1. Florence

 

Overview:

The home of the Renais­sance era, the majes­tic town of Flo­rence was not only home to some of the most defin­ing artists and arts in his­to­ry but is also one of the most sto­ried, archi­tec­tural­ly stun­ning, and beau­ti­ful cities in the world – with the quaint streets, incred­i­ble piazza’s and stun­ning Duomo’s along­side it’s essen­tial role in art and ideas that would and con­tin­ue to shape mankind mak­ing it a tru­ly unique and beau­ti­ful won­der of the world.  

 Set in the heart of the idyl­lic Tus­cany region, the city of Flo­rence was home to Michelan­ge­lo, Donatel­lo, Galileo and Raphael, some of whom are believed to be embalmed with­in the stun­ning Basil­i­ca of San­ta Croce with­in the city, and was once the cen­tre­piece and cap­i­tal of not just Italy but also the whole of Europe with the noble Medici fam­i­ly trans­form­ing Flo­rence into one of the most eco­nom­ic and polit­i­cal­ly cities between the 15th and 16th cen­turies.  

 While numer­ous rev­o­lu­tions have seen Flo­rence lose its sta­tus as the cap­i­tal of Italy, it still retains all its charm and inspir­ing splen­dour, with some of it’s build­ings and mon­u­ments – includ­ing the charm­ing Ponte Vec­chio bridge believed to date back to the 1st Cen­tu­ry.  

 Today a trip to Flo­rence has to include the trio of reli­gious icons, includ­ing the Bap­tis­tery of St. John, the Giotto’s Cam­panile and the archi­tec­tur­al beau­ty of the Duo­mo di Firen­ze – whose giant dome affords those brave enough to ascend hun­dreds of steep steps an incred­i­ble look­out over the whole of Flo­rence. With these there awe-inspir­ing sites, com­bined with the beau­ty of the Uffizi Palace and Gallery, the famous Stat­ue of David that sits with­in the stun­ning Gal­le­ria dell ‘Accad­e­mia and of course the incred­i­ble taste of tra­di­tion­al Flo­rence Gela­to help­ing to make Flo­rence a city of not only incred­i­ble beau­ty that has shaped the path of mankind – but also tru­ly stun­ning and immense won­der of the world.  

 Where:

Flo­rence sits almost slap bang in the mid­dle of Italy, in the heart of the incred­i­ble beau­ti­ful Tus­cany region.  

 Getting there: 

With Flo­rence being in the cen­tre of Italy it’s eas­i­ly acces­si­ble and reach­able by either plane or train.  

First up for those fly­ing into Flo­rence and explor­ing the won­der – which can eai­ly be done over the course of a long week­end for those based in Europe – you can head to the Ameri­go Vespuc­ci inter­na­tion­al air­port and then grab a taxi or bus into the cen­tre of Flo­rence to begin your explor­ing.  

 Alter­na­tive­ly for those already based in Italy or any­where the Eurostar pass­es through you can sim­ply jump on a train to Flo­rence train sta­tion, which will drop you off in the cen­tre of Flo­rence and from it’ll be short walk to the first of the main sights described below.  

 Once in Flo­rence, while you can get a taxi or bus around – we’d strong­ly advise get­ting those steps in and explor­ing the city on foot as the archi­tec­ture and beau­ty of the Piazza’s and streets as well as being worth of explo­ration are well con­nect­ed are a def­i­nite high­light of Flo­rence.  

 Best time to Visit: 

While Flo­rence is beau­ti­ful all year round – it’s also incred­i­bly packed with tourists espe­cial­ly dur­ing the sum­mer months – with parts of the city known to close down between July and August due to the crowds and the heat. 

 What we’d sug­gest is head­ing to Flo­rence in either April or Octo­ber, where you’ll get the beau­ty of Spring or Autumn reflect­ed in the trees and leaves of the city – and you’ll find that  tem­per­a­tures are cool­er and tourist num­bers will be some­what reduced — especial­ly in August where as a result of tourists and the immense heat that can shine down on Flo­rence some­times result­ing in the best of both worlds – be warned though you’ll still need to book your tick­ets to the main sites in advance.  

 

 Explore: 

While Flo­rence is famous for its renais­sance art, stun­ning archi­tec­ture and incred­i­ble Tus­can beau­ty – not to men­tion the famous Ital­ian Gela­to, it’s pos­si­ble to spend weeks pound­ing the beau­ti­ful streets hop­ping from cathe­dral to cathe­dral, and muse­um to muse­um.  

While we’d cer­tain­ly encour­age spend­ing as much time as pos­si­ble to soak in the incred­i­ble his­to­ry and beau­ty of Flo­rence, for those who only have a day or two the below are our top 15 sights  to see in Flo­rence that rep­re­sent the archi­tec­tur­al beau­ty and stun­ning his­to­ry of Flo­rence and give you the best chance to grab a taste for this incred­i­ble won­der: 

 Florence Cathedral (Duomo di Firenze):

Start­ing with the big one, the Flo­rence Cathe­dral (Duo­mo di Firenze)is the cen­tre­piece of beau­ty in Flo­rence and has per­haps the most famous and beau­ti­ful exte­ri­or of a cathe­dral any­where in the world.  

 Build in the 15th cen­tu­ry and final­ly com­plet­ed in the 19th cen­tu­ry, you’re advised to get there ear­ly and book tick­ets in advance online – as the queues to get in, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the sum­mer are known to be long and take place in high heat.  From the out­side you’ll notice the stun­ning mul­ti­coloured mar­ble, and the incred­i­ble archi­tec­ture that makes up the duo­mo, and the bright red dome that sits atop it – ven­tur­ing inside, you’ll feel the reli­gious and spir­i­tu­al sig­nif­i­cance of the Cathe­dral and notice the stun­ning last sup­per paint­ing that adorns the ceil­ing of the cathe­dral.  

For those who don’t mind climb­ing hun­dreds of steep steps, we’d strong­ly rec­om­mend sum­mit­ing to the top of the Dome – where you can take in panoram­ic views of the whole of the won­der of Flo­rence below you and grab some incred­i­ble sun­set pho­tos. 

 Giotto’s Campanile:

Exit­ing the Duo­mo di Firen­ze – you’ll see a great white five tier bell tow­er made up com­plete­ly of mar­ble and that fea­tures stun­ning white, green and pink goth­ic pat­terns – which is the incred­i­ble Giotto’s Cam­panile. 

Built in the 14th cen­tu­ry„ the Giot­to Cam­panile stands at 85 metres tall is anoth­er spot for those who like climb­ing with the five floors inside climbable over 410 steps to the sum­mit where you can take in the beau­ty of the Duo­mo di Firen­ze oppo­site – and also admire the mul­ti­ple glass win­dows, tiles, stat­ues and paint­ings that dot the inte­ri­or of the stun­ning Giotto’s Cam­panile. 

Baptistery of St. John:

Just to the side of the Giotto’s Cam­panile you’ll find what is known at the third ele­ment of the Florence’s holy build­ings the Bap­tis­tery of St. John.  

Believed to date from the 1st cen­tu­ry, the Bap­tis­tery was cre­at­ed in mem­o­ry of St John, and is believed to have been the essence of Florence’s beau­ty, with the Bap­tis­tery still main­tain­ing its orig­i­nal bronze doors that wel­come vis­i­tors inside – where you’ll find incred­i­ble art­work from across the ages depict­ing mul­ti­ple reli­gious moments from Chris­tian­i­ty – includ­ing a stun­ning glod fres­co on the ceil­ing – com­pa­ra­ble in beau­ty to the Sis­tine chapel a depic­tion of the last judg­ment of Christ and of course the bap­tism of Jesus. With the Bap­tis­tery of St. John being an incred­i­ble place to soak in the spir­i­tu­al­ty of Italy’s catholic beliefs.  

San­ta Maria del Fiore:

A fur­ther stun­ning Cathe­dral with­in Flo­rence, the San­ta Maria del Fiore stands out not just for the incred­i­ble colour­ful mar­ble design on its out­side, but the famous art­works that dot the inside – with the cul­tur­al and reli­gious icon­ic work of the last judg­ment  which dates from the 16th cen­tu­ry found inside the San­ta Maria del Fiore. 

Along­side this you also have the chance to ven­ture into the spooky crypts of the San­ta Maria del Fiore – which is con­struct­ed on top of a 6th cen­tu­ry church, and is believed to con­tain the remains of some of Florence’s ear­li­est sons.  

 Piazza del Duomo:

No famous Ital­ian city would be com­plet­ed with a Piaz­za and Flo­rence has many incred­i­ble and stun­ning one  — the main one of which is the Piaz­za del Duo­mo from where you can take in the mag­nif­i­cence of the Duo­mo di Firen­ze and the Giotto’s Cam­panile in front of you, as well as some incred­i­ble stat­ues and foun­tains – it’s also an incred­i­ble place to min­gle and socialise – with key events in Flo­rence tak­ing place here – and above all it con­tains main Gela­to stands ! 

Piazza della Signoria:

The sec­ond main Piaz­za of Flo­rence, the Piaz­za del­la Sig­no­ria is a stun­ning square that fea­tures not just an assort­ment of cafes and shops but some incred­i­ble archi­tec­tur­al build­ings and stat­ues, includ­ing the foun­tain of Nep­tune and a stat­ue of Cosi­mo Medici.  

Unques­tion­ably though the main high­light – which you may have seen from the tv show Han­ni­bal is the Pal­la­zo Vec­chio with its incred­i­ble huge clock tow­er and unique stat­ue of Her­cules – we’d real­ly rec­om­mend mak­ing time for a cof­fee or sand­wich in one of the quaint cafes in the Piaz­za del­la Sig­no­ria before con­tin­u­ing your jour­ney around Flo­rence by enter­ing the  Palaz­zo Vec­chio. 

Palazzo Vecchio:

‘The Cas­tle of Flo­rence’ the Palaz­zo Vec­chio is anoth­er stun­ning 13th cen­tu­ry build­ing in the heart of Flo­rence in the Piaz­za del­la Sig­no­ria that serves not as a cas­tle but as an impor­tant gov­ern­men­tal build­ing.  

 Although sec­tions are off lim­its to vis­i­tors, the Palaz­zo Vec­chio from the out­side rep­re­sents a stun­ning piece of Tus­can archi­tec­ture and fea­tures a large bell tow­er – with the var­i­ous coats of Arms of impor­tant Ital­ian fam­i­lies engraved on the side of the build­ing.  

For those who do jour­ney inside, you have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to look upon a repli­ca of the stun­ning stat­ue of David and vis­it the untouched from the 13th cen­tu­ry dec­o­rat­ed admin­is­tra­tive rooms – includ­ing the incred­i­bly named Her­cules room – a place where orig­i­nal Tus­can design is still vis­i­ble.  

 Galleria dell ‘Accademia & The Statue of David:

Along­side the repli­ca stat­ue of David found at the entrance of the Palaz­zo Vec­chio, the orig­i­nal Michelan­ge­lo stat­ue can be found at the Gal­le­ria dell ‘Accad­e­mia – with the incred­i­ble stat­ue of the bib­li­cal hero David who con­quered Goliath, who was believed to be the first king of Israel, being a total­ly unique won­der and awe-inspir­ing site. 

While it’s impos­si­ble to ignore the less than gen­er­ous depic­tion of David’s nei­ther regions, the immense details in the carv­ing and the 360-view afford­ed to vis­i­tors is a true priv­i­lege, with the stat­ue which stands 17 foot tall tow­er­ing over vis­i­tors and stand­ing as per­haps the most famous piece of renais­sance art­work.  

Ponte Vecchio:

The most unique and his­toric bridge in Flo­rence the Ponte Vec­chio is believed to date back to the 1st cen­tu­ry and sits over the beau­ti­ful riv­er Arno with a sun­set stroll over the bridge high­ly rec­om­mend­ed for a roman­tic and stun­ning expe­ri­ence.  

 For those who vis­it the bridge dur­ing the day, you’ll be able to admire not only it’s incred­i­ble archi­tec­ture and sto­ried design, but you’ll find cross­ing the bridge leads you to a series of shops – some of which of course sell Gela­to – and Café spots that allow you to grab a cup of Ital­ian Cof­fee and look out over the riv­er Arno on Florence’s best bridge.  

 Basilica of Santa Croce:

Often over­looked the stun­ning Basil­i­ca of San­ta Croce is con­sid­ered the sis­ter to the Duo­mo di Firen­ze and is equal­ly stun­ning – and for­tu­nate­ly comes with out hun­dreds of steps to climb ! 

 Sat in the mid­dle of Flo­rence in the Piaz­za di San­ta Croce, the Basil­i­ca of San­ta Croce is 377 foot in size and made up of stun­ning mar­ble design on its exte­ri­or with its inte­ri­or fea­tur­ing a tru­ly incred­i­ble alter and cru­ci­fix­ion depic­tion — as well as fur­ther stun­ning pieces of reli­gious sym­bol­ism and renais­sance art that dot the walls of the Basil­i­ca of San­ta Croce. 

 With the tombs of the Basil­i­ca believed to con­tain the tombs of some of the key renais­sance artists includ­ing Galileo and Michelan­ge­lo who helped not only Flo­rence but the world as we know it.  

 Uffizi Palace and Gallery:

One of the most stun­ning gal­leries not just in Flo­rence but the world, the Uffizi Palace and Gallery fea­tures some of the most incred­i­ble art­works from the renais­sance era includ­ing mas­ter­pieces by artists such as Bot­ti­cel­li, Da Vin­ci and Raphael – that have tru­ly shaped the world as we know it.  

Found on the banks of the Arno Riv­er just after cross­ing the Ponte Vec­chio, the Uffizi Palace and Gallery is unique in its design as it starts as a palace like court­yard that is incred­i­bly illu­mi­nat­ed at night and then opens into the gallery itself, with vis­i­tors pass­ing through immense Ital­ian stat­ues to enter and gaze upon some of the great­est work in the world – just be sure to book tick­ets in advance as the queues to enter with­out tick­ets can by very very long.  

 Basilica di San Lorenzo

A Renais­sance archi­tec­tur­al beau­ty, the Basil­i­ca di San Loren­zo is one of the old­est cathe­drals in Flo­rence and Italy being built in the 15th cen­tu­ry and stand­ing today as a tes­ta­ment to the beau­ti­ful art­work and archi­tec­tur­al designs of one of the most inspi­ra­tional and ambi­tious eras of mankind.  

 Fea­tur­ing a dome and a tiled roof, the Basil­i­ca di San Loren­zo fea­tures anoth­er incred­i­ble ceil­ing this time made up of gold and white illu­mi­na­tions and has stun­ning pieces of renais­sance art­works and stat­ues by Donatel­lo and Michelan­ge­lo, each depict­ing reli­gious events, along its walls.  

While not as pop­u­lar as the Duo­mo di Firen­ze the Basil­i­ca di San Loren­zo has per­haps more his­to­ry – with the chapel inside once being the place that impor­tant catholic relics from Jerusalem were once smug­gled to ensure their preser­va­tion before the cru­sades. 

Boboli Gardens

The incred­i­ble Boboli Gar­dens show­case the best of the famous Tus­can Ital­ian gar­dens, fea­tur­ing mul­ti­ple foun­tains, lawns, flower arrange­ments and large ponds – of course com­plete with curi­ous ducks and water dis­plays.  

Stretch­ing across 40,000 square metres, the gar­dens make a wel­come alter­na­tive from the Duomo’s of Flo­rence and allows explor­ers to get lost in the hor­ti­cul­tur­al designs and stun­ning gar­dens that look out over the stun­ning Tus­can hills for that pic­ture post­card view of the rolling fields of Italy. 

Piazzale Michelangelo:

While a Piaz­za on the edge of Flo­rence, the stun­ning Piaz­za Michelan­ge­lo offers unques­tion­ably the best views of the whole of the won­der of Flo­rence – and is a per­fect place for a sun­set pho­to over the incred­i­ble won­der.  

 Found on the top of the hill – which means more steep climb­ing, or acces­si­ble by bus for those whose feet have been worn out, the Piaz­za­le Michelan­ge­lo offers great views over the riv­er Arno whose banks its sits on – and allows explor­ers to look out over all over the high­lights above, with a small quaint square fea­tur­ing a stat­ue of David and per­haps more impor­tant­ly gela­to shops, cafes and tourist shops, allow­ing tired explor­ers who’ve spent the day explor­ing the won­der of Flo­rence to soak in the incred­i­ble beau­ty of this unique won­der of the world.  

 Gelato:

Final­ly no vis­it to Flo­rence can be com­plete with­out sam­pling some of the absolute­ly incred­i­ble Gela­to that is the hall­mark of Ital­ian deserts.  

 While avail­able from numer­ous out­lets par­tic­u­lar­ly in the main Piazza’s we’d sug­gest sam­pling both the many sug­ar rich and flavour­ing sam­ples from the main square but also going into and explor­ing Florence’s back­streets to get your hands on some of the ‘real Gela­to’ that is favoured by the locals and give you a real taste of Italy.  

With a scoop of Gela­to in the Piaz­za­le Michelan­ge­lo watch­ing the sun­set over the beau­ty of Flo­rence being a tru­ly immense way to cap off your day explor­ing the incred­i­ble beau­ty and won­der of Flo­rence.  

How long to stay:

While you can see the main sights of Flo­rence in a day – we’d strong­ly rec­om­mend bud­get­ing at least 3 days and 4 nights to tru­ly explore Flo­rence, which will allow you to take in and explore all the main sights above at a nice leisure­ly pace – and give you plen­ty of oppor­tu­ni­ties to both get off the beat­en track and sam­ple as much of the famous Tus­can Gela­to as you can han­dle.  

Top Tip: 

It’s high­ly rec­om­mend­ed to book your tick­ets for the Uffizi Gallery and the Flo­rence Cathe­dral ahead of time online – as the lines to enter the tick­et queues are long and a hot day can be some­what unbear­able – so be sure to book in advance.  

We’d also rec­om­mend get­ting some car­dio in as you trav­el to the top of both the Duo­mo and the Giot­to Cam­panile – there’s a cou­ple of hun­dred steps, but the views are sim­ply stun­ning, and will allow you to take those all-impor­tant hol­i­day snaps from the peak of Flo­rence.  

 Sad­ly as across a lot of Italy now, you’re going to have to be wary of a pick­pock­eters, scam artists and thieves, who are known to tar­get the region espe­cial­ly dur­ing peak tourist sea­sons – so always be sure to keep an eye on and pro­tect your belong­ings, and steer clear of some of the rougher neigh­bour­hoods that are known for crime.  

But on a hap­pi­er note – no trip to Flo­rence or even Italy is com­plete with­out sam­pling some of the famous Gela­to – and you’ll have lots to choose from in Flo­rence, so we’d advise tak­ing a sam­ple of both the tourist Gela­to – like­ly made up of sug­ar and colour­ings and some of the back street ‘prop­er’ Gela­to found in Flo­rence that is nor­mal­ly found in small tubs and enjoyed by the locals – for those who make it up the stairs of the Duo­mo espe­cial­ly a cou­ple of scoops of Gela­to have been well earned, so we’d advise indulging your­self.  

 Cost:

With the beau­ty of Flo­rene in its stun­ning streets and Tus­can archi­tec­ture, you’ll find tra­vers­ing the streets an incred­i­ble and free expe­ri­ence.  

 How­ev­er when­ev­er you go you’ll find it busy and crowd­ed – and you will have to pay a small fee for the main sights that make up the won­der – so we’d high­ly rec­om­mend book­ing tick­ets in advance, for those for which you have to pay you can expect to pay €20 euros for the Flo­rence Cathe­dral, which gets you into the dome and Giot­to bell tow­er,  €20 euros for the Uffizi Gallery and €8 euros for the San­ta Croce and rough­ly €5 euros for the addi­tion­al gal­leries around the city.  

We’d also advise bud­get­ing at least €15 euros for your var­i­ous flavours of Gela­to (the prop­er kind) over the course of your stay – mean­ing a trip to Flo­rence is doable from around €80 euros a night.  

 Fun Fact:

Along­side mak­ing sure you pick up some real Gela­to – for the movie buffs, you can also see the won­der of Flo­rence in the famed film ‘Han­ni­bal’ with tours offer­ing trips around the sights of Flo­rence and in par­tic­u­lar the Palaz­zo Medici Ric­car­di where the film was shot.  

Best photo spot:

Be pre­pared to climb – with a trip up the 414 steps of the Cam­panile offer­ing spec­tac­u­lar pho­tos of the whole of Flo­rence and the Dome in par­tic­u­lar – with a trip up the dome itself– some 500 steps — also well worth it for a com­plete 360 panoram­ic view of the won­der of Flo­rence.  

 For those we aren’t fans of steps or who want to cap­ture both the Cam­panile and the Dome – along with all the won­ders of Flo­rence in one shot, then head to the Piaz­za­le Michelan­ge­lo square par­tic­u­lar­ly at sun­set, with the hill top in this stun­ning park offer­ing you a full shot of the won­der of Flo­rence against the beau­ty of the Tus­cany sun.