7,258,491 hotelsin 60 categories
Florence is a city you can walk across in twenty minutes and not finish for a lifetime. Its Roman origins are traditionally dated to 59 BC, when the settlement was known as Florentia, a name associated with flourishing; more than a millennium later, the city lived up to that name as one of the great centres of the Renaissance, and the proof is still stacked along these streets in marble and fresco and gilded bronze.
We at Travelmyth, the hotel search engine that ranks stays by your interests and needs across 60 stay categories, have put together this guide to what is worth your time in Florence. Florence is not defined by one landmark alone. It is the Duomo, the David, the Uffizi and the Ponte Vecchio all at once, alongside churches full of tombs, a palace and garden across the river, and a hilltop terrace with the view you have already seen on a postcard. The seven biggest sights each have their own in-depth guide; everything else we cover here.
Start with the thing you can see from almost everywhere. Florence Cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, was begun in 1296 and consecrated in 1436, and the church itself is free to walk into.
The reason to plan ahead is the climb. Brunelleschi's dome, built between 1420 and 1436, is still the largest masonry dome ever raised, and getting to the top means 463 steps with no lift. Next to it, Giotto's Campanile is a separate climb of its own. We cover the whole complex, the cathedral, the dome, the bell tower, the Baptistery with Ghiberti's gilded Gates of Paradise, and which of the three passes to buy, in a dedicated Duomo guide.
The building was constructed between 1560 and 1580 as the Medici’s administrative offices, and that is exactly what its name means; it later became the Medici family gallery. It opened to the public in 1769 and is now one of the most visited art galleries in Italy.
Inside hangs an extraordinary concentration of Renaissance painting: Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera, Leonardo's Annunciation, Michelangelo's Doni Tondo, Titian's Venus of Urbino and Caravaggio's Bacchus. It rewards a plan more than almost any museum we know, so our Uffizi guide covers tickets, the works worth queuing for and where in the building to find them.
The David is five metres of Carrara marble that Michelangelo carved between 1501 and 1504, from a block other sculptors had abandoned. He shows David in the moment before the fight, not after, the sling already over one shoulder.
The statue in Piazza della Signoria is a copy; the original moved to the Galleria dell'Accademia in 1873, and seeing it there is the point. The Accademia also keeps Michelangelo's unfinished Prisoners, half-emerged from their stone. Our David and Accademia guide covers tickets, timing and what else is in the building.
Piazza della Signoria is the rare great square that doubles as a free open-air sculpture gallery. Under the Loggia dei Lanzi stand Cellini's bronze Perseus holding Medusa's head and Giambologna's twisting Rape of the Sabine Women; nearby is the Neptune Fountain the locals nicknamed il Biancone. This is the square where Savonarola lit his Bonfire of the Vanities and was himself burned at the stake in 1498.
Built between 1299 and 1314 as the seat of Florentine civic power, Palazzo Vecchio remains the city's town hall today, its 94-metre tower visible across the centre. Our Palazzo Vecchio guide covers the painted Hall of the Five Hundred, the secret passages, the tower climb and every statue on the square.
The Ponte Vecchio is the oldest bridge in Florence across the Arno; the version you cross today was rebuilt in 1345 at the river's narrowest point. Its shops have been associated with gold since 1593-94, when Ferdinando I de' Medici pushed out the butchers and brought in goldsmiths and jewellers.
It is also the only bridge in Florence the retreating German army left standing in August 1944. It is free to walk across at any hour, and our Ponte Vecchio guide covers its history, the Vasari Corridor running above the shops, and the best spot to photograph it.
Across the river, the Pitti Palace was started in the mid-15th century by the banker Luca Pitti and bought by the Medici in 1550 as their grand-ducal home. It now holds several museums, the Palatine Gallery with its Raphaels and Titians among them.
Behind the palace, the Boboli Gardens climb the hillside in a landscape of avenues, fountains, sculptures and grottos. One combined ticket covers both, and most visitors run out of time for the second; our Pitti and Boboli guide explains how to plan the half-day.
The view you picture when you picture Florence is taken from Piazzale Michelangelo, a terrace the architect Giuseppe Poggi laid out in 1869 on the hill across the Arno. Most people come up for sunset and leave.
Just above it sits San Miniato al Monte, begun in 1018 and one of the finest Romanesque churches in Tuscany, and the Rose Garden spills down the slope below. Our Piazzale Michelangelo guide treats the three together, with the bus routes, the walking paths and when to go.
If the Uffizi is Florence's painting, the Bargello is its sculpture. It fills Florence's oldest public palace, built in 1255 and later the city prison, and its star is Donatello's bronze David, the first freestanding nude male sculpture made since antiquity. It is quieter than the big galleries and rarely needs a long queue.
Santa Croce is the largest Franciscan church in the world, and it doubles as a national mausoleum: Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli are all buried under one roof, and Giotto frescoed two of its chapels. The square outside is one of the city's great open spaces.
The church by the main station hides one of the most important facades in architecture: Leon Battista Alberti's green-and-white marble front is widely considered the first Renaissance facade, and inside hangs Masaccio's Trinity.
A few steps away is the Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella, whose roots go back to Dominican friars in 1221 and which opened to the public in 1612; it still trades, and you can buy its scents in the shop.
San Lorenzo was the Medici's parish church, financed by the family from 1419 with Brunelleschi as architect. Behind it are the Medici Chapels, where Michelangelo designed the New Sacristy and the later Chapel of the Princes became the dynasty's marble mausoleum.
Cross to the south bank and the city loosens into the Oltrarno, the artisans' quarter, where workshops still gild frames and bind books. Its parish church, Santo Spirito, was designed by Brunelleschi. Nearby, in Santa Maria del Carmine, the Brancacci Chapel holds the frescoes Masaccio and Masolino painted in the 1420s that taught a generation of painters how to use perspective and light.
For lunch, the Mercato Centrale is the place: a 19th-century iron-and-glass hall designed by Giuseppe Mengoni in 1874, food stalls below and a busy upper floor. Around it sprawls the San Lorenzo leather market, and over near the Uffizi is the Mercato Nuovo, where visitors rub the nose of the bronze boar, Il Porcellino, and drop a coin for good luck.
If you have time beyond the headline sights, a few more reward it. Palazzo Strozzi, built from 1489 by a family who were rivals of the Medici, is now the city's leading venue for big exhibitions. Palazzo Medici Riccardi, the family's home from 1444, hides Benozzo Gozzoli's jewel-box Chapel of the Magi. Orsanmichele, a 14th-century grain market turned church, carries guild statues around its outer walls. The Galileo Museum and the Museo di San Marco are each worth an hour if you have one to spare.
Some of the best of Florence costs nothing. Look for the wine windows, the little arched hatches in palace walls, around 170 of them across the city, that vineyard owners once used to sell wine straight to the street. The great squares are free to sit in, the churches' facades free to admire, and the view from Piazzale Michelangelo free to anyone who climbs the hill.
Florence is also one of the easiest bases for exploring Tuscany. Siena is about an hour and a half away by bus or train; Lucca about the same by direct train; Pisa, San Gimignano and the vineyards of Chianti are all comfortable day trips. Fiesole, the hill town just above the city, sits close enough to be an afternoon.
Most of central Florence sits within a 30 to 40 minute walking radius, and the historic centre is largely pedestrianised, so comfortable shoes matter more than a transport pass.
A few timing notes save a lot of frustration. Many major state museums, including the Uffizi, Accademia, Bargello and Pitti Palace, close on Mondays; Boboli Gardens usually follow a different schedule, with closure on the first and last Monday of each month, so check the official hours before planning. These state museums and gardens are free on the first Sunday of each month, which is wonderful value and very busy. Churches enforce a dress code: knees and shoulders covered. Spring and autumn are the kindest seasons; from April to October the city fills up.
When you start thinking about where to base yourself, Travelmyth lists stays across Florence and lets you filter by what actually matters to your trip: a boutique-style room in the Oltrarno, somewhere with a rooftop pool for the summer, a stay taking steps towards sustainability. You can browse the options at Travelmyth's Florence page and combine any two of the filters to narrow it down.