Porta San Niccolò

This guide to Porta San Niccolò in Florence starts in 1529, when a foreign army camped on the hills above the city and Florentine commanders ordered thirteen of their own gate towers chopped down before enemy cannon could do it for them, a practice they called scapitozzata, beheading. You'll hear how this single tower, standing guard over the Arno since around 1324, was the one spared the axe, and what its neighbours on the hill had to do with the decision. Look up at the faded thirteenth-century fresco above the archway before you climb the steps inside.