THE BASILICA WITH NO FACADE: SAN LORENZO
The title of oldest church in Florence is a contentious one, many churches lay claim to it, but there isn't enough concrete evidence to definitively determine which is the oldest. One of these is the Basilica of San Lorenzo, its first mention in the historical record dates to 393 when it was consecrated as the city's cathedral.
WHAT IS THE RENAISSANCE, WHY DOES IT MATTER?
The world we know would not exist as we know it without the Renaissance. We might still be living in a world dominated by the church, thinking that the sun revolves around the Earth. There might have been no printing press, no banking, no scientific method, no republican-democracies.