Leon Battista Alberti

Florentine architect and author who literally wrote the book on Renaissance architecture

Leon Battista Alberti (1401-72) was an architect and renowned writer and theorist whose De Re Aedificatoria was the first architectural textbook of the Renaissance.

He was especially keen on recycling classic orders and working with the proportions that linked architectural geometry and musical harmony.

If his friend Brunelleschi brought innovation and a crafted aesthetic to founding Renaissance architecture, Alberti defined the movement's classicism and theoretical base.

In Florence, he built the prototypical Renaissance palace (Palazzo Rucellai), and the mathematically precise facade of Santa Maria Novella.

Tips & links

Italian art tours

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Tourism info
Italia.it (national tourism authority)
Beniculturali.it (historic and cultural sites ministry)
Culturaitalia.it (cultural patrimony)
Coopculture.it (runs many major museums and ancient sights)

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ContextTravel.com
SelectItaly.com
City-discovery.com

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Palermo: Gesap.it

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Emergency service/tow: tel. 803-116
Highway agency: Autostrade.it (traffic info, serivce areas, toll calculator, weather)
Italian automotive club (~AAA): Aci.it
ZTLs: Ztl-italia.blogspot.com (lightly outdated, but handy, links to cities' traffic-free zones)