Florence was, for roughly 250 years from the 1200s onward, the most important city in Europe — the engine of its economy, its art, and its literature. The Medici money that bankrolled the papacy and the English crown also commissioned Botticelli, Brunelleschi, and Michelangelo. What they left behind is almost overwhelming: a compact city where turning any corner produces another masterpiece.
The Duomo still commands the skyline as it has since 1436, when Brunelleschi completed a dome that no one before him believed was possible. The Uffizi holds one of the greatest concentrations of Renaissance painting on earth. The Ponte Vecchio has been a bridge of goldsmiths since the 16th century. Florentines navigate all of it daily with a certain practised indifference that reads, from the outside, as elegance.
The food is proudly Tuscan and pointedly unfussy. Bistecca fiorentina is always dry-aged, always enormous, always rare. The markets are good and taken seriously. The wine — Chianti Classico from the hills just south — is everywhere and excellent. Dinner starts late and runs long, which is the correct way to approach any evening in Florence.
Real places in Florence, pulled from the public library. Tap Add on anything that appeals — it lands in your list, no account needed.
Florence's oldest trattoria, 1886.
Butter pasta, no reservations.
Bistecca, river-adjacent.
Long tables, shared meats, house wine.
Michelin-starred Tuscan tasting menu.
1733 historic pasticceria.
Best specialty coffee in the city.
Hot chocolate, best view.
Serious gelato, no shortcuts.
Brunelleschi's dome, book ahead.
Goldsmiths since 1565.
Sunset over the whole city.
Open-air sculpture hall.
Medici palace, Boboli gardens.
Botticelli, Leonardo, Raphael.
Michelangelo's David.
Best sculpture museum in Italy.
Original Ghiberti bronze doors.
Fra Angelico frescoes, monastic.
Two-floor food hall, ground-floor market.
Locals' daily market, no tourists.
Leather goods, artisan stalls.
16th-c Medici garden, city views.
Wisteria in April, quieter than Boboli.
Hilltop village, 20 min by bus.
Family-run, perfectly located.
Arno-view apartments, design-led.
Salvatore Ferragamo property, river.
Ponte Vecchio views, curated art.
Boutique hotel in an ancestral mansion overlooking the Torrigiani Gardens..
The experiences worth planning a day around — not a restaurant list, a way to eat the place.
A Chianina T-bone, dry-aged and enormous, cooked over charcoal to a char outside and blood red within. Shared, eaten slowly, with Chianti.
Florence's beloved street food — slow-braised tripe in a crusty roll, dipped in broth and finished with salsa verde at a street cart.
A Negroni, invented in Florence in 1919, with a small plate of crostini and olives as the day cools and the Arno turns amber.
Real gelato from a gelateria that makes it on-site, eaten in a brioche roll for breakfast or mid-afternoon. Non-negotiable.
Curated routes through Florence from Sunday's editors and well-travelled members. Open one to see every place — or save the whole list at once.
The high-impact first-timer route — nothing padded.
Neighbourhood tables, no tourist traps. Built over three trips.
Cafés, parks and a market — the unhurried half of town.
Wine rooms, viewpoints at dusk, the last tram home.
A starter itinerary built from the city's most-saved places. Make it yours, then reshape it however you like.
The two things every trip starts with: when to come, and what to say when you get there.
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