Florence

Florence is small — you can cross the historic centre on foot in twenty minutes — and it holds a concentration of art that no other city of 360,000 people comes close to. The Renaissance began here, was paid for here by the Medici, and largely stayed here: Botticelli and Leonardo in the Uffizi, Michelangelo's David in the Accademia, Brunelleschi's dome over the whole thing. The flip side is pressure. Around 16 million visitors a year pass through that same twenty-minute square, so the difference between a good Florence trip and a bad one is almost entirely about timing.

It is the single densest concentration of Renaissance art on earth, and unlike a museum city it still functions — leather workshops, paper marblers and goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio are working businesses. It is also the best base in Italy for hill towns and wine country: Siena, San Gimignano, Chianti and the Val d'Orcia are all inside two hours.

We already publish a full guide to Florence — read it here →

Things to do

• The Uffizi — Botticelli's Primavera and Birth of Venus, Leonardo's Annunciation, Caravaggio's Medusa. Book the first slot; three hours is enough for the highlights.
• Brunelleschi's Dome — 463 steps between the two shells of the largest masonry dome ever built, coming out at 91 m. Booked slots only, and it sells out days ahead in summer.
• Michelangelo's David at the Accademia — Worth it despite the copy in the Piazza della Signoria — the scale and the unfinished Slaves in the corridor are the point.
• The Bargello — Donatello's David, Michelangelo's Bacchus and the competition panels that started the Renaissance — and almost no queue.
• Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens — The Medici's later palace and the garden that Versailles copied. Go for the gardens on a clear afternoon.
• Piazzale Michelangelo at sunset — The postcard view. Walk up through the Rose Garden rather than taking the bus, and carry on to San Miniato al Monte for Gregorian vespers.
• The Oltrarno workshops — Gold-beaters, marblers, shoemakers and frame-gilders still working on Via Santo Spirito and Via Maggio — most will let you watch.

Tickets & tours

Bookable now through our ticketing partner.

• Accademia Gallery: Skip The Line From £26.44 · 4.4/10
• Accademia Gallery: Priority Entrance Ticket From £19.18 · 3.8/10
• Florence: Leonardo da Vinci Interactive Museum® Ticket and an Audio City Tour From £11.94 · 4.5/10
• Florence: Palazzo Vecchio Audio Tour From £5.97
• The Synagogue and Jewish Museum of Florence: Entry Ticket From £7.72 · 4.5/10
• Accademia Gallery: Priority Entry Ticket From £26.44 · 4.3/10
• Museo Nazionale del Bargello: Skip The Line Ticket From £15.29 · 4.6/10
• Brunelleschi Dome & Cathedral: Premium Skip The Line Ticket From £44.52 · 4.4/10

3 days in Florence

1. Day 1 The Renaissance core

   Duomo complex at opening — baptistery doors, cathedral, and the booked dome climb. Late morning at the Bargello. Lunch near Santa Croce. Afternoon: the Uffizi on a booked slot, out along the Vasari corridor side of the Arno at dusk over the Ponte Vecchio.

2. Day 2 Michelangelo and the Oltrarno

   Accademia first thing for the David, then San Marco for Fra Angelico's cell frescoes. Lunch at the Mercato Centrale. Cross the river for the Brancacci Chapel — Masaccio's frescoes, which Michelangelo came to study — then the Oltrarno workshops, aperitivo in Santo Spirito, and up to Piazzale Michelangelo for sunset.

3. Day 3 Out into Tuscany

   A day in the hills: either Siena and San Gimignano by bus, or a Chianti wine road drive from a garage at the edge of the ZTL. Back for dinner in San Niccolò.

Practical

Best time to go

Late March–May and September–October. Summer is hot (35°C is normal in July), airless in the tight streets, and the queues are at their worst. November–February is genuinely quiet, cold and often clear, and museum bookings open up — the best value months by a distance. Reserve the Uffizi and the Accademia in advance in every season; walk-up queues run to two hours in high season.

Getting there

Florence Peretola (FLR) is 20 minutes from the centre on the T2 tram. Pisa (PSA) is the bigger-budget gateway, an hour by the PisaMover plus train. Firenze Santa Maria Novella is on the high-speed spine — 1h30 to Rome, 37 minutes to Bologna, 1h50 to Milan, 2h to Venice. There is no reason to fly domestically to or from Florence.

Getting around

Walk. The centre is pedestrianised and nothing of interest is more than 25 minutes from the Duomo. Two tram lines serve the airport and the suburbs; buses are for Fiesole and the Piazzale Michelangelo climb (bus 12/13). The whole centre is a ZTL — do not drive in, and if you rent a car for Tuscany, collect it from a garage at the edge of the zone.

Eat & drink

Tuscan cooking is famously austere and famously good: bistecca alla fiorentina (a T-bone, thick, rare, sold by weight and meant for two), ribollita, pappa al pomodoro, crostini di fegatini. Lampredotto — tripe in a bun from a street cart — is the local lunch and better than it sounds. The Mercato Centrale's ground floor is a real food market in the morning; the upstairs food hall is fine but touristy. Sant'Ambrogio market and the Oltrarno are where Florentines actually eat.

Know before you go

Restaurants immediately around the Duomo and on the Ponte Vecchio approaches are almost uniformly poor value. 'Bistecca' under €40/kg is not Chianina beef. Museum queues divide into ticket-holders and everyone else — the difference is two hours. The Duomo's dome climb (463 steps, no lift) must be booked with a timed slot and is not for the claustrophobic.