Florence (Firenze), Italy
The Renaissance's home town, still living in the house
Florence is a small city carrying an enormous inheritance, the place where banking, perspective and the modern Italian language were more or less invented in the space of two centuries. It is also a working Tuscan regional capital of around 360,000 people that visitors tend to overlook while queuing for the Uffizi.
Caesar's veterans founded Florentia on the Arno in 59 BC, and the Roman grid still lies under the streets around the Piazza della Repubblica. The masthead year is 1115, when the death of Countess Matilda of Canossa left the city governing itself as a commune; the gold florin, first struck in 1252, became the currency of Europe and made Florentine bankers the lenders to kings. Dante was exiled in 1302, the plague of 1348 killed perhaps half the city, and the Medici ran it, officially or not, from Cosimo's return in 1434 to the family's extinction in 1737. Brunelleschi's dome was finished in 1436; Savonarola was burned in the Piazza della Signoria in 1498. Florence was capital of the new Italy from 1865 to 1871, which is when the old market and the ghetto were cleared for the Piazza della Repubblica. The Germans blew every bridge but the Ponte Vecchio in 1944, and the flood of 4 November 1966 filled the centre with mud.
The historic centre sits on the north bank inside the line of the old walls, now the viali ring road. The Duomo is at its heart; Piazza della Signoria and the Uffizi are a few hundred metres south towards the river, Santa Maria Novella and the station to the west, San Lorenzo and the Mercato Centrale to the north, Santa Croce and the Sant'Ambrogio market to the east. Across the Arno, the Oltrarno is the quieter half: Santo Spirito and San Frediano with their workshops and bars, the Pitti Palace and the Boboli gardens, and San Niccolò under Piazzale Michelangelo. Outside the viali the real city begins — Campo di Marte with the stadium, Le Cure, Rifredi and the Careggi hospital, the Novoli campus and the new courts, and the industrial suburbs of Scandicci and Sesto Fiorentino. Fiesole sits on the hill to the north-east, an Etruscan town older than Florence and a bus ride away.
Florence eats simply and in quantity: bistecca alla fiorentina by the kilo, ribollita and pappa al pomodoro, lampredotto from the tripe carts, schiacciata from the bakeries, and Chianti from the hills that start at the edge of town. The Uffizi, the Accademia with the David and the Bargello are the three museums everyone queues for, and the Pitti, San Marco and the Medici chapels are the ones with room to breathe. The Maggio Musicale is the opera festival; the Calcio Storico in June is a brutal historic football match between the four quarters in Piazza Santa Croce; Fiorentina at the Franchi are supported with a passion out of proportion to their trophies. Gucci and Ferragamo began here and Pitti Uomo still sets the men's fashion calendar. The Oltrarno artisans are real, the Florentine accent is famously aspirated, and the population of American students on a semester abroad is large enough to count as a neighbourhood.
The hard parts are the crowds — many millions of visitors a year in a centre a couple of kilometres across — and what they have done to it: short-term lets have pushed residents out of the old town, the city has banned new ones, and the Duomo streets are all but impassable in high season. Summer in the Arno basin is hot, humid and airless, well over 35 degrees, and there is no sea; winter is damp and grey. The tram network is thin, the ZTL fines the unwary, wages are Italian, and the airport is small. What Florence offers is a city you can cross on foot in half an hour with more first-rate art per square metre than anywhere else, the hills and the vineyards twenty minutes away, food that has not changed its mind in centuries, and, once the day-trippers leave at six, a Tuscan provincial town going about its business.
Where People Live
Duomo & Signoria
The cathedral, the Baptistery, the Piazza della Signoria with the Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi behind it, and the Ponte Vecchio at the bottom — the densest square kilometre of art in Europe and the densest crowds. Book everything.
San Lorenzo & San Marco
The Medici quarter: their church and chapels, the Laurentian library, the Mercato Centrale's food hall upstairs and the leather stalls outside, the Accademia's David and Fra Angelico's cells at San Marco. The university is here too.
Santa Croce & Sant'Ambrogio
The Franciscan basilica with Michelangelo's and Galileo's tombs, the Calcio Storico pitch in June, and Sant'Ambrogio's morning market and the trattorias around it, which is where Florentines in the centre actually eat.
Santa Maria Novella
The station quarter: Alberti's church front, the old pharmacy of the Dominicans, the Officina Profumo, and the streets between the station and the river with the hotels and the Frecciarossa passengers. Convenient, and busy at all hours.
Santo Spirito & San Frediano
The Oltrarno proper — Brunelleschi's plain church on a piazza that fills with drinkers at dusk, the artisans' workshops of Via Maggio and Borgo San Frediano, the Pitti and Boboli at the top. The neighbourhood with the most residents left.
San Niccolò & Piazzale Michelangelo
The strip under the hill on the south bank, with the old gate, a few good bars and the climb to the Piazzale and San Miniato for the view everyone photographs at sunset. The Bardini garden is the quieter alternative.
Campo di Marte & Le Cure
Outside the viali to the north-east: the Franchi stadium, the Sunday market, solid apartment blocks and a life that has nothing to do with tourism. Where a Florentine salary can still rent something.
Fiesole & the hills
The Etruscan hill town above the city with its Roman theatre, the European University Institute in the villas below, and the lanes of Settignano and Maiano beyond. Bus 7 from San Marco, twenty-five minutes, and a different temperature.
Restaurants & places to go
Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura
museums, restaurants · gucci.com
Sexy Disco Excelsior
florence stripclubs · sexydiscoexcelsior.it
Airports
Florence Airport (FLR) 5.4 km to the centre
Firenze (FI), 52, IT — You board from the indoor waiting area — no need to plan for the weather. ✈ 20 airlines (Iberia Airlines, Vueling Airlines, Alitalia, VOLOTEA Airways…) · direct flights to 26 destinations incl. Vienna, Catania, Duesseldorf, London, Palermo… (OpenFlights route data).
✈ Serves Bologna (78 km) — the low-cost way in
✈ Airlines & flight paths — 20 airlines, 26 direct destinations
- Iberia Airlines IB (A320) · 10 routes: Barcelona*, Bari, Berlin*, Cagliari, Catania*, Copenhagen*, London, Madrid*, Palermo, Paris*
- Vueling Airlines VY (A319) · 10 routes: Barcelona, Bari, Berlin, Cagliari, Catania, Copenhagen, London, Madrid, Palermo, Paris
- Alitalia AZ (318, A319, Embraer 190, S20) · 4 routes: Amsterdam, Geneva*, Paris*, Rome
- VOLOTEA Airways V7 (717) · 4 routes: Bordeaux, Catania, Nantes, Palermo
- Air Berlin AB (Dash 8-400) · 3 routes: Duesseldorf, Stuttgart, Vienna*
- Air France AF (318, AR8, ATR 42) · 3 routes: London*, Lyon*, Paris
- Meridiana IG (A320) · 3 routes: Duesseldorf*, Stuttgart*, Vienna
- Finnair AY (Dash 8-400) · 2 routes: Duesseldorf*, Vienna*
- Flybaboo F7 (S20) · 2 routes: Geneva, Zurich
- Lufthansa Cargo LH (Embraer 190, Embraer 195) · 2 routes: Frankfurt*, Munich
- Air Dolomiti EN (Embraer 195) · 1 route: Munich
- Airlinair A5 (ATR 42) · 1 route: Lyon
- Austrian Airlines OS (Dash 8-400, F70) · 1 route: Vienna*
- British Airways BA (Embraer 170, Embraer 190) · 1 route: London
- Brussels Airlines SN (AR1) · 1 route: Brussels
- CityJet WX (AR8) · 1 route: London
- Flybe BE (Embraer 175) · 1 route: Birmingham
- KLM Royal Dutch Airlines KL (EMJ) · 1 route: Amsterdam
- Niki HG (Dash 8-400) · 1 route: Vienna
- Swiss International Air Lines LX (AR1) · 1 route: Zurich*
Routes and aircraft from OpenFlights (open data; a point-in-time snapshot). * = codeshare. Linked destinations open their own guidebook. Flight numbers are not in the open data — they come from the airline or a paid schedule feed.
Empoli Airstrip 23 km to the centre
Empoli (FI), 52, IT
Collina Airfield 26 km to the centre
Borgo San Lorenzo (FI), 52, IT
Getting there by ferry
Arno Boat
Ferry route
Local transit
Autolinee Toscane
Bus, tram · Florence's buses and the Tramvia lines. · Fares: Ticket or app · Airport: T2 tram from Peretola airport to the station
Trains & rail
Italo
National rail
Trenitalia
National rail
Private aviation
On-demand charter, jet cards and the semi-private scheduled carriers that serve this city.
Air Charter Service
Broker · Any aircraft via operators worldwide · Global charter broker with 30+ offices; private jets, group charters and cargo.
ExecuJet
FBO, charter, management · Managed fleet · FBO network and management across Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.
Flexjet
Fractional, jet card · Embraer Praetor, Bombardier Challenger & Global, Gulfstream · Fractional ownership and jet cards in North America and Europe.
Global Jet
Charter, management · Large-cabin & VIP airliners · Geneva-based operator known for large-cabin and VIP airliner charters.
Jet Aviation
Charter, management, FBO, MRO · Managed fleet worldwide · General Dynamics company: charter, completions and FBOs in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the US.
Tours & experiences
GravelCape Bike & Wine Tour
Bike Tour
Tour in Chianti
Sightseeing
Tuscany excursions and day trips
Sightseeing
Living Here
Getting about
- Walking is the transport: the centre is flat, small and largely closed to cars. Autolinee Toscane runs the buses and the two tram lines, T1 from Careggi hospital across the centre to Scandicci and T2 from the airport to the station, with further lines being built; tickets are by app, at tabaccherie, or by tapping a bank card on the tram.
- Peretola (Amerigo Vespucci) airport is twenty minutes from the station on the T2 tram; Pisa, an hour away by train, takes most of the budget flights. Santa Maria Novella station has high-speed trains to Bologna in about 35 minutes, Rome in an hour and a half and Milan in under two, and regional trains to Pisa, Lucca and Arezzo. Siena is better reached by bus.
- The ZTL limited-traffic zone covers the whole centre and fines arrive months later by post; do not drive in unless your hotel has registered your plate. Taxis are called or found at ranks, not hailed.
- Bikes and e-scooters are shared through several apps and the viali have lanes; the hills to Fiesole are a serious climb.
Health
- Careggi, north of the centre, is the university hospital and the largest in Tuscany; Santa Maria Nuova, a few streets from the Duomo, has been a hospital since 1288 and takes emergencies; Meyer is the children's hospital. The national health service (SSN) covers residents, and the regional system is among Italy's best.
- Dial 112. Pharmacies with a green cross keep a duty rota and the one in the station is open around the clock; in summer a tourist medical service (guardia medica turistica) sees visitors in the centre for a modest fee.
- EU and UK visitors can use the EHIC or GHIC in public hospitals; others should carry insurance. Private clinics and the tourist service speak English.
Work & study
- The University of Florence has around 50,000 students across campuses at Novoli, Careggi and the centre; Polimoda and the fashion schools, the Accademia di Belle Arti and dozens of American university programmes add thousands more, and the European University Institute in Fiesole is the EU's graduate school.
- Tourism and hospitality, fashion and leather (Gucci and Ferragamo are headquartered here, and much of the luxury trade is made in the Scandicci workshops), pharmaceuticals at Sesto Fiorentino, engineering at Nuovo Pignone, the university and the regional government are the employers. Wages are Italian, which is to say modest.
- Italian is needed for most work and all bureaucracy; the codice fiscale, the residence permit and the anagrafe are the rites of passage, and patience is the qualification.
Money & manners
- Euros; cards are accepted almost everywhere now, though a bar may prefer cash for a coffee. A coperto of a euro or two per head is charged in restaurants and covers the bread; tip by rounding up. VAT (IVA) is included, and a city tax is added to hotel bills per night.
- Coffee is drunk standing at the bar and costs more at a table; lunch is at one and dinner from eight; buongiorno on entering any shop. Churches ask for covered shoulders and knees. Florentines are dry, sardonic and unimpressed, and have been since Dante.
- Summers are hot and humid, with July and August well over 35 degrees and the city half-closed in mid-August; winters are cold and damp with occasional fog. Late April to early June and September to October are the months to come.