Galileo Museum

Where to go and what to see in Florence to get the most from your trip – a 5-day itinerary from destination expert and travel writer Nicky Swallow.

Where to go and what to see in Florence to get the most from your trip – a 3-day itinerary from destination expert and travel writer Nicky Swallow.

A heady mix of incomparable Renaissance art, gorgeous palazzos, Tuscan cuisine and home-grown haute couture.

The astonishingly beautiful region of Tuscany has it all: art cities and ancient hill towns, high mountains and long sandy beaches, alongside luxurious hotels and some of Italy’s best food and wine.

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.

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.

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.

An eclectic, world-class collection of sculpture, decorative arts and Renaissance masterpieces, housed in a former fortified prison.

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.

For centuries, the Oltrarno neighbourhood south of the river has been known for its artisan workshops; it still is today.

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.

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.