walking Through Florence to Discover the Stone-Built Cultural Heritage

Bathed in the charm of centuries of history and architectural beauty, the city of Florence is a kind of open-air museum which represents the historical memory of the city, from the Middle Age to modernity. The countless masterpieces are mainly made of the rocks outcropping close to the city and surrounding areas. Thus, Florence is characterized by the colours of its stone-built cultural heritage, the warm ochraceous and the cerulean grey of the Pietraforte and Pietra Serena sandstones, but also the white of marbles, the green of serpentinites, and the red of limestones. In addition, other natural lithotypes, together with artificial materials, were used to realise columns, decorations, claddings, masonry finishing, etc. To deepen the knowledge of the stone materials of Florence, the progressive web app “Florence RockinArt” may help us; it is addressed to all those who are interested in discovering the monuments of Florence by carefully observing the stone materials that make up them. The web app contains short historical and architectural notes on the main monuments but, first of all, detailed geological, mineralogical, and petrographic characteristics of the natural and artificial materials of which they are constituted. The best way to visit this charming city is on foot, getting the chance to walk into the history. In this paper, we suggest a selection among the most significant and suggestive walks through the city such as, for instance, looking for the differences between the sandstones Pietra Serena and Pietraforte, the search for churches decorated with the three colours, white, red, and green, or the hunt for little used polychrome materials.