Florence

Florence is a small city. The historic centre, inside the old walls, covers about 500 hectares — you can walk across it, north to south, in 35 minutes. Inside that square kilometre sits the greatest concentration of Renaissance art on earth: the Uffizi’s 2,500 paintings, the Accademia’s David, the Bargello’s Donatello bronzes, Giotto’s campanile, Brunelleschi’s dome, Santa Croce’s Florentine tombs (Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Dante-cenotaph, Rossini), Masaccio’s Trinity, Fra Angelico’s San Marco frescoes, the Medici Chapels, Ghiberti’s bronze Baptistery doors. For sixty years (roughly 1420-1480) the wealthiest banking family in Europe lived here and spent its money on art, and the result is a historic centre that UNESCO inscribed in 1982 and that now receives about 16 million visitors a year. Florence is, by most measures, the world’s single most over-visited small city.

This is a guide to seeing it anyway. The short version: book everything in advance, arrive before 8am, eat away from Ponte Vecchio, and accept that Florence in mid-July is a different experience from Florence in mid-October. All of it is worth seeing. None of it is worth queuing three hours for if you didn’t have to.

What Florence actually is

Population of the commune: 360,000. The metropolitan area: about 1.5 million. Capital of Tuscany and, for one year in the 1860s, of united Italy (before the capital moved back to Rome in 1871). The city sits on the Arno river where it widens into a flat basin between the Apennine foothills and the Chianti hills to the south.

Historically, the Roman colony of Florentia was founded in 59 BC as a veterans’ settlement; the original grid survives under the current street plan of the centro storico. Goth, Byzantine and Lombard rule through the early medieval period. Independent city-republic (the Repubblica Fiorentina) from around 1115. Florence became Europe’s richest city in the 14th and 15th centuries through wool manufacturing, textile trading, and the invention of modern banking — the Medici bank, the fiorino gold coin (from which we get the word florin, and the proof coinage of much of medieval Europe), double-entry bookkeeping, bills of exchange, and international credit networks.

The Medici ran the city continuously from 1434 until 1737 (with two interruptions). The family produced two popes (Leo X and Clement VII), two French queens, four grand dukes, and enough patronage that the majority of the art we now call Italian Renaissance was commissioned by one Medici or another. The Grand Duchy of Tuscany passed to the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty after the last Medici died without heirs in 1737; unified Italy from 1860.

Modern Florence has about a quarter of its permanent population over retirement age; the old quarters have largely emptied of families in the last twenty years as short-term rentals have taken over. This is a problem the city government is actively fighting, with recent restrictions on new Airbnb licences in the UNESCO zone from 2023 onwards.

Getting there

Florence Peretola Amerigo Vespucci (FLR) is the local airport, 5 km from the centre, reachable by tram (T2, 20 minutes, €1.70) or taxi (€22 flat rate to the centre). Limited European schedules.

Pisa Galileo Galilei (PSA) is 80 km west, bigger and cheaper, served by Ryanair and other low-cost carriers. Train from Pisa Centrale to Florence Santa Maria Novella is 50 minutes, €8.

By train, Florence is on the Milano-Roma high-speed line. Frecciarossa from Rome 1h30, from Milan 1h40, from Bologna 35 min, from Venice 2h. The main station is Firenze Santa Maria Novella, inside the centre; the smaller Campo di Marte and Rifredi handle regional traffic.

Driving into Florence is discouraged — the historic centre is a Zona a Traffico Limitato (ZTL) where non-resident cars are automatically fined €80+ per entry. Park outside the ZTL (Piazzale Montelungo, Fortezza da Basso, Villa Costanza) and walk or tram in.

The essential list

What to see, in descending order of essentiality, with practical notes on each:

The Duomo complex

The Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore — Florence Cathedral — is the defining monument of the city. Begun 1296 by Arnolfo di Cambio, completed 1436 with Brunelleschi’s dome, the green-white-pink marble façade added in the 1880s. The complex covers a single piazza (Piazza del Duomo) and contains four separate sites:

• The Cathedral itself — free entry, huge interior, Paolo Uccello’s painted equestrian monument of John Hawkwood on the north wall, and Vasari’s fresco of the Last Judgement inside the dome. Queue can be long; go at 8am or 5pm.
• Brunelleschi’s Dome — €30, timed entry, 463 steps to the top. Physically demanding, worth every step for the oculus view and the close-up of the Vasari frescoes. Book online 2-3 weeks ahead.
• Giotto’s Campanile — 414 steps, €30 (bundled with the dome in the ticket), arguably a better view than from the dome because from here you can see the dome.
• The Baptistery of San Giovanni — one of the oldest buildings in Florence (11th century, on earlier Roman foundations). The real attraction is Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise — two sets of gilded bronze doors he worked on for 27 years (1425-1452). The originals are in the Opera del Duomo museum next door; what’s on the Baptistery is a high-fidelity replica.
• Museo dell’Opera del Duomo — the best cathedral museum in Italy, containing the original Baptistery doors, Donatello’s Mary Magdalene, Michelangelo’s late Pietà, and a full-scale reconstruction of the original unfinished façade. €30 combined. Allow 90 minutes.

The combined Brunelleschi Pass (€30) gets you into all five sites over 72 hours. Buy online; don’t risk arriving and finding it sold out.

The Uffizi

The Galleria degli Uffizi is the single best collection of Italian Renaissance painting in the world. Room 10-14: Botticelli’s Primavera and Birth of Venus. Room 8: Piero della Francesca’s double portrait of Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza. Room 15: Leonardo’s Annunciation and Adoration of the Magi. Room 35: Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo — the only panel painting by Michelangelo in existence. Rooms 83-90: Caravaggio’s Medusa, Bacchus, and Sacrifice of Isaac. Plus Raphael, Titian, Parmigianino, Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino. About 2,500 works across 101 rooms.

Practical: €25 full-price ticket (€12 reduced in winter), €8 online booking fee that is genuinely non-negotiable — in summer, walk-up tickets sell out by 9am. Book 2-3 weeks ahead via uffizi.it, select a morning slot (8.15am is the first), allow 3-4 hours inside. The museum closes Mondays. Free on the first Sunday of each month, which means do not go then unless you enjoy being one of 10,000 people in the same building.

The Accademia

The Galleria dell’Accademia exists essentially to house Michelangelo’s David. The rest of the collection — the four unfinished Slaves (Prisoners), a small collection of Gothic panels, a musical instrument museum — is worth an extra hour, but the David is why you’re here, and for most people the 15 minutes standing in front of the statue is the emotional peak of the trip. €16, timed entry, sells out faster than the Uffizi. Book online a month ahead in high season.

Santa Croce

Santa Croce is the Franciscan basilica of Florence, begun 1294, finished in its essentials by 1385. It’s the largest Franciscan church in the world, and the parish church of the Florentine Republic during the Renaissance. The reason to come is the tombs — Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Rossini, Alfieri, Foscolo, Marconi, the cenotaph to Dante (his actual remains are in Ravenna, which has refused to return them since 1321; Florence has been petitioning politely for 700 years).

Also in the complex: Giotto’s fresco cycles in the Bardi and Peruzzi chapels (the Life of St Francis, 1320s), the Cimabue Crucifix (restored after 1966 flood damage), and the Pazzi Chapel — one of Brunelleschi’s most perfect small architectural exercises. €8, no queue most days. Allow 90 minutes.

Palazzo Vecchio and Piazza della Signoria

Palazzo Vecchio — the old Florentine town hall, commissioned in 1299 from Arnolfo di Cambio, still the mayor’s office today. The interior is a running catalogue of six centuries of Florentine political decoration: Vasari’s painted Salone dei Cinquecento, Michelangelo’s unfinished Genius of Victory, Donatello’s Judith and Holofernes, Verrocchio’s Putto with Dolphin. €12, self-guided. The tower climb is a separate ticket (€25 combined, additional 223 steps).

Piazza della Signoria, outside, is the open-air sculpture gallery of Florence: the replica of Michelangelo’s David, Cellini’s Perseus with the Head of Medusa under the Loggia dei Lanzi, Giambologna’s Rape of the Sabine Women, Bandinelli’s Hercules and Cacus, Ammanati’s Neptune Fountain. Free, always open.

Ponte Vecchio and the Oltrarno

Ponte Vecchio — “the old bridge” — is the only medieval bridge on the Arno surviving in anything like its original form. Built 1345 on Roman foundations, with overhanging shops that have sold jewellery since 1593 (before that, butchers and tanners — they were banned for the smell). The bridge was the only one the Germans didn’t blow up in 1944 during their retreat from Florence. The Vasari Corridor — Vasari’s 1565 private walkway built in six months for Cosimo I to walk from Palazzo Vecchio to Palazzo Pitti without exposure to the street — runs along the top of the bridge. It reopened to visitors in late 2024 after a six-year restoration.

South of the Arno is the Oltrarno — literally “beyond the Arno” — the southern half of the old city, traditionally the artisans’ quarter. Palazzo Pitti (the Medici’s largest palace, now housing the Palatina and Modern Art galleries), Boboli Gardens, the Brancacci Chapel with Masaccio’s frescoes (one of the most significant works in Early Renaissance painting — the Expulsion from Paradise and Tribute Money), and Santo Spirito — the Brunelleschi basilica that hosts one of the city’s best small Sunday morning markets in its piazza.

The Oltrarno is where I’d stay and eat. The restaurants are better-value than on the north side, the crowds thin dramatically after you cross the river, and the neighbourhood (particularly San Frediano) retains a working, non-touristy character that the north bank has lost.

San Lorenzo and the Medici Chapels

Basilica di San Lorenzo — the Medici family church, designed by Brunelleschi in 1419. The interior is pure early Renaissance geometry. Attached to the back is the Sagrestia Nuova (New Sacristy) by Michelangelo — containing his tombs of Lorenzo di Piero and Giuliano di Lorenzo de’ Medici with the Day, Night, Dawn, Dusk allegorical figures. Behind the basilica is the Cappelle Medicee, with the Chapel of the Princes (the later Medici grand-ducal tombs in elaborate pietre dure inlay) and the Michelangelo chapel. €10 combined, shorter queues than the Duomo or the Uffizi.

Just around the corner: Mercato Centrale (the big indoor food market) and Mercato di San Lorenzo (the outdoor leather market). The Mercato Centrale upstairs has been converted to a modern food court with excellent regional-Italian vendors; downstairs is the actual working food market that supplies half the restaurants in town.

Food and where to eat

Florence’s food isn’t fancy. The city’s signature dishes are peasant-robust: bread-based soups, offal, slow-cooked game, grilled meat. The trick is finding places that still do them properly rather than the tourist-trap pasta-pizza joints clustered around every major sight.

Bistecca alla Fiorentina — see the Tuscany hub. Best in town: Trattoria Sostanza (small, reservation-only, has served this since 1869), Zeb (modernised, Oltrarno), Il Latini (huge, lively, shared tables, reliable).

Trippa alla Fiorentina — tripe stewed in tomato with Parmigiano. Plus its street-food sibling, Lampredotto — the fourth stomach of the cow, slow-cooked in broth, served in a crusty roll with salsa verde or hot sauce. The lampredotto stalls (trippai) are a Florentine institution; Nerbone inside Mercato Centrale is the classic.

Pappa al Pomodoro — the summer bread soup. Ribollita — the winter version.

Crostini di Fegatini — chicken-liver pâté on toasted Tuscan bread. The antipasto that’s on every serious Florentine menu.

Pappardelle al Cinghiale — wide ribbons of pasta with wild boar ragu. A Tuscan classic.

Schiacciata — the Florentine flatbread, bread-based, olive-oil-rich. Eaten plain with a glass of wine or stuffed with prosciutto and pecorino as a sandwich.

The serious restaurant picks:

• Trattoria Sostanza (Via del Porcellana 25r) — 1869 institution. Bistecca, pollo al burro (butter chicken), a 10-person dining room.
• Cibrèo (Via Andrea del Verrocchio 8r) — fine dining with heirloom regional dishes. Three adjacent restaurants at different price points (Cibrèo, Trattoria Cibrèo, Caffè).
• Zeb (Via San Miniato 2r, Oltrarno) — tiny counter-only restaurant, no menu, whatever-is-good-today.
• La Casalinga (Via Michelozzi 9r, Oltrarno) — proper family trattoria, €20 gets you a full meal.
• Il Santo Bevitore (Via Santo Spirito 64r) — modernised classic cooking, excellent wine list.
• Trattoria Mario (Via Rosina 2r, near Mercato Centrale) — lunch only, lasts about 90 minutes, shared tables, still doing bistecca for €40/kg.

Street food: All’Antico Vinaio on Via dei Neri is the famous schiacciata sandwich shop (queue, but it’s fast, and good). For gelato: Gelateria dei Neri, La Carraia, Vivoli — all better than the tourist-trap ones around the major sights.

Where to stay

Four rough neighbourhoods to choose from:

Duomo / Centro Storico — walk to everything, expensive, crowded, loud at night. Good if you only have 2-3 days and want minimal walking. Hotel Brunelleschi (€400+), The Place Firenze (€500+), Hotel Berchielli (€200+).

Santa Croce / San Niccolò — quieter, still walkable, better restaurants, less tourist saturation. Villa Cora (€350+), Palazzo Magnani Feroni (€250+), Hotel Lungarno (€300+).

Oltrarno (Santo Spirito, San Frediano) — my preferred choice. Local, still residential, 10-15 min walk to the main sights, excellent restaurants, artisan shops. Hotel Lungarno Vespucci, Palazzo Guadagni (€150-250), and many mid-range boutique options.

Fiesole — the hilltop town 8 km above Florence (bus 7 from San Marco, 20 min). Cooler in summer, far quieter, excellent view back at the city, Roman amphitheatre and Etruscan remains on-site. A good base if you have a car and want peace.

How long: three nights is minimum to do Florence properly. Four-five is comfortable. More than a week and you’ll start to run out of things you haven’t seen, though the smaller museums (Museo di San Marco, Cenacolo di Sant’Apollonia, Museo Horne, Palazzo Davanzati) can absorb that extra time.

When to visit

The answer is not summer. July and August are hot (32-38°C), humid, crowded beyond belief, and the museums become unbearable. November to March is best value and most atmospheric — the queues essentially disappear, the restaurants are local-only, the light is low and flattering to the architecture. April-May and October are the shoulders — mild weather, manageable crowds, some festivals.

Dates worth planning around: Scoppio del Carro on Easter Sunday (a medieval fireworks cart lit by a mechanical dove from the Duomo altar); the Maggio Musicale opera festival May-June; Calcio Storico Fiorentino in June (medieval football, 16th-century costume, four neighbourhood teams, brutal — the finale is 24 June, Feast of San Giovanni); the Estate Fiorentina outdoor concerts July-August; Florence Biennale contemporary art fair in October (odd years).

Practical

Museum booking strategy: book Uffizi, Accademia, Brunelleschi Pass, and Palazzo Vecchio Tower online at least 2 weeks ahead in high season. Walk-ups for Santa Croce, San Lorenzo, Museo di San Marco, Bargello, Pitti, Boboli are usually fine.

The Firenze Card (€85, 72 hours) covers 60+ museums including all the big ones. It pays off if you’re doing five major sites or more. It does not skip queues for timed entry slots (Uffizi, Accademia, Dome) — those still require booking separately even with the card.

Tipping: 5-10% in restaurants is generous; the coperto (cover charge, €2-4) is automatic. Taxis: round up to the nearest euro.

Walking: Florence is flat and compact. You’ll walk 8-12 km per day. Real shoes; the medieval stone can be slippery in the rain.

For broader Tuscan context see the Tuscany hub and the Chianti guide.