Assassin's Creed II opens in Florence with a young Ezio Auditore brawling on a bridge. Within days, he watches his father and brothers hang. This walk follows his Florence story in the game's own order, from that first fight to the day he gets a wounded Lorenzo de' Medici home. At each stop you'll hear the game scene, then the real history, because the story is built on a real crime: the Pazzi conspiracy of 1478, when a rival family tried to murder the Medici brothers at Mass. This is an unofficial fan walk, not made with or endorsed by Ubisoft, and it's full of spoilers. It's one of our self-guided walking tours, running about 4 kilometers from the Ponte Vecchio to the Medici palace on Via Cavour.

Before you set off

The route is about 4.1 kilometers, roughly an hour of walking, so allow two hours with stops. It's flat, on paving stones. The bridge and the cathedral square fill up by late morning, so start early, and carry water in summer. Some churches are free and others sell tickets, and hours change, so check before you go. The start is a 15 to 20 minute walk from Santa Maria Novella station; the finish is 10 minutes from it.

Ponte Vecchio

You're on the Ponte Vecchio, the old bridge, lined with little shops. Look up at the row of windows running over them. That's the Vasari Corridor, a private passage built in 1565.

In the game, it's 1476, and everything starts here. Ezio and his friends face Vieri de' Pazzi's gang across the bridge. Vieri hurls a stone that leaves Ezio with a scarred lip. His older brother Federico wades in, the Pazzi boys fall back, and Ezio walks off with 200 florins for the doctor.

Vieri is invented. The game makes him the son of Francesco de' Pazzi, and remember that name: Francesco was real.

The real bridge dates from 1345, built after the great flood of 1333. In Ezio's day these shops belonged to butchers and fishmongers. Goldsmiths took their place in 1593, and jewellers still fill the bridge today. In August 1944, the retreating German army left this the only bridge in Florence still intact.

Now Federico has a race in mind. Walk off the north end of the bridge, turn left into Borgo Santi Apostoli, and follow it west to Piazza Santa Trinita. About five minutes.

Santa Trinita

Find the church of Santa Trinita on this square and look up at its tall stone front.

In the game, still 1476, the brothers are walking home when Federico dares Ezio to a race to the top of this church. Ezio wins, and the brothers look out over their city.

The game puts the Auditore family palace near here. The palace is fictional, and so are the Auditore, a banking family invented for the game.

The church is medieval, but this front was designed by Bernardo Buontalenti and built at the end of the 1500s. The facade Ezio scales didn't exist yet.

Inside, in the Sassetti Chapel, Domenico Ghirlandaio painted the life of Saint Francis and slipped in portraits of the Sassetti and the Medici. He painted them in the 1480s, so those Medici faces belong to the family at the heart of this story.

In the game, the good day doesn't last. Within days the city guard arrests Ezio's father, Giovanni, with Federico and Petruccio. Take Via Porta Rossa east out of the square and keep straight on into Via Vacchereccia, which opens into Piazza della Signoria. About six minutes.

Palazzo Vecchio

Ponte Vecchio Florence

The fortress with the tall tower is the Palazzo Vecchio, begun in 1299. The David at its door is a copy of Michelangelo's, which first stood here in 1504, after Ezio's day.

In the game, Ezio climbs this palace and its tower to reach his father, who talks to him through a cell window. Giovanni tells him to take papers from a hidden chest at home to Uberto Alberti, the man the game makes Gonfaloniere of Florence. But Uberto is secretly a Templar. The next day he presides in this square, claims to know nothing of the papers, and declares them guilty. Giovanni, Federico and Petruccio are hanged together in front of the palace. Ezio charges, is disarmed by a huge guard, and flees.

The cell has a real model. High in the tower is a tiny cell called the Alberghetto. Cosimo de' Medici the Elder was held there in the 1430s, before his exile, and the friar Savonarola in the spring of 1498. Find the round plaque in the pavement in front of the Neptune Fountain. It marks where Savonarola and his fellow friars were burned on 23 May 1498.

Now look up at the palace windows. Real men were hanged from them for the Pazzi plot, as you'll hear.

Ezio leaves with his father's broken hidden blade and a target. Walk along the left side of the palace on Via dei Gondi to Piazza San Firenze, then follow Borgo dei Greci east into Piazza Santa Croce. About seven minutes.