Only a few steps away from the city's most frequently visited sites, there is a less familiar Florence, one that will surprise you with unexpected wonders, kept in places that are like precious jewel-boxes: this is the Florence of Italian as well as foreign art collectors, who during the 20th century wished to donate their collections to the city.

The fruit of their original owners' artistic passions, five such collections are connected by a special itinerary. This route crosses the centre of Florence, and reaches the slopes of its surrounding hills, passing through the places where the collections are still preserved and displayed as their creators desired them to be.

In 1906, Frederick Stibbert, an Englishman born in Florence, left to the city his house-museum which contains his vast armoury. This villa, on the hill of Montughi, is surrounded by a large Romantic park.

In 1916, Herbert Percy Horne, an English citizen, gave to Florence his Renaissance mansion, located in the very heart of the city. He himself had restored and re-modelled his home with an exceptionally valuable collection of paintings, decorative items, and antique furniture.

At the time of his death in 1922, Stefano Bardini left to Florence his spectacular palace, which he had refurbished in order to house the collection of the finest works that he had acquired in his career as an antiquarian.

In 1928, Charles Alexander Loeser, of American origin, gave his works of art and period furniture as a legacy to the city, with the agreement that they would be installed in the Palazzo Vecchio to re-create the atmosphere of monumental interior settings.

In 1946, Salvatore Romano gave to Florence his collection of sculptures and furnishings, which still conserves the fascinating display arrangement he set up in the refectory of the convent of Santo Spirito.