Florence, Tuscany, Italy
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39 Best things to see & do in Florence
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Bucket List Experience
Experience
One of Florence’s two big-name art museums, home to a world-class collection of 14th- and 15th-century art, and Michelangelo’s iconic masterpiece David.
Adult price: 10
Good for age: 18+
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Bucket List Experience
Experience
The world’s largest and most important collection of Renaissance and Mannerist art, home to 5,400 works spans art history from ancient Greece through to 18th-century Venetian painting.
Adult price: 10
Good for age: 18+
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Bucket List Experience
Experience
Florence is known as the cradle of the Renaissance, and it’s home to a wealth of buildings belonging to that era – the finest examples of Renaissance architecture anywhere.
Good for age: 18+
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Bucket List Experience
Experience
Florence’s great cathedral (duomo) – crowned by Brunelleschi’s ground-breaking dome – is the city’s religious heart.
Adult price: 16
Good for age: 18+
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Bucket List Experience
Experience
Florence’s religious buildings are filled with an extraordinary legacy of art treasures by masters such as Giotto, Masaccio, the Lippis and Michelangelo.
Good for age: 18+
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Bucket List Experience
Experience
Housed in the city’s most imposing palazzo, Florence’s second-largest art gallery is home to masterpieces by Raphael, Rubens, Botticelli and Van Dyck.
Adult price: 9
Good for age: 18+
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Bucket List Experience
Experience
Destination expert Nicky Swallow summarises Florence’s typical foods, ingredients and flavours, cooking styles, dining scene and best foodie experiences.
Good for age: 18+
Duration: -
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Bucket List Experience
Experience
Dresses to impress at this museum dedicated to 90 years at the forefront of fashion. Admire gowns worn to the Oscars, along with oddities such as Gucci bicycles, sledges and scuba-diving fins.
Adult price: 6
Good for age: 8+
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Bucket List Experience
Experience
A ride down the river Arno in a traditional wooden boat or ‘barchetto’ is one of the more unusual ways to see the city.
Adult price: 45
Good for age: 4+
Duration: 1 hour
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Bucket List Experience
Experience
An eclectic, world-class collection of sculpture, decorative arts and Renaissance masterpieces, housed in a former fortified prison.
Adult price: 6
Good for age: 18+
Ponte Vecchio
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
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Florence’s oldest bridge spans the Arno at its narrowest point and was spared from bombing by the retreating Germans after World War II. Thronged with tourists, it is famous for its glittering gold shops which replaced the original foul-smelling butcher’s shops in the 1590s.
Good for age: 18+
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Bucket List Experience
Experience
Fascinating science museum holding a collection of 1,000+ scientific instruments and related objects – including two fingers belonging to Galileo.
Adult price: 9
Good for age: 8+
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Bucket List Experience
Experience
A small museum displaying rotating exhibits from Salvatore Ferragamo’s archives of 10,000 shoes, made in everything from cellophane to gold. Florence’s legendary shoemaker to the stars.
Adult price: 6
Good for age: 8+
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
Florence is long famed for its crafts – wander this charming, authentic neighbourhood and observe the city’s artisans working as they have for centuries.
Good for age: 18+
Duration: 2-3 hours
Palazzo Strozzi
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
This 16th-century palazzo is home to one of Italy’s most innovative public art galleries. Rotating exhibitions showcase artists as diverse as Jeff Koons, Ai Wei-Wei and Bill Viola and Bronzino, Donatello and Pontormo. The ‘Strozzino’ gallery in the basement focuses on contemporary art and peripheral cultural events.
Adult price: 13
Good for age: 18+
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
This shady green oasis in the centre of Florence is one of the most beautiful gardens in Italy and makes a wonderful escape on a hot, summer’s day.
Adult price: 5
Good for age: 13+
Palazzo Vecchio
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
This imposing palace on Piazza della Signoria has been at the centre of power in Florence since its construction in 1299 and still functions as the town hall. Now partly a museum, its sumptuously decorated rooms reveal magnificent frescoes, coffered ceilings and hidden chambers. Book skip-the-line tickets online here.
Adult price: 8
Good for age: 18+
Santa Maria Novella Pharmacy
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
This famous pharmacy, established by Dominican friars in Florence in 1221 and housed in a 13th-century frescoed chapel, has served up herbal remedies and therapeutic treatments to Florentines for centuries. The signature soaps, potpourri, lotions, potions and herbal remedies make brilliant gifts to take home.
Good for age: 18+
Florence Gelato Festival
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
Gelato (ice cream) was invented in Florence in the 16th-century, where it first appeared during banquets at the Medici court. For five days in late May, this festival celebrates this fact with a festival dedicated to all things gelato (including frozen cocktails).
Good for age: 8+
Duration: 5 days
When: Late May
Freq: annually
Baptistery of St John
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Bucket List Experience
Experience
The octagonal, Romanesque Baptistery, thought to originate in the Dark Ages, is one of Florence’s oldest buildings. It is famous for its three sets of ornate bronze doors although the ones you see today are copies (the originals are in the Cathedral Works Museum).
Adult price: 4
Good for age: 18+
Florence’s Central Market
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
The first floor of Florence’s traditional produce market, Centrale Mercato, was transformed in 2014 into a dazzling food hall where producers offer everything from freshly-made mozzarella, truffle pasta, barbequed ribs, artisan bread and cheeses to hand-made chocolates. Pair a guided tour (to find ingredients) with a Tuscan cooking class after.
Good for age: 18+
Brancacci Chapel
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
This side chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine church (separate entrance) is decorated with world-class frescoes by 15th-century artists Masaccio, Masolino and Filippino Lippi. Highlights of these seminal works which profoundly influenced the Florentine Renaissance include Masolino’s Temptation of Adam and Eve and Masaccio’s The Tribute Money. Book ahead to climb up and see them up close.
Adult price: 7
Good for age: 18+
HZERO Model Railway Collection
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
An ex-cinema houses the fabulous private model railway collection belonging to the late Marchese di San Giuliano. The centrepiece is a 280-square metre model, one of the largest in Europe; the landscaping (from mountains to seascapes) is exquisite.
Adult price: 12
Good for age: 4+
Magi Chapel
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
Benozzo Gozzoli’s glorious fresco depicting the Procession of the Magi dates from 1459 and covers the tiny ‘Cappella dei Magi’ in Palazzo Medici-Riccardi. Painted in brilliant jewel colours, it shows a procession of richly-attired kings, knights and servants travelling through a fairytale rural landscape.
Adult price: 6
Good for age: 18+
Maggio Musicale Festival
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
Italy’s oldest musical festival and one of its most prestigious features an ever-enticing world-class offering of opera and concerts in the 1,800-seater Teatro dell Opera, supported by the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino orchestra and chorus. A must for classical music buffs.
Adult price: 20
Good for age: 18+
Duration: 3 months
When: mid-April - mid-July
Freq: annually
Scoppio del Carro
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
This traditional Easter festival sees a towering cart laden with fireworks pulled through the city by white oxen accompanied by a procession of flag throwers and drummers in colourful Renaissance garb. In Piazza del Duomo, a mechanical dove swoops down from the cathedral to light the blue touchpaper.
Good for age: 10+
Duration: 1 day
When: Easter Sunday
Freq: annually
Taste Florence Festival
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
Committed foodies should look out for this annual food and drink fair held in late March that attracts producers, buyers – and droves of foodie punters – from all over Italy and beyond. Held in Fortezza da Basso.
Good for age: 18+
Duration: One weekend
When: Late March
Freq: annually
MaMa Florence Cooking School
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
For visitors who want to learn to make as well as eat the local specialities, this cooking school is a good place to start. Hands-on classes taught by pro chefs include making pasta, pizza, gelato, Tuscan meat and vegetarian. You can opt to tour the Central Market first too.
Adult price: 100
Good for age: 13+
Duration: 3-4 hours
When: Daily
Freq: daily
Gelateria della Passera
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
This hole-in-the-wall ice cream shop (on pretty Piazza della Passera in the Oltrarno) dishes up some of the best gelato in the city centre, all made in small batches from fresh ingredients and without any kind of artificial flavourings. Think pistachio, pink grapefruit, zabaglione and coffee; flavours move with the seasons.
Good for age: 4+
Procacci
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
A historic, atmospheric old café famous for its tiny, delicate truffle sandwiches, best sampled with a glass of the house (Antinori) fizz. You can also buy fresh truffles here when in season.
Good for age: 18+
Pasticceria Dolci e Dolcezze
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
This tiny, off-piste café and pasticceria with its old-fashioned atmosphere and green boiserie makes some of the best cakes and pastries in the city. It’s famous for its divine flourless chocolate cake, but also for fruit tarts, puff pastry sfoglie, buttery croissant and excellent coffee.
Good for age: 18+
Le Volpi e l’Uva
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
This small wine bar specialises in wines from small, independent producers and always has something interesting on offer. Order one of the bubbling, melted cheese-topped crostini to soak it up; the one with truffle-infused sausage is particularly good.
Good for age: 18+
Basilica of Santa Trinita
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
The beautiful but little-visited 14th-century Santa Trinita (Holy Trinity) houses several artistic gems. The Sassetti chapel has scenes from the life of St. Francis (1495) by Ghirlandaio while the altarpiece shows his famous Adoration of the Shepherds (1485). Lorenzo Monaco decorated the Bartolini-Salimbene chapel in 1422.
Good for age: 18+
Basilica of San Lorenzo
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
Brunelleschi’s 1420 church of San Lorenzo was commissioned by the Medici, but Michelangelo’s projected façade was left unfinished, hence the rough brick you see today. The classical grey and white interior houses several masterworks including two bronze pulpits by Donatello. Michelangelo’s adjacent Laurentian library is a must-see. Book a private guided tour here.
Adult price: 6
Good for age: 18+
Basilica of Santa Maria Novella
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
Crowned by Alberti’s magnificent, swirling marble façade, this lofty Dominican church with its ranks of striped columns, houses several extraordinary works of art including Masaccio’s seminal Trinità fresco (1424-25), Giotto’s Crucifix (ca. 1300), and frescoes (1485-90) in the Sanctuary. Book a private guided tour here.
Adult price: 6
Good for age: 18+
Basilica of Santo Spirito
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
Brunelleschi’s last church – with its iconic blank façade-was mostly completed after the architect’s death in 1442. Its vast, serene grey and white interior features 35 columns in pietra serena, 38 chapels and an elaborate high alter. Look out for Filippino Lippi’s Madonna and Child with Saints.
Adult price: 2
Good for age: 18+
Basilica of Santa Croce
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
Built in 1294, Santa Croce is the largest Franciscan basilica in Italy and is famed for its frescoes by Giotto in the Bardi and Peruzzi chapels. It was the favoured burial place of many past illustrious citizens including Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Ghiberti and Rossini. Book an entry ticket here, or a private guided tour here.
Adult price: 7
Good for age: 18+
Basilica of San Miniato al Monte
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Experience
Perched on a hill with spectacular city views, this 1,000-year-old church houses a 13th-century mosaic in the apse, frescoes by Paolo Uccello and an intricate intarsia marble floor featuring zodiac symbols. Catch the Gregorian chant at 5.30pm (4.30pm in winter), then take in the sunset views.
Good for age: 18+