Where the money went
Renaissance Europe
The Renaissance happened where banking did, and the buildings are the receipts. These are the city states that funded it and the courts that competed with them — plus the two places that exported the style north and made it something else.
8 places across 3 countries · not an itinerary
Florence
Banking money, and nearly all of it inside a twenty-minute walk.
Siena
The rival that lost, and was preserved by losing.
Venice
A republic that bought its art from everywhere and kept it.
Rome
Where the popes outspent the bankers, and Michelangelo worked for both.
Bologna
The oldest university in the world, and the arcades built to keep scholars dry.
Amboise & the Loire châteaux
Leonardo's last house, and the château where the style crossed the Alps.
Colmar & the Alsace wine road
The Isenheim altarpiece: what the north did with the same century.
Antwerp
Rubens's own house and studio, in the city that took Venice's trade.
Not an itinerary
A theme is a way of seeing, not a route: these places are not in travelling order and most people take three or four of them, not all. For an order that respects distance, put the ones you want into the Planner.
Countries it crosses
Italy, France, Belgium