Piazza della Signoria

This guide to Piazza della Signoria in Florence turns on a February evening in 1497, when the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola, having become the city's de facto ruler, had Florentines burn their paintings, cosmetics, and finery in a bonfire of vanities staged right here. It traces his brief hold on power, the young enforcers called the Weepers who went door to door collecting what he judged sinful, and the pope's swift break with him three months later. The Palazzo Vecchio still stands watch over the square where it all played out.