Fodor's Expert Review Piazza dei Ciompi

In the 14th century, this piazza (once the site of a daily flea market) was part of a working-class neighborhood of primarily wool- and silk-trade workers. The disenfranchised wool workers, forbidden entry to the Arte della Lana (the Wool Guild, whose members included those who traded in wool), briefly seized control of the government. It was a short-lived exercise in rule by the nonrepresented and was eventually overpowered by the ruling upper class. The loggia, executed in 1567, is by Giorgio Vasari.