Florence

Overview

Florence is small. You can walk from the train station to the Ponte Vecchio in about 15 minutes, and almost everything a first-time visitor wants to see sits inside a historic center you could cross in half an hour. What makes it hard is density and demand: more great Renaissance art per block than anywhere on earth, and millions of visitors trying to see the same five things between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

The fix is planning. Book the Uffizi, the Accademia and the Duomo dome before you fly, see the big sights early or late in the day, and leave afternoons for the Oltrarno, the markets and wandering.

Florence is the capital of Tuscany and the natural base for day trips to Siena, Pisa, Lucca and Chianti. It also pairs well with Rome and Venice on the classic first trip (see planning your trip).

Booking the big three

The Uffizi, the Accademia (for Michelangelo's David) and the Duomo complex all use timed entry. Buy from the official sites below; resellers charge more, and many "skip the line" tickets are ordinary reservations with a markup.

Uffizi Galleries

The Uffizi holds Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera, Leonardo's Annunciation, Michelangelo's Doni Tondo, Caravaggio and Titian. Plan 2 to 3 hours. Entry slots start at 8:15 a.m.; it is closed Mondays.

Prices for 2026, from the official ticket page:

The €4 difference between "on the day" and "in advance" is effectively the booking fee. Pay it. Walk-up tickets exist only for slots that did not sell, and from spring through early fall those are scarce before mid-afternoon. Book at the Uffizi's official site, uffizi.it, as soon as your dates are firm; for April–October that means several weeks out.

The Vasari Corridor, the private passage the Medici built over the Ponte Vecchio to the Pitti Palace, reopened at the end of 2024 after years of restoration. Corridor tickets are personal and non-refundable, and you enter the Uffizi two hours before your corridor slot, so you see the galleries first.

Accademia Gallery (David)

The Accademia is a small museum built around one statue. Michelangelo's David stands 17 feet (5.17 m) tall at the end of a hall lined with his unfinished Prisoners, figures half-trapped in the marble. Plan 45 minutes to an hour. It is open 8:15 a.m. to 6:50 p.m. (last entry 6:20 p.m.), closed Mondays, January 1 and December 25.

A full ticket is €16 (about $18), plus a €4 (about $4.50) reservation fee. The museum says its official online channel is B-Ticket, linked from galleriaaccademiafirenze.it; you can also book by phone at +39 055 294883. Go at 8:15 a.m. or in the last two hours of the day for a calmer room.

The Duomo complex and the Brunelleschi Pass

The cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore is free to enter. Everything else (the dome climb, Giotto's bell tower, the Baptistery with Ghiberti's bronze doors, the excellent Opera del Duomo Museum and the excavations of Santa Reparata under the nave) is sold as a pass valid for 3 calendar days from the date you choose:

Children under 7 are free. Buy at tickets.duomo.firenze.it. When you buy the Brunelleschi Pass you reserve a time for the dome, and that slot is the thing that sells out: in October 2026 mid-month dome times were gone weeks ahead. Book the dome first and build the rest of your Florence days around it. Passes are non-refundable.

The dome climb is about 463 steps, narrow in places, with a walkway inside the dome under Vasari's Last Judgment frescoes before the final scramble between the two shells. The bell tower is 414 steps with no elevator but three landings to rest on, and its top has the best view of the dome itself. Neither climb suits anyone with heart trouble, vertigo or claustrophobia.

More sights in the center

The big three get the crowds, but some of Florence's best rooms are a short walk away and much calmer. Most state museums close on Mondays; the city-run museums and the churches mostly do not, which makes Monday the day for churches, Palazzo Vecchio and the Duomo complex.

The Oltrarno and the views

Across the river, the Oltrarno ("beyond the Arno") still feels like a neighborhood. Gilders, frame makers, bookbinders and shoemakers work in open workshops around Via Maggio and Santo Spirito, whose piazza has a morning market and, after dark, the city's most relaxed bar scene.

Farther west, San Frediano is quieter, with trattorias full of Florentines. The Brancacci Chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine holds Masaccio's frescoes, which taught the Renaissance about weight and light; visits are timed and short, so check booking rules.

Piazzale Michelangelo and San Miniato

The classic sunset view is from Piazzale Michelangelo, a 20-minute uphill walk from the Ponte alle Grazie or a ride on city bus 12 or 13. It is a big parking lot full of tour buses and souvenir stands, with an excellent view. Keep walking up another 10 minutes to the Romanesque church of San Miniato al Monte, which has the same view, far fewer people, and monks who sing the evening office in Gregorian chant (check the church's current schedule).

On a hot evening, take the city bus up to Fiesole, the hill town above Florence, for its Roman theater and a cooler view down the valley. The ride takes about 25 minutes.

Where to stay

Stay inside or right at the edge of the historic center. Florence is a walking city, and a cheaper hotel on the outskirts costs you an hour a day in buses. Rates peak April–June and September–October; November to February (outside the holidays) can be half the price.

Neighborhoods

• Duomo and Signoria: walk to everything, but noisy, crowded and priced for it.
• Santa Croce: central and a bit more local, near the Sant'Ambrogio market.
• Oltrarno (Santo Spirito, San Frediano): the best choice for most couples and repeat visitors: quieter streets, better-value dinners, ten minutes' walk to the Uffizi.
• San Marco, San Lorenzo and Santa Maria Novella: near the station, with more mid-range hotels. Handy for day trips, though the blocks right around the station are the least charming in the center.

Apartments are common, but Florence has restricted new short-term rentals in the UNESCO historic center and banned the key lockboxes once used for self check-in, so expect to meet a host or go to an office for keys. Any legal rental should show its national CIN code in the listing. See where to stay in Italy for agriturismi, convents and how the rules work.

The tourist tax

Florence charges an imposta di soggiorno (tourist tax) per person per night, for up to 7 consecutive nights. It rises with the hotel's star rating, up to €8 (about $9) per person per night in five-star hotels, and is €6 (about $7) in short-term rentals. Children under 12 are exempt.

Arriving and getting around

By train

Almost every visitor arrives at Firenze Santa Maria Novella (SMN), the main station, a 10-minute walk from the Duomo. Frecciarossa (Trenitalia) and Italo high-speed trains reach it in about 1 hr 30 min from Rome, about 2 hr from Milan and about 2 hr 5 min from Venice. Book high-speed trains ahead for the cheapest fares; regional trains to Pisa, Lucca, Siena and Arezzo have fixed prices and do not need booking. Some high-speed trains stop only at Firenze Campo di Marte or Rifredi, so check your ticket. See getting around Italy.

By air

Florence's small airport (FLR, called Peretola) has flights from European hubs, not from the US. Tram T2 runs from the airport to Unità, beside SMN station, in about 20 minutes. From Pisa airport (PSA), the PisaMover shuttle reaches Pisa Centrale in about 5 minutes and regional trains to Florence take about an hour. For US nonstops via Rome and Milan, see flights.

In the city

Walk. The center is flat and compact, and buses skip most of its streets anyway. On city buses and the tram you can tap a contactless bank card on the reader instead of buying a paper ticket. Taxis wait at ranks (the station, Piazza della Repubblica, Piazza Santa Croce) and do not stop when hailed; call or use an app such as itTaxi.

The ZTL: do not drive into Florence

The whole historic center is a Zona a Traffico Limitato (ZTL, limited traffic zone). Cameras at every entrance photograph your plate, and if your car is not on the permit list you get a fine for each pass, typically upward of €80 (about $90), plus an administration fee from your rental company that arrives months later on your credit card. The daytime zone runs roughly 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and into the afternoon on Saturdays, and a night zone operates on some summer evenings; times and rules change, so check the city's live information before you go anywhere near the center.

Eating and drinking

Florentine food is plain and generous: bread, beans, olive oil and grilled meat. Tuscan bread is made without salt, to go with salty cured meats, and stale bread becomes soups like ribollita (bread and black-kale soup) and pappa al pomodoro (tomato and bread soup).

• Bistecca alla fiorentina: a thick T-bone, grilled rare, sold by weight (often per kilo). One steak usually feeds two or three. The menu price is per kilo, so ask how much your steak weighs before it is cooked. Florentines will not cook it well done.
• Lampredotto: slow-cooked tripe in a bun with green sauce, sold from street carts and at Da Nerbone inside the Mercato Centrale. Better than it sounds.
• Schiacciata: Tuscan flatbread stuffed as a sandwich. All'Antico Vinaio on Via dei Neri has the famous line; plenty of places nearby are as good.
• Gelato: Vivoli and Gelateria dei Neri near Santa Croce are long-standing favorites. Skip the towering neon mounds on the main tourist streets.

Classic trattorias include Trattoria Sostanza (butter chicken and steak, book ahead) and, in the Oltrarno, Trattoria Cammillo. The Mercato Centrale in San Lorenzo has a ground-floor food market (mornings) and an upstairs food hall open into the evening; the Sant'Ambrogio market near Santa Croce is smaller and more local.

Dinner starts around 8 p.m., and many kitchens close between lunch (roughly 12:30–2:30 p.m.) and dinner. For Chianti and the other Tuscan reds on every list, see wine.

Sample days

This plan assumes three full days, a Brunelleschi Pass, and that day 1 is not a Monday. Swap days around to fit your bookings.

1. Day 1

   The Duomo and David

   Accademia at 8:15 a.m., before the groups, then San Marco for Fra Angelico. Late morning, the Baptistery and the Opera del Duomo Museum, with the original Baptistery doors and Michelangelo's late Pietà. Lunch near the Mercato Centrale, the dome on your reserved slot, then the cathedral. Evening passeggiata (stroll) to Piazza della Signoria.

2. Day 2

   The Uffizi and the Oltrarno

   Uffizi at opening, or the 4 p.m. ticket if you prefer evenings. Cross the Ponte Vecchio and lunch in the Oltrarno. Afternoon in the Pitti Palace or simply in the Boboli Gardens. Walk up to San Miniato al Monte for sunset and dinner in San Frediano.

3. Day 3

   Sculpture, churches and a view

   Bargello in the morning, then Santa Croce. Lunch at the Sant'Ambrogio market. Afternoon at Palazzo Vecchio or the Medici Chapels, then Giotto's bell tower late in the day (still covered by your 3-day pass). Final dinner and a glass of wine on Piazza Santo Spirito.

4. Day 4

   A day out

   Bus to Siena, train to Lucca, or a small-group Chianti wine tour so nobody has to drive. See Tuscany.

When to go

April through early June and mid-September through October bring highs of roughly 65–80°F (18–27°C), along with the biggest crowds and highest prices; Easter week is packed. July and August in the Arno valley often top 93°F (34°C). Winter is damp, with highs around 50°F (10°C), but the museums are calm and hotels cheaper.

Fixed events include the Scoppio del Carro (a cart of fireworks set off at the cathedral on Easter Sunday) and the Calcio Storico, a brutal costumed football tournament in Piazza Santa Croce that ends on June 24, the feast of St. John. See when to go and festivals.

What trips people up

Beyond Monday closures, an unbooked dome and the ZTL, these catch visitors most often:

• Eating on church steps or monument steps. The city fines people for picnicking in some central spots, and many church steps are off-limits for sitting with food.
• Pickpockets on crowded buses, in the Duomo area and around the station. Keep phones and wallets in front pockets or a zipped bag. See safety.
• Bistecca sticker shock. The menu price is per kilo; ask about the weight.
• Train validation. Paper regional tickets without a set time must be validated in the green or white machines before you board. See getting around.

See also art and churches and shopping, including how to tell real leather.