Florence, Italy

Florence gets around 10 million visitors a year in a historic centre roughly three kilometres across. April through September, the main sites are genuinely difficult to enjoy. The Uffizi, the Accademia, and the Duomo complex are the obvious anchors; around them, most of those visitors cluster in the same six blocks. The rest of Florence is much quieter. Understanding this geography is the most useful thing for a first-time visitor to know.

The Main Sites, Done Properly

The Uffizi Gallery holds the Botticelli rooms (Birth of Venus, Primavera), Raphael, Caravaggio’s Medusa, and multiple works that most people rush past on the way to what they’ve already seen in books. Book at uffizi.it at least two weeks ahead in peak season; timed entry is EUR 25. Go as close to your entry time as possible rather than waiting in the building’s heat.

The Accademia and Michelangelo’s David: the marble is 5.17 metres tall and the detail at the hands and face is finer than photographs suggest. Plan thirty minutes for the David; the museum around it is not especially interesting.

The Duomo nave is free. The cupola climb (EUR 20, online booking required) is 463 steps. Brunelleschi completed the dome in 1436 after inventing a herringbone brick technique that didn’t require conventional scaffolding. The climb is narrow; people with claustrophobia should go to Giotto’s bell tower instead.

The Museo dell’Opera del Duomo directly behind the apse is consistently underrated: Ghiberti’s original Gates of Paradise, Donatello’s wooden Mary Magdalene, Michelangelo’s unfinished Pieta Bandini. Included in the Brunelleschi Pass. Most visitors skip it.

Oltrarno

Cross the Ponte Vecchio and keep walking. The Oltrarno neighbourhood on the south bank of the Arno has small workshops (leather craftsmen, picture framers, furniture restorers), the Pitti Palace, the Boboli Gardens, and the piazzas around Santo Spirito and San Frediano where Florentines actually eat and drink in the evenings. This is the half of Florence most people skip.

Piazzale Michelangelo is worth seeing at sunrise before the tour buses arrive. After 10am it is a gift stall with a view.

Where to Eat

Everything in the immediate vicinity of the Duomo and Piazza della Repubblica has a laminated picture menu. Walk away from the tourist zone. Trattoria da Ruggero in Oltrarno does ribollita (thick Tuscan bean soup), pappardelle with wild boar, and good bistecca at around EUR 25 per head including wine. Book ahead.

All’Antico Vinaio on Via dei Neri does the best schiacciata (flatbread) sandwiches in the city. Queue, then eat standing outside. Get the one with lardo and truffle.

For bistecca alla Fiorentina (the correct T-bone, served rare), Buca Mario on Piazza Ottaviani has been in business since 1886. The steak is priced per 100 grams; check before ordering.

When to Go

September to early November: warm weather, fewer crowds. The olive harvest begins in October in the hills, and the Chianti Classico wine festival typically happens in September in Greve, 30 minutes south. If you come in summer, be at the Uffizi when it opens at 8am and move slowly through the Oltrarno the rest of the day.