City guide
The Renaissance in walking distance, a steak the size of a brick, and a city centre that fits inside a twenty-minute stroll.
Italy5 min readUpdated August 15, 2026
Florence is small, which is both the appeal and the problem. Everything is close, and so is everybody else: the stretch between the Duomo and the Uffizi is one of the densest tourist corridors in Europe. Cross the river or walk north of the market and the pressure drops immediately.
It is a city to do slowly and with a booking. Two galleries hold most of what people come for, both require timed tickets, and the rest of the visit is food and hills.
Tuscan cooking is bread, beans, olive oil and beef, and it is much better than that list makes it sound. The bistecca alla fiorentina is sold by weight, comes rare, and is meant for two people minimum.
Santa Maria Novella
Open since 1869, seating about forty, and famous for a chicken breast cooked in an obscene quantity of butter. You will be sat next to strangers, which is part of it.
Local tip: Two dinner sittings only, cash preferred, and booked out weeks ahead. Phone rather than email.
Ask the concierge to book thisButter chicken, communal tables, and a menu that has not changed in a century.
Santa Croce
The schiacciata sandwich that broke the internet, and still genuinely good despite the queue and the four branches on one street. Six euros, eaten on a kerb.
San Lorenzo
Ground floor is a real food market with tripe sellers and butchers. The upstairs food hall is polished and touristy, and the ground floor is the reason to come.
San Frediano
Across the river, where Florentines eat: careful Tuscan cooking, a long wine list, and none of the shouting of the centre.
Ask the concierge to book thisOltrarno, across the river, for a neighbourhood with residents. Santa Croce for walkable and cheaper. The blocks around the Duomo are convenient and relentless.
Santo Spirito
A Renaissance palace with an open arcaded terrace on the top floor, over a square full of people drinking outside. Not luxurious, and hard to beat for the money.
Ask the concierge to book thisA loggia over Piazza Santo Spirito, which is the best square in the city.
On the river with balconies pointing straight at the Ponte Vecchio. Pay for a river-view room or do not bother staying here.
Ask the concierge to book thisLungarno Acciaiuoli
Rooms overlooking Europe's largest private walled garden, ten minutes uphill from the crowds. Eccentric and quiet.
Ask the concierge to book thisTorrigiani
Book the Uffizi and the Accademia before you do anything else. The other two on this list are outdoors and free.
Piazza della Signoria
The Medici collection in the Medici offices: Botticelli, Titian, Caravaggio, in rooms with windows over the Arno. Enormous, and worth pacing.
Local tip: Timed entry, booked online. The first slot of the day is the difference between looking at paintings and looking at shoulders.
Duomo
A dome nobody knew how to build until Brunelleschi worked it out, climbed by 463 steps between its two shells. The cathedral itself is surprisingly bare inside.
Local tip: The dome climb needs its own timed reservation and is not for anyone uneasy in tight spaces.
Oltrarno
The postcard view, from a terrace above the river. Free, busy at sunset, and worth walking up rather than taking the bus.
Oltrarno
The Pitti Palace's hillside garden, full of statues, grottoes and long avenues. The best place in Florence to sit down and stop looking at art.
Tuscany is the reason many people come. Two of these need a car or a driver; Siena does not.
Cypress avenues, hill villages and estates that will pour you three wines and feed you lunch. Needs a driver, for obvious reasons.
wine · driving · full day
Ask the concierge to book thisA medieval city built around a sloping shell-shaped square, with a striped cathedral and an old rivalry with Florence it has not entirely dropped.
medieval · full day
Ask the concierge to book thisA walled town where the Renaissance ramparts are now a tree-lined cycle path circling the whole city. Ninety minutes by train, and calm in a way Florence never is.
cycling · calm · full day
Ask the concierge to book thisEverything above, on one map. Colours mark what kind of place it is; tap a dot and its details open beside the map, and you keep your place. Day trips are left off, they sit well outside the city.
Pin positions are approximate: neighbourhood level, not street addresses.
Both use timed entry and both fill days ahead from March to October. There is no useful walk-up option in season.
Drive into it and a camera will post you a fine months later. If you hire a car for Chianti, park outside and walk in.
A normal one is about 1.2 kg and is meant to be shared. It arrives rare and asking for it well done will be politely ignored.
Florence runs on timed tickets and small dining rooms: the Uffizi, the dome climb and Sostanza all need booking, and Chianti needs a driver rather than a hire car. Message the Simly concierge with your dates and a person will fit those together so you are not crossing the city twice in a day.
Message the conciergeEverything in this guide assumes a working phone: maps between neighbourhoods that follow no grid, ride-hailing instead of flagging taxis, a menu handwritten in Arabic. A Simly eSIM activates before you land, so you step off the plane already connected.
Get a Simly eSIMFlorence, Italy
