There’s something almost disturbingly, smugly, impossibly beautiful about Renaissance Florence, so what I like about the city is its medieval past. The Middle Ages has grit and a sense of reality that gets glossed over in all that Renaissance perfection. To enjoy medieval Florence to the full, you must resolve to stop looking at the Middle Ages as a prelude to the Renaissance and relish it in its own right. Then you’ll be in the right frame of mind to appreciate trecento Florence for itself.

If arriving by train, a good place to start your medieval explorations is Santa Maria Novella, just around the corner from the eponymous (and hideous) station. Pause in the main church to gape at Giotto’s “The Crucifixion” suspended over the transept, and Orcagna’s elaborate, gleaming polyptych in the Strozzi Chapel. Then go round to the side door for entrance to the Green Cloister.