Florence

Small enough to cross on foot, dense enough to need a plan, and the best base in Italy.

Italy · 3–4 nights

Florence is the most efficient city in Italy. You can walk from one side of the historic center to the other in twenty-five minutes, which means the days have far less dead time in them than Rome or Venice, and you see more without moving faster.

It is also the best base in the country. Siena, San Gimignano, Lucca and most of the Chianti are inside an hour, so a Florence hotel can carry a week of Tuscany without a single change of room. That is usually the difference between an Italy trip that feels restful and one that does not.

Good for

Art, and Renaissance everything
Using one hotel for a whole region
Food and wine trips
Second trips to Italy

Suggested stay: 3–4 nights

Before you book

What people get wrong about Florence.

The practical things that change a trip, rather than a list of sights you can find anywhere.

The Uffizi and the Accademia need booking, the Duomo dome needs booking earlier

Climbing the dome is a separate timed ticket from the cathedral and it goes first. If the climb matters to you, book it before you book the hotel.

Do not drive into the center

The historic center is a restricted traffic zone and the cameras are automatic. Fines arrive months later, by post, one per entry. Park outside or arrive by train.

Stay across the river if you want it quieter

The Oltrarno is ten minutes' walk from the Duomo, noticeably calmer in the evening, and where the workshops still are.

Day trips are better than hotel changes

Siena is seventy-five minutes, Lucca eighty, San Gimignano a little over an hour. None of them is worth packing for.

From the road

Florence, as I found it.

Photographs from my own time in Florence. No stock, no borrowed shots.

A bicycle propped against the kerb outside an arched Florence cafe with green curtains

Vasari's Last Judgement covering the inside of Brunelleschi's dome above the cathedral's stained glass

Kerry-Ann Stephens leaning on a stone balustrade at sunset, cypress trees along the terrace

Michelangelo's David at the end of the gallery in the Accademia, with visitors gathered below

An artisan at the bench in a Florence workshop, shelves of stone and tools behind her

The gilded perfume counter at the Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella

A bronze tree sculpture rooted in a sphere outside the Basilica of San Lorenzo

A vaulted Florence cafe with stone columns, flowers and tables along one side

Crates of quince, plums and peaches on a Florence market stall

A cappuccino topped with chopped nuts held up in a Florence square

A long table laid under a vaulted ceiling and chandelier in a Florence dining room

Florence rooftops and a dome seen through a tall shuttered window

A traveler on the embankment looking out over the Arno towards the bridges of Florence

Kerry-Ann Stephens over an espresso at a counter in Florence

What it pairs with

Rome, ninety minutes away by fast train, and Tuscany, which starts at the edge of the city. Florence plus a few nights in the countryside is the ten-day Italy trip most people should be taking.

The whole of Italy

Questions

Florence, answered.

How many days do you need in Florence?

Two full days covers the city itself. Most people should book three or four nights and use the extra days for Tuscany, because a Florence base is more comfortable than moving to a second hotel for two nights.

Is Florence a good base for Tuscany?

The best one, if you want a city. Siena, Lucca, Pisa and San Gimignano are all inside ninety minutes. If the point of the trip is the countryside itself rather than the towns, a villa or agriturismo will serve you better.

Florence or Rome, if you only have time for one?

Florence for art, walkability and a calmer trip. Rome for scale and for the feeling that you are standing in the middle of history. First-timers usually want Rome; people who found Rome exhausting usually love Florence.

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