Florence

The Duomo, center of it all

The Duomo — officially the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore — appears suddenly at the end of a narrow street. Its white, green and pink marble facade wasn’t finished until the 19th century. The real star is the dome, 45.5 meters across, which Filippo Brunelleschi took on in 1420 and completed in 1436. On the way up you pass right beside the Last Judgment that Vasari and Zuccari painted on the inner ceiling between 1572 and 1579, and from the top you can see the Palazzo Vecchio tower beyond the red roofs.

From the Uffizi to the Ponte Vecchio

The Uffizi Gallery is housed in a building Giorgio Vasari designed, built between 1560 and 1580. After Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, stand at a corridor window and you’ll look down on the Ponte Vecchio, framed like a painting. The Vasari Corridor, which Vasari built in 1565, is an elevated passage about 750 meters long that let the Medici move between Palazzo Vecchio and Palazzo Pitti across the river without being seen. Closed in 2016 for safety work, it’s now restored, and you can walk it with a special ticket booked in advance. The Ponte Vecchio was rebuilt in 1345. From 1593, goldsmiths took over the spots once held by butchers and fishmongers. In August 1944, when the retreating Germans blew up the city’s bridges, it was the only one in Florence left intact.

Santa Croce, where the greats rest

Michelangelo, Galileo Galilei, Machiavelli and Rossini all lie in the Basilica of Santa Croce. Dante’s tomb is a memorial put up in 1830 — his remains are still in Ravenna. The basilica was badly damaged when the Arno flooded in 1966 and went through years of restoration. Every June the square in front turns into a sand-covered pitch. Calcio Storico, an old form of football dating back to the 16th century, pits teams of 27 from the city’s four historic quarters against each other. The matches are held around the feast of the patron saint, St. John, on June 24, and the winning team takes home a young Chianina cow.

Oltrarno and the sunset hill

Cross the Ponte Vecchio and you’re in the Oltrarno, which means “beyond the Arno.” It’s a neighborhood of workshops and small restaurants, and on the hill behind Palazzo Pitti spread the Boboli Gardens, once the Medici family’s garden. Toward sunset, climb up to Piazzale Michelangelo. Giuseppe Poggi designed it as a tribute to Michelangelo, so a bronze copy of David stands in the middle, with the Duomo and the Arno’s bridges catching the evening light beyond it. A little higher, at San Miniato al Monte, the monks sing Vespers in Latin Gregorian chant every day at 6:30 p.m.

At the Florentine table

The city’s signature dish is bistecca alla fiorentina: a T-bone 3–4 cm thick and 1.5–2 kg in weight, so it’s usually shared, and it’s browned outside and left rare inside. One story goes back to 1565, when an ox was roasted whole in Piazza San Lorenzo and shared out for the wedding of the Duke of Florence’s daughter: English knights at the feast saw the meat and shouted “beef-steak!”, and that’s where the name came from. On the street, look for lampredotto, part of a cow’s stomach cooked in broth and tucked into a roll. Vendors dip the top of the bread back into the broth, and you can choose salsa verde or chili oil on top. The San Lorenzo market’s iron-and-glass building went up in 1874, and in 2014 the Mercato Centrale food hall opened inside it. The small arched openings in old buildings are wine windows (buchette del vino), once used to pass wine through the wall. In 1634, right after the plague, the scholar Francesco Rondinelli wrote about how well they helped prevent contagion.

Arriving and getting around

Amerigo Vespucci Airport is 5 km from the center. Tram T2 runs every 5 minutes and gets you downtown in about 20, and taxis charge a flat €28 to the historic center (luggage, night and holiday surcharges extra). A single bus or tram ticket is valid for 90 minutes and costs €2 from August 2026. From Rome, high-speed trains reach Santa Maria Novella, the main station, in 1 hour 32 minutes on average, and every high-speed ticket requires a seat reservation. Wherever you stay, you’ll pay a city tourist tax (imposta di soggiorno) on top of the room rate. It’s charged per person per night, only up to 7 consecutive nights, and children under 12 are exempt.

A 3-night, 4-day plan

Day 1 — Arrive at Santa Maria Novella → lunch at Mercato Centrale → the Duomo and dome climb → evening stroll in Piazza della Signoria Day 2 — Uffizi Gallery → cross the river via the Vasari Corridor → Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens → sunset at Piazzale Michelangelo → Vespers at San Miniato Day 3 — David at the Galleria dell’Accademia → Basilica of Santa Croce → dinner in the Oltrarno Day 4 — Day trip to Bologna, about 35 minutes by high-speed train, or to Pisa by train

What to eat

• Bistecca alla fiorentina (T-bone steak)
• Lampredotto (tripe sandwich)
• Ribollita (bread and vegetable soup)
• Schiacciata (focaccia-like flatbread)

Handy tips

• The cathedral itself is free and needs no booking, but the dome and the other monuments of the Duomo complex require you to book an entry time when you buy your ticket.
• A full-price Uffizi ticket is €25 on the day or €29 in advance, since booking adds a fee. Entry from 4 p.m. costs €16, and the gallery is closed on Mondays.
• The historic center is a ZTL (limited traffic zone): you can’t drive in without a permit Mon–Fri 7:30–20:00 and Sat 7:30–16:00, and from the first Thursday of April to the first Sunday of October also Thu–Sat from 23:00 to 3:00 the next morning. Cameras read every plate, so drive in by mistake in a rental car and a fine can follow you home.