Europe • Italy • City break
Florence
Florence is compact, beautiful and absolutely packed with art, bridges, churches and Renaissance confidence. It is not subtle, but then neither was the Renaissance.
Trip notes
City: Florence
When: 3 Jan 2024
Trip type: City break
Florence Italy Tuscany Duomo Uffizi Ponte Vecchio Renaissance walking art history
How I got there
Visited as part of the wider Italy route, alongside Pisa, Pompeii, Rome and Vatican City. Florence fitted in as the Renaissance and Tuscany stop: less ancient empire, more art, architecture and extremely attractive streets.
Booking notes
Book major museums ahead if you want the Uffizi or Accademia, because Florence is popular and queues are not a personality-building exercise anyone needs. The Duomo area can also get very busy, especially around climbing slots.
Florence is best with a loose walking plan. Pick a few anchors, then leave space for wandering. Trying to squeeze every church, gallery and viewpoint into one day is how art becomes homework.
Cost and value
Florence can be expensive around the main sights, but it also gives strong value through walking. The streets, piazzas, river views and exteriors of major buildings are part of the experience without needing a ticket for every single thing.
Paid galleries are worth it if you care about art, but book carefully and do not overload the day. Too much world-class art in one go can make your brain quietly leave the building.
What I did
Explored the historic centre, the Duomo area, river views and the classic Florence streets. The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore is the obvious centrepiece, with Brunelleschi’s dome doing a lot of skyline work.
Ponte Vecchio was another highlight. It is touristy, crowded and full of jewellery shops, but it still feels special because it is a bridge that behaves like a street. Piazza della Signoria and the area around the Uffizi add the statue-and-palace side of Florence, where the city basically reminds you that it has been important for quite a while.
Florence is not just one attraction. It is the overall effect: art, stone, bridges, churches, river, viewpoints and the feeling that the Renaissance had a very generous marketing budget.
Walking notes
Florence is excellent for walking. The historic centre is compact and rewards slow wandering, especially between the Duomo, Piazza della Signoria, Uffizi, Ponte Vecchio and the Arno.
The streets can be crowded, and the paving is not always friendly, but it is still a proper walking city. If you want views, Piazzale Michelangelo is the classic climb or bus option. Walking up gives you bragging rights. Taking transport gives you knees. Both have advantages.
History and mythology
Florence is not a mythology-heavy place like Athens, but its history is enormous. It was one of the great centres of the Renaissance, with figures such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Brunelleschi, Dante and the Medici family tied to the city’s story.
The Duomo, Uffizi, Palazzo Vecchio and Ponte Vecchio all show different parts of Florence’s power: religion, art, politics, trade and wealth. The city helped shape how Europe thought about beauty, science, architecture and human achievement. No pressure, then.
Fun facts
Brunelleschi’s dome on Florence Cathedral was a major engineering achievement and still dominates the city skyline. Ponte Vecchio is the only bridge in Florence that survived the destruction of bridges during the Second World War.
The Uffizi began as offices for Florentine magistrates before becoming one of the world’s most famous art galleries. Florence was also the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, which is a fairly strong cultural CV.
Would I return?
Yes. Florence deserves a slower return, especially for the Uffizi, Accademia, Piazzale Michelangelo, more food and a less rushed wander through the city.
First impression
Florence is one of those cities that makes normal streets feel like someone has accidentally left a museum outside. The Duomo rises above the centre, the Ponte Vecchio crosses the Arno with shops balanced along it, and every few corners there is another church, statue, piazza or building acting like it belongs in an art history lesson.
It is not a huge city in the way Rome is, and that helps. Florence works brilliantly on foot because the main historic centre is compact. You can walk between the Duomo, Piazza della Signoria, the Uffizi, the river and Ponte Vecchio without needing to turn the day into a transport project. Very civilised. Other cities should take notes, preferably written neatly.
The city’s big story is the Renaissance. Florence was home to artists, architects, thinkers, bankers and powerful families who helped change European art and culture. The Medici family had a massive influence, and the results are still everywhere. It can feel slightly unfair that one city got this much beauty and cultural importance while some places mainly got ring roads.
Florence is best when you slow down. Yes, the famous sights matter, but the smaller moments are just as good: river views, side streets, shop windows, stone buildings, cafés and the way the whole city seems to glow when the light is right.