Tuscany – Part 1
The tourist brochure view of Tuscany as an idyll of olive groves, vineyards, hill-towns and frescoed churches may be one-dimensional, but Tuscany is indeed the essence of Italy in many ways. The national language evolved from the Tuscan dialect, a supremacy ensured by Dante – who wrote the Divine Comedy in the vernacular of his birthplace, Florence – and Tuscan writers such as Petrarch and Boccaccio. And the era we know as the Renaissance, which played so large a role in forming the culture, not just of Italy but of Europe as a whole, is associated more strongly with this part of the country than with anywhere else. Florence was the most active centre of the Renaissance, flourishing principally through the all-powerful patronage of the Medici dynasty. Every eminent artistic figure from Giotto onwards – Masaccio, Brunelleschi, Alberti, Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo – is represented here, in an unrivalled gathering of churches, galleries and museums.
The problem is, of course, that the whole world knows about the attractions of Florence, with the result that the city can be offputtingly busy in high season. Siena tends to provoke a less ambivalent response. One of the great medieval cities of Europe, it remains almost perfectly preserved, and holds superb works of art in its religious and secular buildings. In addition, its beautiful Campo – the central, scallop-shaped market square – is the scene of the Palio, when bareback horseriders career around the cobbles amid an extravagant display of pageantry. The cities of Pisa and Lucca have their own fair share of attractions and provide convenient entry points to the region, either by air (via Pisa’s airport) or along the coastal rail route from Genoa. Arezzo and Cortona serve as fine introductions to Tuscany if you’re approaching from the south (Rome) or east (Perugia).
Tucked away to the west and south of Siena, dozens of small hill-towns epitomize the region for many visitors. San Gimignano, the most famous, is worth visiting as much for its spectacular array of frescoes as for its bristle of medieval tower-houses, even if it has become a little too popular for its own good. Both Montepulciano and Pienza are superbly located and dripping with atmosphere, but the best candidates for a Tuscan hill-town escape are places such as Volterra, Massa Maríttima or Pitigliano, where tourism has yet to undermine local character. You may find lesser-known sights even more memorable – remote monasteries like Monte Oliveto Maggiore and San Galgano, or the sulphur spa of Bagno Vignoni. The one area where Tuscany fails to impress is its over-developed coast, with horrible beach-umbrella compounds filling every last scrap of sand. Elba, the largest of several Tuscan islands, offers great beaches and good hiking, but is busy in summer.
Finding accommodation can be a major problem in the summer so you should definitely reserve in advance; www.turismo.intoscana.it is a useful resource, and includes details of agriturismi, family-run places dotted around the countryside offering anything from budget rooms in a farmhouse to luxury apartments in restored castles.
Highlights
The Duomo, Florence Climbing Brunelleschi’s dome is a must.
The Uffizi, Florence The world’s greatest collection of Italian Renaissance paintings.
Chianti The country’s most famous vineyards.
The Leaning Tower, Pisa Still defying gravity and still continuing to amaze.
Lucca A stunning array of Romanesque churches in this most urbane of Tuscan towns.
The Palio Siena’s historic horse race, run over three frenetic laps of the Campo.
Tuscan hill-towns Tuscany’s hill-towns epitomize the region for many visitors, with San Gimignano the most popular.
Florence (Firenze)
Since the early nineteenth century FLORENCE has been celebrated by many as the most beautiful city in Italy. Stendhal staggered around its streets in a perpetual stupor of delight; the Brownings sighed over its charms; and E.M. Forster’s Room with a View portrayed it as the great southern antidote to the sterility of Anglo-Saxon life. The pinnacle of Brunelleschi’s stupendous cathedral dome dominates the cityscape, and the close-up view is even more breathtaking, with the multicoloured Duomo rising beside the marble-clad Baptistry. Wander from here down towards the River Arno and the attraction still holds: beyond the broad Piazza della Signoria – site of the towering Palazzo Vecchio – the river is spanned by the medieval, shop-lined Ponte Vecchio, with the gorgeous church of San Miniato al Monte glistening on the hill behind it.
For art lovers, Florence has no equal in Europe. The development of the Renaissance can be plotted in the vast picture collection of the Uffizi and in the sculpture of the Bargello and the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo. Equally revelatory are the fabulously decorated chapels of Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella, forerunners of such astonishing creations as Masaccio’s superb frescoes in the Cappella Brancacci. The Renaissance emphasis on harmony and rational design is expressed with unrivalled eloquence in Brunelleschi’s architecture, specifically in the churches of San Lorenzo, Santo Spirito and the Cappella dei Pazzi. While the full genius of Michelangelo, the dominant creative figure of sixteenth-century Italy, is on display in San Lorenzo’s Biblioteca Laurenziana and the marble statuary of the Cappelle Medicee and the Accademia, every quarter of Florence can boast a church worth an extended call, and the enormous Palazzo Pitti south of the river constitutes a museum district on its own. If you’re on a whistle-stop tour, note that it’s not possible to simply stroll into the Cappella Brancacci, and that spontaneous visits to the Accademia and Uffizi are often difficult.
Regional food and wine
Tuscan cooking, with its emphasis on simple dishes using fresh, quality, local ingredients, has had a seminal influence on Italian cuisine. Classic Tuscan antipasti are peasant fare: bruschetta is stale bread, toasted and dressed with oil and garlic; crostini is toast and pâté. Olive oil is the essential flavouring, used as a dressing for salads, a medium for frying and to drizzle over bread or vegetables and into soups and stews just before serving.
Soups are very popular – Tuscan menus always include either ribollita, a hearty stew of vegetables, beans and chunks of bread, or zuppa di farro, a thick soup with spelt (a barley-like grain), while fish restaurants serve cacciucco, a spiced fish and seafood soup. White cannellini beans (fagioli) are another favourite, turning up in salads, with pasta (tuoni e lampo) or just dressed with olive oil. Tuscany is not known for its pasta, but many towns in the south serve pici, a local variety of thick spaghetti. Meat is kept plain, often grilled, and Florentines profess to liking nothing better than a good bistecca alla fiorentina (rare char-grilled steak), or the simple rustic dishes of arista (roast pork loin stuffed with rosemary and garlic) or pollo alla diavola (chicken flattened, marinated and then grilled with herbs). Hunters’ fare such as cinghiale (wild boar) and coniglio (rabbit) often turns up in hill-town trattorias. Spinach is often married with ricotta and gnocchi, used as a pasta filling, and in crespoline (pancakes) or between two chunks of focaccia and eaten as a snack. Sheep’s milk pecorino is the most widespread Tuscan cheese (best in Pienza), but the most famous is the oval marzolino from the Chianti region, which is eaten either fresh or ripened. Dessert menus will often include cantuccini, hard, almond-flavoured biscuits to be dipped in a glass of Vinsanto (sweet dessert wine); Siena is the main source of sweet treats, including almond macaroons and panforte, a rich and very dense cake full of nuts and fruit.
Tuscany has some of Italy’s finest wines. Three top names, which all bear the exclusive DOCG mark (and price tags to match), are Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano – not the sort of thing you’d knock back at a trattoria. There are dozens of other Chianti varieties, most of them excellent, but it can be difficult to find a bargain. Both Montalcino and Montepulciano produce rosso varieties that are more pocket-friendly, and other names to look for include Carmignano and Rosso delle Colline Lucchesi. Two notable whites are dry Vernaccia di San Gimignano and the fresh Galestro.
Some history
The Roman colony of Florentia was established in 59 BC and expansion was rapid, based on trade along the Arno. In the sixth century AD the city fell to the barbarian hordes of Totila, then the Lombards and then Charlemagne’s Franks. In 1078 Countess Mathilda of Tuscia supervised the construction of new fortifications, and in the year of her death – 1115 – granted Florence the status of an independent city. Around 1200, the first Arti (Guilds) were formed to promote the interests of traders and bankers in the face of conflict between the pro-imperial Ghibelline faction and the pro-papal Guelphs. The exclusion of the nobility from government in 1293 was the most dramatic measure in a programme of political reform that invested power in the Signoria, a council drawn from the major guilds. The mighty Palazzo della Signoria – now the Palazzo Vecchio – was raised as a visible demonstration of authority over a huge city: at this time, Florence had a population around 100,000, a thriving mercantile sector and a highly developed banking system (the florin was common currency across Europe). Strife within the Guelph camp marked the start of the fourteenth century, and then in the 1340s the two largest banks collapsed and the Black Death struck, destroying up to half the city’s population.
The rise of Cosimo de’ Medici, later dubbed Cosimo il Vecchio (“the Old”), was to some extent due to his family’s sympathies with the smaller guilds. The Medici fortune had been made by the banking prowess of Cosimo’s father, Giovanni Bicci de’ Medici, and Cosimo used the power conferred by wealth to great effect. Partly through his patronage of such figures as Brunelleschi and Donatello, Florence became the centre of artistic activity in Italy.
The ascendancy continued under Cosimo’s grandson Lorenzo il Magnifico, who in effect ruled the city at the height of its artistic prowess. Before Lorenzo’s death in 1492, the Medici bank failed, and in 1494 Lorenzo’s son Piero was obliged to flee. Florentine hearts and minds were seized by the charismatic Dominican monk, Girolamo Savonarola, who preached against the decadence and corruption of the city. Artists departed in droves as Savonarola and his cohorts, in a symbolic demonstration of the new order, gathered books, paintings, tapestries, fancy furniture and other frivolities, and piled them high in Piazza della Signoria in a Bonfire of the Vanities. Within a year, however, Savonarola had been found guilty of heresy and treason, and was burned alive on the same spot.
After Savonarola, the city functioned peaceably under a republican constitution headed by Piero Soderini, whose chief adviser was Niccolò Machiavelli. In 1512 the Medici returned, and in 1516, Giovanni de’ Medici became Pope Leo X, granting Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci major commissions. After the assassination of Alessandro de’ Medici in 1537, power was handed to a new Cosimo, who seized the Republic of Siena and, in 1569, took the title Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Florence’s subsequent decline was slow and painful. Each of the later Medicis was more ridiculous than the last: Francesco spent most of his thirteen-year reign indoors, obsessed by alchemy; Ferdinando II sat back as harvests failed, plagues ran riot and banking and textiles slumped to nothing; the virulently anti-Semitic Cosimo III spent 53 years in power cracking down on dissidents; and Gian Gastone spent virtually all his time drunk in bed. When Gastone died, in 1737, the Medici line died with him.
Under the terms of a treaty signed by Gian Gastone’s sister, Anna Maria Ludovica, Florence – and the whole Grand Duchy of Tuscany – passed to Francesco of Lorraine, the future Francis I of Austria. Austrian rule lasted until the coming of the French in 1799; after a fifteen-year interval of French control, the Lorraine dynasty was brought back, remaining in residence until being overthrown in the Risorgimento upheavals of 1859. Absorbed into the united Italian state in the following year, Florence became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy in 1865, a position it held until 1870.
At the end of the nineteenth century, large areas of the medieval city were demolished by government officials and developers; buildings that had stood in the area of what is now Piazza della Repubblica since the early Middle Ages were pulled down to make way for undistinguished office blocks, and old quarters around Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella were razed. In 1944, the retreating German army blew up all the city’s bridges except the Ponte Vecchio and destroyed acres of medieval architecture. A disastrous flood in November 1966 drowned several people and wrecked buildings and works of art, and restoration of the damage is still going on. Indeed, monuments and paintings are the basis of Florence’s survival, a state of affairs that gives rise to considerable disquiet. The development of new industrial parks on the northern outskirts is the latest and most ambitious attempt to break Florence’s ever-increasing dependence on its tourists.
Arrival and information
Pisa’s Galileo Galilei airport is the main airport for flights into Tuscany. A small but increasing number of international air services use Perètola (or Amerigo Vespucci) airport (055.306.1300, www.aeroporto.firenze.it), 5km northwest of the city centre; the Volainbus service (€8 return) provides shuttles from here into Florence Santa Maria Novella station every thirty minutes.
Nearly all trains arrive at Santa Maria Novella station (Firenze SMN), a few blocks west of the Duomo. (A few trains use Campo di Marte, over in the east of the city, from where there are regular buses into the centre.) The main SITA bus terminal is on Via di Santa Caterina da Siena, a few steps west of the station; CAP buses from Prato arrive at Largo Alinari, on the eastern side; and Rama, Lazzi and Copit buses use Piazza Adua, a further minute’s walk north.
The main tourist office is at Via Cavour 1/R, five minutes’ walk north of the Duomo (Mon–Sat 8.30am–6.30pm, Sun 8.30am–1.30pm; 055.290.832, www.firenzeturismo.it); this office provides information not just on the city but on the whole of Florence province. Smaller offices are to be found just off Piazza Santa Croce at Borgo Santa Croce 29/R (March–Oct Mon–Sat 9am–7pm, Sun 9am–2pm; Nov–March Mon–Sat 9am–5pm, Sun 9am–2pm; 055.234.0444), and opposite the train station, at Piazza della Stazione 4 (Mon–Sat 8.30am–7pm, Sun 8.30am–2pm; 055.212.245).
One of the best sources of information on events is Firenze Spettacolo (www.firenzespettacolo.it; €1.80), a monthly, partly bilingual listings magazine available from bookshops and larger newsstands. Also useful is The Florentine, a free bi-weekly English-language paper, available at the tourist office, most bookshops and various other spots (listed on www.theflorentine.net).
City transport
Within the centre, walking is generally the most efficient way of getting around. The first line of the city’s controversial new tram system was completed in 2010, but is of little use to tourists, being some way from the sights. For cross-town journeys, you might want to use ATAF buses (www.ataf.net). Most routes originate at or pass near the train station; the tiny electric buses (#C1, C2, C3 and D) are the most useful for cutting right through the centre of town. The ATAF office next to the bus stops outside Santa Maria Novella station sells tickets and has route maps.
Tickets are valid for unlimited journeys within ninety minutes (€1.20 from tabacchi, or €2 on the bus), 24 hours (€5) or 72 hours (€12). A Biglietto Multiplo gives four ninety-minute tickets for €4.50; better value is the ATAF electronic card called the Carnet Agile, which comes in two versions – the €10 one gives ten ninety-minute tickets, while the €20 card is equivalent to 21.
Accommodation
Hotels are plentiful in Florence but demand is almost limitless, which means that prices are high and the tourist inundation has few slack spots: “low season” is defined by most hotels as meaning mid-July to the end of August (the weeks during which nearly all Italians head for the beaches or the mountains), and from mid-November to mid-March, except for the Christmas and New Year period; between March and October, booking ahead is strongly advised.
In recent years, boutique hotels and B&Bs have sprung up all over the city, operating under several different names: places calling themselves a relais or a residenza d’epoca are generally smart B&Bs, often located in historic palazzi. The Via Cavour tourist office has a full accommodation list, or see www.firenzeturismo.it.
Florence addresses
Florence has a complicated double system of street numbering: commercial establishments (such as bars and restaurants) have red numbers (rosso), while private buildings have black or blue numbers – and the two systems don’t run in tandem. This means, for example, that Via Mosca 35/R might be next door to Via Mosca 89, but several hundred metres from Via Mosca 33.
Hotels and B&Bs
The city centre
Alessandra Borgo Santi Apostoli 17 055.283.438, www.hotelalessandra.com. One of the best and friendliest of the central two-stars, with 27 rooms occupying a sixteenth-century palazzo and furnished in a mixture of antique and modern styles. The more expensive en-suite doubles overlook the river; those with shared bathrooms are considerably cheaper. €91–120
Cestelli Borgo SS Apostoli 25 055.214.213, www.hotelcestelli.com. Spotlessly maintained by its young Florentine–Japanese owners and offering excellent value for money, this eight-roomed one-star occupies part of a house that once belonged to a minor Medici. The rooms are a good size (and three are en suite). No breakfast. €61–90
Helvetia & Bristol Via dei Pescioni 2 055.266.51, www.royaldemeure.com. In business since 1894, this is a superb five-star hotel. The rooms mix antique furnishings and modern facilities – such as hydromassage baths – to create a style that evokes the belle époque without being suffocatingly nostalgic. The standard rooms are not huge, but have lovely marble bathrooms; the superior rooms and suites are worth the splurge. If you’re going to treat yourself, this is a leading contender. Breakfast not included. €301–400
Hermitage Vicolo Marzio 1/Piazza del Pesce 055.287.216, www.hermitagehotel.com. Pre-booking is recommended at any time of year to secure one of the 28 rooms in this superbly located three-star hotel, right next to the Ponte Vecchio. The service is friendly, the rooms are cosy, and there are unbeatable views from some rooms, as well as from the flower-filled roof garden. Doubles (most with hydromassage baths) are hugely discounted in low season. €201–250
Torre Guelfa Borgo SS Apostoli 8 055.239.6338, www.hoteltorreguelfa.com. There are 25 tastefully furnished rooms crammed onto the second and third floors of this ancient tower, the tallest private building in the city. It also has 11 slightly smaller and cheaper doubles on the first floor. Guests can enjoy the marvellous views all over the city from the tower’s small roof terrace. Very charismatic and very popular – book well ahead. €121–150
The Santa Maria Novella area
Grand Hotel Minerva Piazza Santa Maria Novella 16 055.27230, www.grandhotelminerva.com. A large four-star with big rooms; the superior ones overlook the piazza. The bedrooms have a cosy feel, with parquet floors and faux-rustic furnishings, and the bar and small swimming pool on the roof are major pluses. Doubles go for as little as €150 in low season. €201–250
Nizza Via del Giglio 5 055.239.6897, www.hotelnizza.com. A smart family-run two star, with helpful staff and a very central location. All rooms are en suite – the five out back are quieter – and are better furnished and decorated than many in this category. €61–90
The station and San Lorenzo areas
Azzi Via Faenza 56 055.213.806, www.hotelazzi.com. This two-star has fifteen bedrooms decorated in a cosily rustic style, with antique furnishings and garden views from most rooms. The management has recently acquired two rooms and an apartment over the road; the Locanda della Musica is a bargain at €90, with a well-equipped kitchen and its own little terrace. Breakfast not included. €61–90
Globus Via Sant’Antonino 24 055.211.062, www.hotelglobus.com. The three-star Globus has a somewhat corporate feel (boxy furniture and natural tones throughout), but the rooms are very comfortable and the location convenient. €91–120
Kursaal Ausonia Via Nazionale 24 055.496.324, www.kursonia.com. A self-proclaimed “eco-hotel” proud of its green credentials, this family-run three-star offers a warm welcome. The decor is rather dated; ask for one of the three superior rooms with balconies. The price of a standard double can go as low as €55 out of season. €91–120
Merlini Via Faenza 56 055.212.848, www.hotelmerlini.it. Several budget hotels are crammed into this address near the station, but the family-run Merlini, on the third floor (no lift), is the best. Its ten rooms have marble bathrooms – an unexpected bonus in this price bracket – and six overlook the Duomo; of these, room 11 is the best: airy and bright, with a wood-beamed ceiling. The low-season rate is as little as €50. €61–90
Mr. Myresort Via delle Ruote 14/A 055.283.955, www.mrflorence.it. Run by the same friendly family as Relais Grand Tour, this new B&B has a handful of bright, quirkily furnished rooms arranged around a tranquil garden, but the real draw is the private, stone-walled spa in the basement, complete with Turkish bath and jacuzzi. €61–90
Relais Grand Tour Via Santa Reparata 21 055.283.955, www.florencegrandtour.com. The very hospitable owners have done a great job of turning two floors of this old palazzo into a superb guesthouse, with three charming rooms on the second floor and three suites on the floor below. Each room is unique – the “mirrors suite” is much requested by honeymooners. Cash only. €91–150
Residenza Castiglioni Via del Giglio 8 055.239.6013, www.residenzacastiglioni.com. This discreet and hugely stylish hideaway has just half a dozen spacious en-suite double rooms (three of them frescoed), on the second floor of a palazzo very close to San Lorenzo church. Room 22 is the one to go for, with wall-to-wall frescoes. Doubles go for as low as €84 in low season. €121–150
San Marco and Annunziata areas
Casci Via Cavour 13 055.211.686, www.hotelcasci.com. It would be hard to find a better two-star in central Florence than this 24-room hotel. Only two (sound-proofed) rooms face the busy street: the rest are quiet, clean and neat. The owners are unfailingly helpful and courteous, and the big buffet breakfast under the frescoed ceiling of the reception area is a major plus. €121–150
Loggiato dei Serviti Piazza Santissima Annunziata 3 055.289.592, www.loggiatodeiservitihotel.it. The 38 rooms of this elegant, extremely tasteful three-star hotel have been incorporated into a building designed in the sixteenth century to accommodate Servite priests. All the rooms are decorated with fine fabrics and antiques, and look out onto either the piazza, the peaceful gardens to the rear, or towards the Duomo. The five rooms in the annexe, at Via dei Servi 49, are similarly styled, but don’t have the same charm. €151–200
Morandi alla Crocetta Via Laura 50 055.234.4747, www.hotelmorandi.it. An intimate three-star gem, whose small size and friendly welcome ensure a home-from-home atmosphere. Rooms are tastefully decorated with antiques and old prints, and vivid carpets laid on parquet floors. Two rooms have balconies opening onto a modest garden; the best room – with fresco fragments and medieval nooks – was converted from a convent chapel. In winter rates dip as low as €110. €151–200
Residenza Johanna I Via Bonifacio Lupi 14 055.481.896, www.johanna.it. A genteel place that feels very much a “residence” rather than a hotel, hidden away in an unmarked apartment building in a quiet, leafy corner of the city, a five-minute walk north of San Marco. Rooms are cosy and well kept, and the two signore who run the place are as friendly and helpful as you could hope for. The very similar Residenza Johanna II (055.473.377; same website) is located further from the main sights, at Via Cinque Giornate 12. Cash only. €91–120
Residenza Johlea Via San Gallo 76 055.463.3292, www.johanna.it. Another venture from the people behind the nearby Residenza Johanna, this tranquil residenza offers the same low-cost, high-comfort package. Two doors down, at no. 80, you’ll find the somewhat plusher Antica Dimora Johlea (same phone and website), with deluxe doubles, all with four-poster beds, and a roof terrace with lovely views. The same team run the similarly upmarket Antica Dimora Firenze at no. 72 (055.462.7296, www.anticadimorafirenze.it), which has six very comfortable rooms (some with four-posters) at slightly lower prices. Cash only. All residenza€121–200
Oltrarno
Foresteria Valdese – Istituto Gould Via dei Serragli 49 055.212.576, www.istitutogould.it. This budget hotel-cum-evangelical college is extremely popular, so it’s wise to book in advance. The rooms are very basic but clean, and most are en suite; there are some good-value family rooms too. Street-front rooms can be noisy, but the old courtyard, terracotta floors and stone staircases provide atmosphere throughout. Check-in Mon–Fri 8.45am–1pm & 3–7.30pm, Sat 9am–1.30pm & 2.30–6pm. €61–90
La Scaletta Via Guicciardini 13 055.283.028, www.lascaletta.com. Three of the rooms in this tidy three-star have views across to the Bóboli gardens; the rooms on the Via Guicciardini side are double-glazed against the traffic. Drinks and meals are served on the rooftop terraces (May–Sept), where you look across the Bóboli in one direction and the city in the other. All rooms were redecorated in warm Tuscan tones in 2010. Breakfast not included. €121–150
Lungarno Borgo San Jacopo 14 055.27.261, www.lungarnohotels.com. One of four hotels owned by local fashion supremo Salvatore Ferragamo, this luxurious retreat is just a minute’s walk from the Ponte Vecchio but discreetly tucked away from the tourist hordes. The rooms are as elegant and tasteful as you’d expect, and many have terraces overlooking the Arno; for a blow-the-budget treat, book the two-tier suite in the medieval tower. An abundance of modern art throughout, including drawings by Picasso and Cocteau, gives you plenty to look at, and there’s an excellent restaurant too. €301–400
Palazzo Guadagni Piazza Santo Spirito 9 055.265.8376, www.palazzoguadagni.com. Beautifully refurbished in 2009, this three-star hotel has 15 rooms on three floors, furnished with family antiques. The middle floor is nicest, particularly room 10, with its view of the Duomo and frescoed ceiling. The lovely loggia gets the evening sun – the perfect place to wind down with an aperitivo. €201–250
Hostels
Academy Hostel Via Ricasoli 9 055.239.8665, www.academyhostel.eu. Since opening in 2008, this modern hostel has won awards for its service and excellent facilities: set in a seventeenth-century palazzo, it offers airy, high-ceilinged dorms and a common area with huge flat-screen TV, book and DVD library and lots of computer terminals, plus a sunny terrace. All this, and an unbeatable location – just steps from the Accademia and the Duomo. Breakfast and internet included. Rooms €61–90, dorms €29–32.
Archi Rossi Via Faenza 94/R 055.290.804, www.hostelarchirossi.com. A five-minute walk from the train station, this privately owned hostel is spotlessly clean and decorated with guests’ wall-paintings and graffiti. It’s popular – the 140 beds fill up quickly – and has a pleasant garden and terrace. There are some basic en-suite doubles too (on the third floor; no lift), and a restaurant serving cheap meals. Breakfast and internet included. Rooms €61–90, dorms €23–27.
Santa Monaca Via Santa Monaca 6 055.268.338, www.ostello.it. This privately owned hostel in Oltrarno has 112 beds (female-only and mixed), arranged in a dozen dorms with between two and twenty beds. Kitchen facilities, laundry and free internet; meals are available but are not included. Check-in 6am–2am; lock-out 10am–2pm. Curfew 2am. It’s a 10min walk from the station, or take bus #11, #36 or #37 to the second stop after the bridge. Dorms €17–24.
Villa Camerata Viale Augusto Righi 2–4 055.601.451, www.ostellofirenze.it. This HI hostel in a beautiful park to the northeast of the city (buses #17a and #17b from the station; 30min) is one of Europe’s most attractive hostels, a sixteenth-century house with frescoed ceilings. There are 320 beds, and a few private rooms. Films in English are shown every night. Breakfast is included, but there are no kitchen facilities; dinner costs €10.50. Check-in from 2pm. Rooms €61–90, dorms €18–20.
Campsites
Camping Michelangelo Viale Michelangiolo 80 055.681.1977, www.ecvacanze.it. A 240-pitch site that’s always crowded, owing to its superb hillside location in an olive grove overlooking the city centre. It has kitchen facilities and a well-stocked, if expensive, shop nearby. Take bus #13 from the train station. April–Oct.
Camping Panoramico Via Peramondo 1, Fiesole 055.559.069, www.florencecamping.com. Located in Fiesole, this 120-pitch three-star site has a bar, restaurant, pool and small supermarket. Open all year.
Villa Camerata See Hostels. Basic 55-pitch site in the grounds of the Villa Camerata HI hostel. Open all year.
The City
A short walk southeast from the train station brings you to Piazza del Duomo, site of the Duomo itself and the neighbouring Baptistry. The compact district from here south to the river is the inner core, the area into which most of the tourists are packed, and which boasts the best-preserved medieval parts of Florence and the majority of its fashionable streets. Just south of the Duomo is Florence’s outstanding sculpture gallery, the Bargello. The large Piazza della Signoria, some 300m south of the Duomo, is overlooked by the Palazzo Vecchio and the famous art gallery of the Uffizi.
West of the Duomo, and backing onto the train station, is the unmissable church of Santa Maria Novella, while immediately north is the grand church of San Lorenzo, at the heart of a throng of stalls around the food market of the Mercato Centrale. Clustered together just northeast of San Lorenzo are the monastery and museum of San Marco, with its paintings by Fra’ Angelico; the Accademia, home of Michelangelo’s David; and Piazza Santissima Annunziata, Florence’s most attractive square. Heading east of the centre, the main attraction is the vast Franciscan church of Santa Croce.
South of the river lies the Oltrarno district, where the array of museums within the Palazzo Pitti exerts the strongest pull, along with Santo Spirito, the Cappella Brancacci and the hilltop church of San Miniato al Monte.
Museum admission
All Florence’s state-run museums belong to an association called Firenze Musei (www.firenzemusei.it). The most popular museums have a daily quota of tickets that can be reserved in advance. The Uffizi, the Accademia and the Bargello belong to this group, as do the Palazzo Pitti museums (including the Bóboli gardens) and the Medici chapels in San Lorenzo.
You can reserve tickets (booking fee of €4 for Uffizi and Accademia, €3 for the rest) by phoning 055.294.883 (Mon–Fri 8.30am–6.30pm, Sat 8.30am–12.30pm), or through the Firenze Musei website, although this doesn’t always show the full availability, or at the Firenze Musei booth at Orsanmichele (Mon–Sat 10am–5.20pm), or at the museums themselves, in the case of the Uffizi and Pitti; you can book at San Marco for all of the museums. If you use the phone line, an English-speaking operator will allocate you a ticket for a specific hour, to be collected at the museum, again at a specific time, shortly before entry. That’s the theory, but in reality the phone line tends to be engaged for long periods at a stretch. Generally, the under-publicized Orsanmichele booth – which is set into the wall of the church on the Via dei Calzaiuoli side – is the easiest option. Pre-booking is strongly recommended at any time of year for the Uffizi and the Accademia, whose allocation of reservable tickets is often sold out many days ahead.
Note that various concessionary rates are available: on-the-door admission to all state-run museums is free for EU citizens under 18 and over 65, on presentation of a passport; 18–25s get a 50 percent discount, as do teachers, on proof of identity. Nearly all Florence’s major museums are routinely closed on Monday, though some are open for a couple of Mondays each month.
In the majority of cases, museum ticket offices close thirty minutes before the museum itself. At the Palazzo Vecchio, however, it’s one hour before, while at the Uffizi, Bargello, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, the dome of the Duomo, the Campanile and Pitti museums it’s 40 minutes.
Piazza del Duomo and around
Traffic and people gravitate towards the square at the heart of Florence, Piazza del Duomo, beckoned by the pinnacle of Brunelleschi’s extraordinary dome, which dominates the cityscape in a way unmatched by any architectural creation in any other Italian city. Yet even though the magnitude of the Duomo is apparent from a distance, the first full sight of the church and the adjacent Baptistry still comes as a jolt, the colours of their patterned exteriors making a startling contrast with the dun-coloured buildings around them.
The Duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore)
It was sometime in the seventh century when the seat of the Bishop of Florence was transferred from San Lorenzo to the ancient church that stood on the site of the Duomo. In the thirteenth century, it was decided that a new cathedral was required, to better reflect the wealth of the city and to put the Pisans and Sienese in their place. In 1294 Arnolfo di Cambio designed a vast basilica focused on a domed tribune; by 1418 this project was complete except for its crowning feature. The conception was magnificent: the dome was to span a distance of nearly 42m and rise from a base some 54m above the floor of the nave. It was to be the largest dome ever constructed – but nobody had yet worked out how to build it.
A committee of the masons’ guild was set up to ponder the problem, and it was to them that Filippo Brunelleschi presented himself. Some seventeen years before, in 1401, Brunelleschi had been defeated by Ghiberti in the competition to design the Baptistry doors, and had spent the intervening time studying classical architecture and developing new theories of engineering. He won the commission on condition that he worked jointly with Ghiberti – a partnership that did not last long. The key to the dome’s success was the construction of two shells: a light outer shell about one metre thick, and an inner shell four times thicker. Brunelleschi’s genius was to lay the brickwork in a herringbone pattern in cantilevered rings, thus allowing the massively heavy dome to support itself as it grew, without the use of scaffolding. On March 25, 1436 – Annunciation Day, and the Florentine New Year – the completion of the dome was marked by the papal consecration of the cathedral.
The Duomo’s overblown main facade is a nineteenth-century imitation of a Gothic front, its marble cladding quarried from the same sources as the first builders used – white stone from Carrara, red from the Maremma, green from Prato. The south side is the oldest part, but the most attractive adornment is the Porta della Mandorla, on the north side. This takes its name from the almond-shaped frame that contains the relief The Assumption of the Virgin, sculpted by Nanni di Banco around 1420.
Inside the Duomo
The Duomo’s interior (Mon–Wed & Fri 10am–5pm, Thurs closes 4.30pm, May & Oct closes at 4pm on Thurs, Sat 10am–4.45pm, Sun 1.30–4.45pm; free) is a vast enclosure of bare masonry that makes a stark contrast to the fussy exterior. Initially, the most conspicuous pieces of decoration are two memorials to condottieri (mercenary commanders) in the north aisle – Uccello’s monument to Sir John Hawkwood, painted in 1436, and Castagno’s monument to Niccolò da Tolentino, created twenty years later. Just beyond, Domenico do Michelino’s Dante Explaining the Divine Comedy makes the dome only marginally less prominent than the mountain of Purgatory. Judged by mere size, the major work of art in the Duomo is the fresco of The Last Judgement inside the dome; painted by Vasari and Zuccari, it merely defaces Brunelleschi’s masterpiece. Below the fresco are seven stained-glass roundels designed by Uccello, Ghiberti, Castagno and Donatello; they are best inspected from the gallery immediately below them, which forms part of the route up inside the dome – the entrance is outside, on the north side (Mon–Fri 8.30am–7pm, Sat 8.30am–5.40pm; €8). The gallery is the queasiest part of the climb, most of which winds between the brick walls of the outer and inner shells of the dome, up to the very summit with its stunning views over the city.
In the 1960s remnants of the Duomo’s predecessor, Santa Reparata, were uncovered beneath the west end of the nave (€3). A detailed model helps make sense of the jigsaw of Roman, early Christian and Romanesque remains, areas of mosaic and patches of fourteenth-century frescoes. Also down here is the tomb of Brunelleschi, one of the few Florentines ever honoured with burial inside the Duomo.
The Campanile
Alongside Italy’s most impressive cathedral dome is perhaps its most elegant bell tower. The Campanile (daily 8.30am–7.30pm; €6) was begun in 1334 by Giotto, who was no engineer: after his death in 1337 Andrea Pisano and Francesco Talenti took over the teetering, half-built edifice, and immediately doubled the thickness of the walls to stop it collapsing. The first storey is studded with two rows of remarkable bas-reliefs; the lower, The Creation of Man and the Arts and Industries, was carved by Pisano himself, the upper by his pupils. The figures of Prophets and Sibyls in the second-storey niches were created by Donatello and others. (All the sculptures are copies – the originals are in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo.)
The Baptistry
Generally thought to date from the sixth or seventh century, the Baptistry (Mon–Sat 12.15–7pm, Sun & first Sat of month 8.30am–2pm; €4) is the oldest building in Florence, and no building better illustrates the special relationship between Florence and the Roman world. Throughout the Middle Ages the Florentines chose to believe that the Baptistry was originally a Roman temple to Mars, a belief bolstered by the interior’s inclusion of Roman granite columns. The pattern of its marble cladding, applied in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, is clearly classical in inspiration, and the Baptistry’s most famous embellishments – its gilded bronze doors – mark the emergence of a self-conscious interest in the art of the ancient world.
After Andrea Pisano’s success in 1336 with the doors that are now on the south side of the building, the merchants’ guild held a competition in 1401 for the job of making a new set. The two finalists were Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti – and the latter won the day. Ghiberti’s north doors show a new naturalism and classical sense of harmony, but their innovation is timid in comparison with his sublime east doors. Unprecedented in the subtlety of their modelling, these Old Testament scenes are a primer of early Renaissance art, using perspective, gesture and sophisticated grouping of their subjects to convey the human drama of each scene. Ghiberti has included a self-portrait in the frame of the left-hand door – his is the fourth head from the top of the right-hand band. All the panels now set in the door are replicas, with the originals on display in the Museo dell’Opera; the original competition entries are in the Bargello.
Inside, both the mosaic floor and the magnificent mosaic ceiling – including a fearsome platoon of demons at the feet of Christ in Judgement – were created in the thirteenth century. To the right of the altar is the tomb of John XXIII, the schismatic pope who died in Florence in 1419. The monument, draped by an illusionistic marble canopy, is the work of Donatello and his pupil Michelozzo.
The Museo dell’Opera del Duomo
At Piazza del Duomo 9, behind the east end of the Duomo, is the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (Mon–Sat 9am–7.30pm, Sun 9am–1.40pm; €6), a repository of the most precious and fragile works of art from the Duomo, Baptistry and Campanile. In the large ground-floor hall are four seated Evangelists (including Donatello’s fine St John) wrenched from the Duomo’s demolished sixteenth-century facade. On the mezzanine is the highlight of the museum – Michelangelo’s angular and anguished pietà. This was one of his last works, carved when he was almost 80 and intended for his own tomb: Vasari records that the face of the hooded Nicodemus is a self-portrait. Upstairs are Donatello’s figures for the Campanile, the most powerful of which is the prophet Habbakuk, the intensity of whose gaze allegedly prompted the sculptor to seize it and yell “Speak, speak!” Donatello also created one of the ornate cantorie (choir-lofts) here; the other, created at the same time, is by Luca della Robbia. An adjacent room is dominated by Donatello’s haggard wooden figure of Mary Magdalene, a wild presence amid cases full of rich vestments, jewelled reliquaries, and a huge silver-gilt altar. Also on this floor are the original reliefs from the Campanile and a corridor lined with equipment used in the construction of the dome – and look out for Brunelleschi’s death mask.
You return to ground level into a covered courtyard where Michelangelo worked from 1501 to 1504 on his David. Today, it displays Ghiberti’s original ten bronze panels for the Baptistry’s east doors.
Piazza della Repubblica and Orsanmichele
The main route south from Piazza del Duomo is the arrow-straight Via dei Calzaiuoli, a catwalk for the Florentine passeggiata. Halfway down the street is the opening into Piazza della Repubblica, created in the nineteenth century by razing the old Jewish quarter and markets which once stood here in an attempt to give Florence – briefly the capital of Italy – a grand public square. It’s a characterless place, notably solely for its size and upmarket cafés.
Towards the southern end of Via dei Calzaiuoli rises the block-like church of Orsanmichele (Tues–Sun 10am–5pm; free). From the ninth century, the church of San Michele ad Hortum (“at the garden”) stood here, which was replaced in 1240 by a grain market and after a fire in 1304 by a merchants’ loggia. In 1380 the loggia was walled in and dedicated exclusively to religious functions, while two upper storeys were added for use as emergency grain stores. Its exterior has some impressive sculpture, including St Matthew, St Stephen and John the Baptist by Ghiberti (the Baptist was the first life-size bronze statue of the Renaissance), and Donatello’s St George. All these statues are replicas – nearly all of the originals are on display in the museum (Mon 10am–5pm; free), entered via the footbridge from the Palazzo dell’Arte della Lana, opposite the church entrance.
Piazza della Signoria and around
Whereas the Piazza del Duomo provides the focus for the city’s religious life, the Piazza della Signoria – site of the mighty Palazzo Vecchio and forecourt to the Uffizi – has always been the centre of its secular existence. The most lavishly decorated rooms of the Palazzo Vecchio are now a museum, but the rest of the building is still the HQ of the city’s councillors and bureaucrats, and the piazza in front of it provides the stage for major civic events and political rallies.
The piazza’s array of statuary starts with Giambologna’s equestrian statue of Cosimo I and continues with Ammanati’s fatuous Neptune Fountain and copies of Donatello’s Marzocco (the city’s heraldic lion), his Judith and Holofernes and of Michelangelo’s David. Conceived as a partner piece to David, Bandinelli’s lumpen Hercules and Cacus was designed as a personal emblem of Cosimo I and a symbol of Florentine fortitude; Benvenuto Cellini described the musclebound Hercules as looking like “a sackful of melons”. Near Ammanati’s fountain is a plaque set into the pavement to mark the site of Savonarola’s Bonfire of the Vanities and his execution. The square’s Loggia della Signoria was built in the late fourteenth century as a dais for city officials during ceremonies; only in the late eighteenth century did it become a showcase for sculpture, the best of which are Giambologna’s Rape of the Sabine and Cellini’s superb Perseus.
The Palazzo Vecchio
Probably designed by Arnolfo di Cambio, Florence’s fortress-like town hall, the Palazzo Vecchio (daily 9am–7pm, Thurs closes at 2pm, sometimes open late in summer; €6), was begun as the Palazzo dei Priori in the last year of the thirteenth century, to provide premises for the highest tier of the city’s republican government. Changes in the Florentine constitution over the years entailed alterations to the layout of the palace, the most radical coming in 1540, when Cosimo I moved his retinue here from the Palazzo Medici and grafted a huge extension onto the rear. The Medici remained in residence for only nine years before moving to the Palazzo Pitti; the old (vecchio) palace – which they left to their son, Francesco – then acquired its present name.
Giorgio Vasari, court architect from 1555 until his death in 1574, was responsible for much of the decor in the courtyard, and his limited talents were given full rein in the huge Salone dei Cinquecento at the top of the stairs, which was built at the end of the fifteenth century as a council assembly hall. This room might have become one of Italy’s most extraordinary showcases of Renaissance art, when in 1503 Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were commissioned to fresco opposite walls of the chamber. Unfortunately, Leonardo abandoned the project after his experimental fresco technique went wrong, and Michelangelo’s work existed only on paper when he was summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II. A few decades later Vasari stepped in, and covered the room with drearily bombastic murals celebrating Cosimo’s military prowess. Michelangelo’s Victory, facing the entrance door, was sculpted for Julius’s tomb but was donated to the Medici by the artist’s nephew.
From the Salone del Cinquecento, a roped-off door allows a glimpse of the strangest room in the building, the Studiolo di Francesco I. Designed by Vasari towards the end of his career and decorated by no fewer than thirty Mannerist artists (1570–74), this windowless cell was created as a retreat for the introverted son of Cosimo and Eleanor.
Upstairs, you first enter the Quartiere degli Elementi, where all five salons are slavishly devoted to a different member of the Medici clan. More interesting are the private apartments of Eleanor di Toledo, Cosimo I’s wife – especially the tiny and exquisite chapel, vividly decorated by Bronzino in the 1540s. Beyond the frescoed Sala dell’Udienza (originally the audience chamber of the Republic) you come to the Sala dei Gigli, which takes its name from the lilies (gigli) that adorn most of its surfaces. The room has frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio, but the highlight is Donatello’s original Judith and Holofernes. Commissioned by Cosimo il Vecchio, it freezes the moment at which Judith’s arm begins the scything stroke that is to cut off Holofernes’ head, a dramatic conception that no other sculptor of the period would have attempted.
The two small side-rooms are the Cancelleria, Machiavelli’s office for fifteen years and now containing a bust and portrait of the much-maligned political thinker; and the lovely Sala delle Carte, decorated with 57 maps painted in 1563 by the Medici court astronomer Fra’ Ignazio Danti, depicting what was then the entire known world.
The Uffizi
The Galleria degli Uffizi (Tues–Sun 8.15am–6.50pm; €6.50; see Museum admission for booking details) is, quite simply, the finest picture gallery in Italy. So many masterpieces are collected here that it’s not even possible to skate over the surface in a single visit. Though you may not want to emulate Edward Gibbon, who visited the Uffizi fourteen times on a single trip to Florence, it makes sense to limit your initial tour to the first fifteen rooms, where the Florentine Renaissance works are concentrated, and to explore the rest another time.
The gallery is housed in what were once government offices (uffizi) built by Vasari for Cosimo I in 1560. After Vasari’s death, work on the building was continued by Buontalenti, who was asked by Francesco I to glaze the upper storey so that it could house his art collection. Each of the succeeding Medici added to the family’s trove of art treasures, which was preserved for public inspection by the last member of the family, Anna Maria Lodovica, whose will specified that it should be left to the people of Florence and never be allowed to leave the city. In the nineteenth century a large proportion of the statuary was transferred to the Bargello, while most of the antiquities went to the Museo Archeologico, leaving the Uffizi as essentially a gallery of paintings supplemented with some classical sculptures. The gallery is in the process of expansion, doubling the number of rooms open to the public in order to show some eight hundred pictures that have been kept in storage. Works are likely to be completed in 2015; accordingly, some paintings may not be on show precisely where they appear in the following account.
Pre-Renaissance
You can take a lift up to the galleries, but if you take the staircase instead, you’ll pass the entrance to the Uffizi’s prints and drawings section. The bulk of this vast collection is reserved for scholarly scrutiny but samples are often on public show.
The beginnings of the stylistic evolution of that period can be traced in the three altarpieces of the Maestà (Madonna Enthroned) that dominate Room 2: the Madonna Rucellai, Maestà di Santa Trìnita and Madonna d’Ognissanti, by Duccio, Cimabue and Giotto respectively. These great works, which dwarf everything around them, show the softening of the hieratic Byzantine style into a more tactile form of representation.
Painters from fourteenth-century Siena fill Room 3, with several pieces by Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti and Simone Martini’s glorious Annunciation. In Room 5, devoted to the last flowering of Gothic art, Lorenzo Monaco is represented by an Adoration of the Magi and his greatest masterpiece, The Coronation of the Virgin. Equally arresting is another Adoration of the Magi by Gentile da Fabriano, a picture spangled with gold and crammed with incidental detail. Nearby is the Thebaid, a beguiling little narrative that depicts monastic life in the Egyptian desert as a sort of holy fairy-tale; it’s generally attributed to the young Fra’ Angelico.
Early Renaissance
Room 7 reveals the sheer diversity of early Renaissance painting. Fra’ Angelico’s gorgeous Coronation of the Virgin takes place against a Gothic-like field of gold, but there’s a very un-Gothic sensibility at work in its individualized depiction of the attendant throng. Paolo Uccello’s The Battle of San Romano once hung in Lorenzo il Magnifico’s bedchamber, in company with its two companion pieces now in the Louvre and London’s National Gallery. The Madonna and Child with Sts Francis, John the Baptist, Zenobius and Lucy is one of only twelve extant paintings by Domenico Veneziano, whose greatest pupil, Piero della Francesca, is represented in Room 8 by the paired portraits of Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza, the duke and duchess of Urbino. Much of this room is given over to Fra’ Filippo Lippi, whose Madonna and Child with Two Angels is one of the gallery’s most popular faces: the model was Lucrezia Buti, a convent novice who became the object of one of his more enduring sexual obsessions. Lucrezia puts in another appearance in Lippi’s crowded Coronation of the Virgin, where she’s the young woman gazing out in the right foreground; Filippo himself, hand on chin, makes eye contact on the left side of the picture. Their liaison produced a son, the aptly named Filippino “Little Philip” Lippi, whose Otto Altarpiece – one of several works by him here – is typical of the more melancholic cast of the younger Lippi’s art.
The Pollaiuolo brothers and Botticelli
Lippi’s great pupil, Botticelli, steals some of the thunder in Room 9 – Fortitude, one of the series of cardinal and theological virtues, is a very early work by him. The rest of the series is by the brothers Piero and Antonio del Pollaiuolo, including Sts Vincent, James and Eustace, one of their best works.
It’s in the merged rooms 10–14 that the finest of Botticelli’s productions are gathered, most notably the Primavera and the Birth of Venus. The identities of the characters in the Primavera are clear enough: on the right Zephyrus, god of the west wind, chases the nymph Cloris, who is then transfigured into Flora, the pregnant goddess of spring; Venus stands in the centre, to the side of the three Graces, who are targeted by Cupid; on the left Mercury wards off the clouds of winter. What this all means, however, has occupied scholars for decades, but the consensus seems to be that it shows the triumph of Venus, with the Graces as the physical embodiment of her beauty and Flora the symbol of her fruitfulness.
Botticelli’s most alluring painting, the Birth of Venus, probably takes as its source the myth that the goddess emerged from the sea after it had been impregnated by the castration of Uranus, an allegory for the creation of beauty through the mingling of the spirit (Uranus) and the physical world.
Botticelli’s devotional paintings are generally less perplexing. The Adoration of the Magi is traditionally thought to contain a gallery of Medici portraits: Cosimo il Vecchio as the first king, his sons Giovanni and Piero as the other two kings, Lorenzo the Magnificent on the far left, and his brother Giuliano as the black-haired young man in profile on the right. Only the identification of Cosimo is reasonably certain, along with that of Botticelli himself, on the right in the yellow robe. In later life, influenced by Savonarola’s teaching, Botticelli confined himself to devotional pictures and moral fables, and his style became increasingly severe and didactic. The transformation is clear when comparing the easy grace of the Madonna of the Magnificat and the Madonna of the Pomegranate with the more rigidly composed Pala di Sant’Ambrogio or the angular and agitated Calumny.
Not quite every masterpiece in this room is by Botticelli. Set away from the walls is the Adoration of the Shepherds by his Flemish contemporary Hugo van der Goes. Brought to Florence in 1483 by Tommaso Portinari, the Medici agent in Bruges, it provided the city’s artists with their first large-scale demonstration of the realism of Northern European oil painting, and had a great influence on the way the medium was exploited here.
Leonardo to Mantegna
Works in Room 15 trace the formative years of Leonardo da Vinci, whose distinctive touch appears first in the Baptism of Christ by his master Verrocchio: the wistful angel in profile is by the 18-year-old apprentice, as is the misty landscape in the background, and Leonardo also worked heavily on the figure of Christ. A similar terrain of soft-focus mountains and water occupies the far distance in Leonardo’s slightly later Annunciation, in which a diffused light falls on a scene where everything is observed with a scientist’s precision. In contrast to the poise of the Annunciation, the sketch of The Adoration of the Magi – abandoned when Leonardo left Florence for Milan in early 1482 – presents the infant Christ as the eye of a vortex of figures, all drawn into his presence by a force as irresistible as a whirlpool. Most of the rest of the room is given over to Raphael’s teacher, Perugino.
Room 18, the octagonal Tribuna, houses the most important of the Medici’s collection of classical sculptures – in particular, the Medici Venus – but also some fascinating portraits by Bronzino, painted like figures of porcelain, and Andrea del Sarto’s flirtatious Portrait of a Young Woman.
The last section of this wing throws together Renaissance paintings from outside Florence. Signorelli and Perugino – with some photo-sharp portraits – are the principal artists in Room 19, and after them comes a room devoted to Cranach, Dürer and other German artists. A taste of the Uffizi’s remarkable collection of Venetian painting follows, with an impenetrable Sacred Allegory by Giovanni Bellini, and three works attributed to Giorgione. In Room 22, a clutch of Northern European paintings includes some superb portraits by Holbein (notably Sir Richard Southwell and a self-portrait) and Hans Memling. In the following room – called the Correggio room, after the trio of pictures by him on show here – there’s a clutch of exquisite small paintings by Mantegna, including the Madonna of the Caves; note the minuscule figures at work in the quarry in the background.
Michelangelo, Mannerism and Titian
Beyond the stockpile of statues in the short corridor overlooking the Arno, the main attraction in Room 25 is Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo, the only easel painting he came close to completing. The adjoining room contains Andrea del Sarto’s sultry Madonna of the Harpies and a number of compositions by Raphael, including his self-portrait, the lovely Madonna of the Goldfinch and Pope Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de’ Medici and Luigi de’ Rossi. The Michelangelo tondo’s contorted gestures and virulent colours were greatly influential on the Mannerist painters of the sixteenth century, as can be gauged from Moses Defending the Daughters of Jethro by Rosso Fiorentino, one of the seminal figures of the movement, whose works hang in Room 27, along with major works by Bronzino and his adoptive father, Pontormo.
Room 28 is almost entirely given over to another of the titanic figures of sixteenth-century art, Titian, with ten paintings on show. His Flora and A Knight of Malta are stunning, but most eyes tend to swivel towards the Urbino Venus, the most provocative of all Renaissance nudes, described by Mark Twain as “the foulest, the vilest, the obscenest picture the world possesses”. A brief diversion through the painters of the sixteenth-century Emilian school follows, centred on Parmigianino, whose Madonna of the Long Neck is one of the pivotal Mannerist creations. Rooms 31 to 34 feature a miscellany of sixteenth-century artists (look out for the El Greco) and some top-class works from Venice and the Veneto, including Moroni’s Portrait of Count Pietro Secco Suardi, Paolo Veronese’s Annunciation and Holy Family with St Barbara, and a gathering of fine pieces by Lorenzo Lotto.
The Corridoio Vasariano
A door on the west corridor, between rooms 25 and 34, opens onto the Corridoio Vasariano, a passageway built by Vasari in 1565 to link the Palazzo Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti, via the Uffizi. Winding its way down to the river, over the Ponte Vecchio, through the church of Santa Felìcita and into the Giardino di Bóboli, it gives a fascinating series of clandestine views of the city, and is also lined with paintings, the larger portion of which comprises a gallery of self-portraits, featuring such greats as Andrea del Sarto, Bernini, Rubens, Velázquez, David, Delacroix and Ingres. The corridor is currently open for private tours on request (055.294.833, firenzemusei@operalaboratori.com), but is expected to close for restoration imminently, with the best of the paintings likely to move to the extended Uffizi galleries. For the latest situation, ask at one of the tourist offices.
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
The Uffizi’s collection of seventeenth-century art is in rooms 41–45. Room 41 features strong work from Van Dyck and Rubens, whose Portrait of Isabella Brandt is perhaps his finest painting here. The most overwhelming, however, are the huge Henry IV at the Battle of Ivry and The Triumphal Entry of Henry IV into Paris – Henry’s marriage to Marie de’ Medici is the connection with Florence. This pair are displayed in the majestic Neoclassical Niobe Room. In this section of the gallery you’ll also see some superb portraits by Rembrandt, Goya and Chardin.
The rooms downstairs are used for temporary exhibitions and as a showcase for Italian art of the seventeenth century. Dramatic images from Salvator Rosa, Luca Giordano and Artemisia Gentileschi make quite an impression, but the presiding genius is Caravaggio, with his bravura Medusa (painted on a shield), the smug little Bacchus, and the throat-grabbing Sacrifice of Isaac.
The Bargello
The Museo Nazionale del Bargello (Tues–Sat 8.15am–5pm, 2nd & 4th Sun of month and 1st, 3rd & 5th Mon of month same hours, longer hours and higher charge for special exhibitions; €4), which is both an outstanding museum of sculpture and a huge applied-art collection, is installed in the daunting Palazzo del Bargello on Via del Proconsolo, halfway between the Duomo and the Palazzo Vecchio. The palazzo was built in 1255, and soon became the seat of the Podestà, the chief magistrate. Numerous malefactors were tried, sentenced and executed here and the building acquired its present name in the sixteenth century, after the resident bargello, or police chief.
The courtyard and ground floor
From the ticket desk, you enter the beautiful Gothic courtyard, which is plastered with the coats of arms of the Podestà and contains, among many other pieces, six allegorical figures by Ammanati. At the foot of the courtyard steps is the Michelangelo Room, containing his first major sculpture, a tipsy, soft-bellied figure of Bacchus, carved at the age of 22 – a year before his great Pietà in Rome. Michelangelo’s style soon evolved into something less ostentatiously virtuosic, as is shown by the tender Tondo Pitti, while the rugged expressivity of his late manner is exemplified by the square-jawed Bust of Brutus. Works by Michelangelo’s followers and contemporaries are ranged in the immediate vicinity – Cellini’s Bust of Cosimo I and Giambologna’s famous Mercury are the best of them.
The upper floors
At the top of the courtyard staircase, the loggia has been turned into an aviary for Giambologna’s bronze birds, brought here from the Medici villa at Castello. In the adjacent Salone di Donatello, vestiges of the artist’s sinuous Gothic manner are evident in the drapery of his marble David, placed against the left wall, but there’s nothing antiquated in the alert, tense St George, carved just eight years later for the tabernacle of the armourers’ guild at Orsanmichele and installed here in a replica of its original niche. In front stands Donatello’s sexually ambiguous bronze David, cast around 1435, as the first freestanding nude figure since classical times. His strange, jubilant figure known as Love/Attis dates from around 1440, while his breathtakingly vivid bust of Niccolò da Uzzano shows that he was just as comfortable with portraiture. The less complex humanism of Luca della Robbia is embodied in the glazed terracotta Madonnas set round the walls, while Donatello’s master, Ghiberti, is represented by his relief The Sacrifice of Isaac, his successful entry in the competition for the Baptistry doors. The treatment of the same theme submitted by Brunelleschi is displayed nearby. Most of the rest of this floor is occupied by a collection of European and Islamic applied art, of so high a standard that it would constitute an engrossing museum in its own right. Elsewhere on this floor is dazzling carved ivory from Byzantium and medieval France.
The sculptural display resumes on the next floor up, where you’ll find superb work by the della Robbia family, Italy’s best assembly of small Renaissance bronzes (with plentiful evidence of Giambologna’s virtuosity at table-top scale) and two rooms devoted mainly to Renaissance busts, including magnificent portraits by Verrocchio, Francesco Laurana and Mino da Fiesole.
The Museo di Storia della Scienza
Long after Florence had declined from its artistic apogee, the intellectual reputation of the city was maintained by its scientists. Grand Duke Ferdinando II and his brother Leopoldo, both of whom studied with Galileo, founded the Accademia del Cimento (Academy of Experiment) in 1657, and the instruments made and acquired by this academy form the core of the excellent Museo di Storia della Scienza (Mon & Wed–Fri 9.30am–5pm, Tues & Sat 9.30am–1pm; €4), close to the river, on Piazza dei Giudici. The first floor features timepieces and measuring instruments (such as beautiful Arab astrolabes), as well as a massive armillary sphere made for Ferdinando I to prove the fallacy of Copernicus’s heliocentric universe. Some of Galileo’s original instruments are on show here, including the lens with which he discovered the four moons of Jupiter. On the floor above there are all kinds of exquisitely manufactured scientific and mechanical equipment, several of which were built to demonstrate the fundamental laws of physics. Dozens of clocks and timepieces are on show too, while the medical section is full of alarming surgical instruments and wax anatomical models for teaching obstetrics.
The western city centre
Several streets in central Florence retain their medieval character, especially in the district immediately to the west of Piazza della Signoria. Forming a gateway to this quarter is the Mercato Nuovo (daily 9am–7.30pm), whose souvenir stalls are the busiest in the city. Usually a small group is gathered round the bronze boar known as Il Porcellino, trying to gain some good luck by getting a coin to fall from the animal’s mouth through the grill below his head.
Museo di Palazzo Davanzati
Perhaps the most imposing exterior in this district is to be seen just to the south of the market – the thirteenth-century Palazzo di Parte Guelfa, financed from the confiscated property of the Ghibelline faction and later expanded by Brunelleschi. However, for a more complete re-creation of medieval Florence you should visit the fourteenth-century Palazzo Davanzati in Via Porta Rossa, whose impressive restoration was finished in 2009. Now the Museo di Palazzo Davanzati (Tues–Sat 8.15am–1.50pm, 1st, 3rd & 5th Sun of month and 2nd & 4th Mon of month same hours; €2), the house is decorated in predominantly medieval style, using furniture from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries gathered from various Florentine museums, most notably the Bargello. Visitors have unrestricted access to the first floor but visits to the second and third floors are at set hours (10am, 11am & noon) and must be booked in advance in person or by phone (055.238.8610).
The coat of arms of the wealthy Davanzati family, who occupied the house from 1578 until 1838, is still visible on the facade, and you can admire their impressive family tree in the entrance hall. Upstairs are several frescoed rooms – the Sala dei Pappagalli (Parrot Room) and the Camera dei Pavoni (Peacock Bedroom) are particularly splendid – as well as some interesting reconstructions of day-to-day life in the house, with chests full of linen in the bedrooms and a clutter of household utensils, tools, looms and spinning wheels in the third-floor kitchen. There are also fine collections of lacework and ceramics on the first floor.
Santa Trìnita and around
Via Porta Rossa culminates at Piazza Santa Trìnita, close to the city’s most stylish bridge, the Ponte Santa Trìnita, which was rebuilt stone by stone after the retreating Nazis had blown up the original in 1944. Santa Trìnita church (Mon–Sat 8am–noon & 4–6pm, Sun 4–6pm; free) was founded in the eleventh century, but piecemeal additions have lent it a pleasantly hybrid air: the largely Gothic interior contrasts with Buontalenti’s Mannerist facade of 1594. The interior is notable above all for Ghirlandaio’s frescoes of the Life of St Francis in the Cappella Sassetti – as notable for their depiction of fifteenth-century Florence as for their ostensible subjects, they feature portraits of various Medici.
Heading north from Santa Trìnita is Via de’ Tornabuoni, home to Cartier, Versace, Armani and the famous local firms Ferragamo, Cavalli and Pucci. Conspicuous wealth is nothing new here, for looming above everything is the vast Palazzo Strozzi, the last, the largest and the least subtle of Florentine Renaissance palaces. Filippo Strozzi bought and demolished a dozen townhouses to make space for Giuliano da Sangallo’s design (1536). Part of the building is now used for exhibitions.
The church of San Pancrazio, nearby on Via della Spada, has been converted into the slick Museo Marino Marini (10am–5pm; closed Tues, Sun & Aug; €4), a spacious showcase for the work of one of Italy’s foremost twentieth-century sculptors.
Ognissanti
In medieval times a major area of cloth production – the foundation of the Florentine economy – lay in the west of the city, in the parish of Ognissanti (daily 7am–12.30pm & 4–8pm; free), located on Borgo Ognissanti, five minutes’ walk west of Via de’ Tornabuoni. The Baroque facade, added in the sixteenth century when Ognissanti became a Franciscan church, is not very interesting, but the interior is a different matter. The young face squeezed between the Madonna and the dark-cloaked man in Ghirlandaio’s Madonna della Misericordia fresco, over the second altar on the right, is said to be that of Amerigo Vespucci – later to set sail on voyages that would give his name to America. Just beyond this, on opposite sides of the nave, are mounted Botticelli’s St Augustine and Ghirlandaio’s St Jerome, both painted in 1480. In the same year Ghirlandaio painted the bucolic Last Supper that covers one wall of the refectory, reached through the cloister entered to the left of the church (March–June Thurs–Tues 9am–5pm; rest of year Mon, Tues & Sat 9am–noon; free).
Santa Maria Novella
The focus of the western city centre is Piazza Santa Maria Novella, a large piazza, recently given a major overhaul. The marble facade designed by Alberti for the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella (Mon–Thurs 9am–5.30pm, Fri 11am–5.30pm, Sat 9am–5pm, Sun 1–5pm; €3.50) is one of the most attractive in the city, and the interior – which was designed to enable preachers to address their sermons to as large a congregation as possible – is filled with masterworks, not least Masaccio’s extraordinary 1427 fresco of The Trinity (left aisle), one of the earliest works in which perspective and classical proportion were rigorously employed. Nearby, Giotto’s Crucifix, a radically naturalistic and probably very early work (c.1288–90), hangs in what is thought to be its intended position, poised dramatically over the nave. Filippino Lippi’s frescoes for the Cappella di Filippo Strozzi (immediately to the right of the chancel) are a fantasy vision of classical ruins in which the narrative often seems to take second place, and one of the first examples of an archeological interest in Roman culture. As a chronicle of fifteenth-century life in Florence, no series of frescoes is more fascinating than Domenico Ghirlandaio’s behind the high altar; the cycle was commissioned by Giovanni Tornabuoni – which explains why certain ladies of the Tornabuoni family are present at the birth of John the Baptist and of the Virgin. Brunelleschi’s Crucifix, popularly supposed to have been carved as a response to Donatello’s uncouth version at Santa Croce, hangs in the Cappella Gondi, left of the chancel. At the end of the left transept is the raised Cappella Strozzi, whose faded frescoes by Nardo di Cione (1350s) include an entire wall of visual commentary on Dante’s Inferno. The magnificent altarpiece by Nardo’s brother Andrea (better known as Orcagna) is a piece of propaganda for the Dominicans – Christ is shown bestowing favour simultaneously on St Peter and St Thomas Aquinas, a figure second only to St Dominic in the order’s hierarchy.
The Museo di Santa Maria Novella
More remarkable paintings are on display in the spacious Romanesque conventual buildings to the left of the church, now the Museo di Santa Maria Novella (Mon–Thurs & Sat 9am–5pm, public hols 9am–2pm; €2.70). You enter into the Chiostro Verde, which features Stories from Genesis by Paolo Uccello and his workshop. Leading off from this cloister is the Cappellone degli Spagnuoli (Spanish Chapel), which received its new name after Eleanor of Toledo reserved it for the use of her Spanish entourage. Its fresco cycle by Andrea di Firenze, an extended depiction of the triumph of the Catholic Church, was described by Ruskin as “the most noble piece of pictorial philosophy in Italy”. The left wall depicts the Triumph of Divine Wisdom: Thomas Aquinas is enthroned below the Virgin and Apostles amid winged Virtues and biblical notables. The more spectacular right wall depicts the Triumph of the Church, and includes Florence’s cathedral, imagined eighty years before its actual completion.
The Museo Nazionale Alinari Fotografia
Facing Santa Maria Novella across the piazza, the Loggia di San Paolo – a close imitation of Brunelleschi’s Spedale degli Innocenti – is home to the Museo Nazionale Alinari Fotografia (Mon & Thurs 3–7pm, Tues 10am–3pm, Fri–Sun 10am–7pm; €9, €6 on Mon). Part of the museum is set aside for one-off photography exhibitions, but most of the space is given over to changing displays drawn from Alinari’s archive of more than four million pictures, covering everything from 1840s daguerreotypes to the work of present-day photographers. The technology of the art is featured too, with a variety of cameras on show, plus stereoscopes and camera obscuras.
The northern city centre
The busy quarter north of the Duomo and east of the train station is focused on Florence’s main food market, the vast Mercato Centrale (July & Aug Mon–Sat 7am–2am; Sept–June Mon–Fri 7am–2pm, Sat 7am–5pm). Butchers, alimentari, tripe sellers, greengrocers, pasta stalls and bars are all gathered under one roof, charging prices lower than you’ll find elsewhere. All around is a hectic street market (daily 8.30am–7pm), thronged with stalls selling leather bags, belts, clothes and shoes.
San Lorenzo
Founded in the fourth century, San Lorenzo (daily 10am–5.30pm; March–Oct closes at 1.30pm on Sun; €3.50) has a claim to be the oldest church in Florence – though the current building dates from the 1420s – and was the city’s cathedral for almost three centuries. Although Michelangelo sweated to produce a scheme for San Lorenzo’s facade, the bare brick of the exterior has never been clad; it’s a stark, inappropriate prelude to the powerful simplicity of Brunelleschi’s interior, one of the earliest Renaissance church designs. Inside are two amazing bronze pulpits by Donatello. Covered in densely populated reliefs, chiefly of scenes preceding and following the Crucifixion, these are the artist’s last works and were completed by his pupils. Close by, at the foot of the altar steps, a large disc of multicoloured marble marks the grave of Cosimo il Vecchio, the artist’s main patron. Further pieces by Donatello (who is buried here) adorn the beautiful Sagrestia Vecchia, off the left transept.
The Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana
A gateway to the left of the church facade leads to the Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana (Mon–Sat 9am–1pm; €3). Wishing to create a suitably grandiose home for the precious manuscripts assembled by Cosimo and Lorenzo de’ Medici, Pope Clement VII – Lorenzo’s nephew – asked Michelangelo to design a new library in 1524. His Ricetto, or vestibule (1559–71), is a revolutionary showpiece of Mannerist architecture, delighting in paradoxical display: brackets that support nothing, columns that sink into the walls rather than stand out from them, and a flight of steps so large that it almost fills the room. From this eccentric space, you’re sometimes allowed into the tranquil reading room; here, too, almost everything is the work of Michelangelo, even the inlaid desks.
The Cappelle Medicee
Some of Michelangelo’s most celebrated works are in San Lorenzo’s Sagrestia Nuova, part of the Cappelle Medicee (Tues–Sat 8.15am–4.50pm, 1st, 3rd & 5th Sun of month and 2nd & 4th Mon of month same hours; €6). The entrance to the chapels is round the back of San Lorenzo, on Piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini, and leads directly into the low-vaulted crypt, last resting-place of a clutch of minor Medici. After filing through the crypt, you climb into the Cappella dei Principi (Chapel of the Princes), a gloomy, stone-plated octagonal hall built as a mausoleum for Cosimo I and his ancestors. Morbid and dowdy, it was the most expensive building project ever financed by the family.
A corridor leads to the Sagrestia Nuova, begun by Michelangelo in 1520 and intended as a tribute to, and subversion of, Brunelleschi’s Sagrestia Vecchia in San Lorenzo. Architectural connoisseurs go into raptures over the complex alcoves and other such sophistications, but you might be more drawn to the fabulous Medici tombs, carved by Michelangelo. To the left is the tomb of Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, grandson of Lorenzo il Magnifico. Opposite is the tomb of Giuliano, Duke of Nemours, youngest son of Lorenzo il Magnifico. Their effigies were intended to face the equally grand tombs of Lorenzo il Magnifico and his brother Giuliano, two Medici who had genuine claims to fame and honour, but the only part of the project realized by Michelangelo is the serene Madonna and Child, the last image of the Madonna he ever sculpted and one of the most affecting, now flanked by Cosmas and Damian, patron saints of doctors (medici) and thus of the dynasty.
The Palazzo Medici-Riccardi
On the northeastern edge of Piazza San Lorenzo stands the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi (9am–7pm; closed Wed; €7), built by Michelozzo in the 1440s for Cosimo il Vecchio and for more than a century the principal seat of the Medici. With its heavily rusticated exterior, this mighty palace was the prototype for such houses as the Palazzo Pitti and Palazzo Strozzi, but was greatly altered in the seventeenth century by its new owners, the Riccardi family, who took over after Cosimo I moved out. Of Michelozzo’s original scheme, only the courtyard and upstairs chapel remain intact. The chapel’s interior is covered by brilliantly colourful and wonderfully detailed frescoes of The Procession of the Magi, painted around 1460 by Benozzo Gozzoli. Only ten people are allowed to view these paintings at any one time, with viewings every five minutes, so the queues can be long.
After the chapel, you visit the Riccardi apartments, including the sumptuous Sala di Carlo VIII and, further on, the Sala di Luca Giordano, a gilded and mirrored gallery notable for Luca Giordano’s overblown ceiling fresco, The Apotheosis of the Medici, showing Cosimo III with his son, Gian Gastone (d. 1737), the last male Medici. In a nearby room is Fra’ Filippo Lippi’s Madonna and Child.
Off the courtyard, the Museo dei Marmi holds the Riccardi’s sculpture collection, and a multimedia room explains the history of the chapel frescoes.
The Accademia
Europe’s first academy of drawing was founded northeast of San Lorenzo on Via Ricasoli in the mid-sixteenth century by Bronzino, Ammanati and Vasari. In 1784, Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo opened the adjoining Galleria dell’Accademia (Tues–Sun 8.15am–6.50pm; €6.50), which has an impressive collection of paintings, especially of Florentine altarpieces from the fourteenth to the early sixteenth centuries. What pulls the crowds, however, is one of the most famous sculptures in the world: Michelangelo’s David.
Commissioned by the Opera del Duomo in 1501, David was conceived to invoke parallels with Florence’s freedom from outside domination (despite the superior force of its enemies), and its recent liberation from Savonarola and the Medici. It’s an incomparable show of technical bravura, all the more impressive given the difficulties posed by the marble from which it was carved. The four-metre block of stone – thin, shallow and riddled with cracks – had been quarried from Carrara forty years earlier. Several artists had already attempted to work with it, notably Agostino di Duccio, Andrea Sansovino and Leonardo da Vinci. Michelangelo succeeded where others had failed, completing the work in 1504 when he was still just 29.
When they gave Michelangelo his commission, the Opera del Duomo had in mind a large statue that would be placed high on the cathedral’s facade. Perhaps because the finished David was even larger than had been envisaged, it was decided that it should be placed instead at ground level, in the Piazza della Signoria. The statue remained in its outdoor setting, exposed to the elements, until it was sent to the Accademia in 1873, by which time it had lost its gilded hair and the gilded band across its chest. David now occupies a specially built alcove, protected by a glass barrier that was built in 1991, after one of its toes was cracked by a hammer-wielding artist. With its massive head and gangling arms, David looks to some people like a monstrous adolescent, but its proportions would not have appeared so graceless in the setting for which it was first conceived, at a rather higher altitude and at a greater distance from the public than the position it occupies in this chapel-like space.
Michelangelo once described the process of sculpting as being the liberation of the form from within the stone, a notion that seems to be embodied by the unfinished Slaves that line the approach to David. His procedure, clearly demonstrated here, was to cut the figure as if it were a deep relief, and then to free the three-dimensional figure; often his assistants would perform the initial operation, working from the master’s pencil marks, so it’s possible that Michelangelo’s own chisel never actually touched these stones. Carved in the 1520s and 1530s, these powerful creations were intended for the tomb of Pope Julius II, but in 1564 the artist’s nephew gave them to the Medici, who installed them in the grotto of the Bóboli gardens.
The Museo di San Marco
A whole side of Piazza San Marco is taken up by the Dominican convent and church of San Marco, the first of which is now the Museo di San Marco (Tues–Fri 8.15am–1.50pm, Sat 8.15am–4.50pm; also 2nd & 4th Sun of month 8.15am–4.50pm, 1st, 3rd & 5th Mon of month 8.15am–1.50pm; €4). In the 1430s, the convent was the recipient of Cosimo il Vecchio’s most lavish patronage: he financed Michelozzo’s enlargement of the buildings, and went on to establish a vast public library here. Ironically, the convent became the centre of resistance to the Medici later in the century – Savonarola was prior of San Marco from 1491. Meanwhile, as Michelozzo was altering and expanding the convent, its walls were being decorated by one of its friars, Fra’ Angelico, a painter in whom a medieval simplicity of faith was allied to a Renaissance sophistication of manner. The Ospizio dei Pellegrini (Pilgrims’ Hospice) contains around twenty paintings by Fra’ Angelico, most brought here from other churches in Florence, but the most celebrated work is the glorious Annunciation at the summit of the main staircase. All round this upper floor are ranged 44 tiny dormitory cells, each frescoed either by Angelico himself or by his assistants.
The church of San Marco is worth a visit for two works on the second and third altars on the right: a Madonna and Saints, painted in 1509 by Fra’ Bartolommeo (like Fra’ Angelico, a friar at the convent), and an eighth-century mosaic called The Madonna in Prayer, brought here from Constantinople.
Piazza Santissima Annunziata
To the east of San Marco lies the handsome Piazza Santissima Annunziata, whose tone is set by Brunelleschi’s Spedale degli Innocenti (daily 10am–7pm; €4), which opened in 1445 as the first foundlings’ hospital in Europe and still incorporates an orphanage – Luca della Robbia’s ceramic tondi of swaddled babies advertise the building’s function. The convent, centred on two beautiful cloisters, now also contains a miscellany of Florentine Renaissance art including one of Luca della Robbia’s most charming Madonnas and an incident-packed Adoration of the Magi by Ghirlandaio.
The church of Santissima Annunziata (daily 7am–12.30pm & 4–6.30pm, Sun also 8.45–9.45pm) is the mother church of the Servite order, which was founded by seven Florentine aristocrats in 1234. Its dedication took place in the fourteenth century, in recognition of a miraculous image of the Virgin which, left unfinished by the monastic artist, was purportedly completed by an angel. It attracted so many pilgrims that the Medici commissioned Michelozzo to rebuild the church in the second half of the fifteenth century in order to accommodate them. In the Chiostro dei Voti, the atrium that Michelozzo built onto the church, are some beautiful frescoes mainly painted in the 1510s, including a Visitation by Pontormo and a series by Andrea del Sarto. The adjoining Chiostro dei Morti, entered from the left transept, is worth visiting for Andrea del Sarto’s Madonna del Sacco, painted over the door.
The Museo Archeologico
On the other side of Via della Colonna from Santissima Annunziata, the Museo Archeologico (Tues–Fri 8.30am–7pm, Sat & Sun 8.30am–2pm; €4) houses the finest collection of its kind in northern Italy, but struggles to draw visitors for whom the Renaissance is the beginning and the end of Florence’s appeal. Long-overdue renovation works are scheduled to begin in 2011, so you can anticipate some disruption.
The museum’s special strength is its Etruscan collection (much of it bequeathed by the Medici), which features two outstanding bronze sculptures – the Arringatore (Orator) and the Chimera, a triple-headed monster made in the fourth century BC. The Egyptian collection is mostly displayed in an uninspiring manner, but a recent renovation has vastly improved the top floor, where the primary focus is on the Greek and Roman collections. The star piece in the huge hoard of Greek vases is the large François Vase, a sixth-century-BC krater discovered in an Etruscan tomb near Chiusi in 1844. Other attention-grabbing items are the life-size bronze torso known as the Torso di Livorno, a large horse’s head that was once a feature of the garden of the Palazzo Medici, two beautiful sixth-century-BC Greek kouroi, and the bronze statue of a young man known as the Idilono di Pésaro, generally thought to be a Roman replica of a Greek figure dating from around 100 BC.
The eastern city centre
The Santa Croce district – the hub of the eastern part of central Florence – was one of Florence’s more densely populated areas before November 4, 1966, when the Arno burst its banks, with catastrophic consequences for this low-lying zone, which was then packed with tenements and small workshops. Many residents moved out permanently in the following years, but now the more traditional businesses that survived the flood have been joined by a growing number of bars and restaurants. Piazza Santa Croce, one of the city’s largest squares, has traditionally been used for ceremonies and festivities, and is still used for the Calcio Storico, a football tournament between the city’s four quartieri. The contest is held in June, with the final on June 24, and is characterized by incomprehensible rules and a degree of violence so extreme that the 2006 and 2007 events were called off.
Santa Croce
Florence’s two most lavish churches after the Duomo were the headquarters of the two preaching orders: the Dominicans occupied Santa Maria Novella, while the Franciscans were based at Santa Croce (Mon–Sat 9.30am–5.30pm, Sun 1–5.30pm; €5, €8 joint ticket with the Casa Buonarroti, valid for 1 day), which also evolved into the mausoleum of Tuscany’s most eminent citizens. More than 270 monuments are to be found here, commemorating the likes of Ghiberti, Michelangelo, Alberti, Machiavelli, Galileo and Dante – although Dante was actually buried in Ravenna, where he died.
The tombs are not the principal attraction of Santa Croce, however. Far more remarkable are the dazzling chapels at the east end, a compendium of Florentine fourteenth-century art, showing the extent of Giotto’s influence and the full diversity of his followers. The two immediately to the right of the chancel are covered with frescoes by Giotto: beside the chancel is the Cappella Bardi, featuring scenes from the life of St Francis, while next to it is the Cappella Peruzzi with a cycle on the lives of St John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. On the south side of the right transept is the Cappella Baroncelli, featuring the first night-scene in Western painting, Taddeo Gaddi’s Annunciation to the Shepherds. On the north side of the left transept, the second Cappella Bardi houses a wooden Crucifix by Donatello – supposedly criticized by Brunelleschi as resembling a “peasant on the Cross”.
The Cappella dei Pazzi and Museo dell’Opera di Santa Croce
The door in the south aisle opens onto the Primo Chiostro (First Cloister), at the head of which stands Brunelleschi’s Cappella dei Pazzi. If one building could be said to typify the spirit of the early Renaissance, this is it: geometrically perfect without seeming pedantic, it’s exemplary in the way its decorative detail harmonizes with the design. The polychrome lining of the portico’s shallow cupola is by Luca della Robbia, as is the tondo of St Andrew over the door; inside, Della Robbia also produced the blue-and-white tondi of the Apostles.
Santa Croce’s spacious Secondo Chiostro was also designed by Brunelleschi, and is perhaps the most peaceful spot in the centre of Florence. The Museo dell’Opera di Santa Croce, between the two cloisters, houses a damaged Crucifixion by Cimabue on the right wall, which has become the emblem of the havoc caused by the 1966 flood – six metres of filthy water surged into the church, tearing the artwork from its mounting. Also in this room are Taddeo Gaddi’s fresco of the Last Supper, Domenico Veneziano’s Sts John and Francis, and Donatello’s enormous gilded St Louis of Toulouse, made for Orsanmichele.
Casa Buonarroti
The Casa Buonarroti, located north of Santa Croce at Via Ghibellina 70 (Wed–Mon 9.30am–2pm; €6.50, €8 joint ticket with Santa Croce, valid for 1 day), occupies a site where Michelangelo probably lived intermittently between 1516 and 1525, and contains a smart but low-key museum, mostly consisting of works created in homage to the great man. The two main treasures are to be found upstairs: the Madonna della Scala (c.1490–92) is Michelangelo’s earliest known work, a delicate relief carved when he was no older than 16; the similarly unfinished Battle of the Centaurs was created shortly afterwards, when the boy was living in the Medici household. In an adjacent room you’ll find the artist’s wooden model (1517) for the facade of San Lorenzo. Close by is the largest of all the sculptural models on display, the torso of a River God (1524), a work in wood and wax probably intended for the Medici chapel in San Lorenzo.
South of the river – the Oltrarno
Visitors to Florence might perceive the Arno as merely a brief interruption in the urban fabric, but Florentines talk as though a ravine divides their city. North of the river is Arno di quà (“over here”), while the south side is Arno di là (“over there”), also known as the Oltrarno, literally “Beyond the Arno”. Traditionally an artisans’ quarter, the Oltrarno is still home to plenty of small workshops (particularly furniture restorers and leather-workers), and Via Maggio remains the focus of Florence’s thriving antiques trade. The ambience is distinctly less tourist-centred here than in the zone immediately across the water, which is not to say that the Oltrarno doesn’t have major sights – Palazzo Pitti, Santa Maria del Carmine, San Miniato and Santo Spirito are all essential visits.
The Ponte Vecchio
The direct route from the city centre to the heart of Oltrarno crosses the river on the Ponte Vecchio, the only bridge not mined by the retreating Nazis in 1944. Built in 1345 to replace an ancient wooden bridge, it has always been loaded with shops. Up until the sixteenth century, butchers, fishmongers and tanners occupied the bridge, but in 1593 Ferdinando I ejected these malodorous enterprises and installed goldsmiths instead. Today, still replete with jewellery firms, the bridge is crammed with sightseers and big-spending shoppers during the day, and remains busy after the shutters come down.
Santa Felìcita
Just over the bridge, off Via Guicciardini, Santa Felìcita (Mon–Sat 9.30am–noon & 3.30–5.30pm) might well be the oldest church in Florence. It’s thought to have been founded in the second century AD close to the Via Cassia, over an early Christian cemetery that’s commemorated by the column outside. The interior demands a visit for the amazing paintings by Pontormo in the Cappella Capponi. Under the cupola are four tondi of the Evangelists, painted with the help of Bronzino (his adoptive son), while on opposite sides of the window on the right wall are the Virgin and the angel of Pontormo’s delightfully simple Annunciation. The centerpiece is the Deposition (1525–28), one of the masterworks of Florentine Mannerism, in which there’s no sign of the cross, the thieves, soldiers or any of the other scene-setting devices usual in paintings of this subject.
The Palazzo Pitti
Although the Medici later took possession of the largest palace in Florence – the Palazzo Pitti – it still bears the name of the man for whom it was built. Luca Pitti was a prominent rival of Cosimo il Vecchio, and much of the impetus behind the building of his new house came from a desire to trump the Medici. No sooner was the palace completed, however, than the Pittis’ fortunes began to decline and by 1549 they were forced to sell. The palace then became the Medici’s family pile, growing in bulk until the seventeenth century, when it achieved its present gargantuan dimensions.
Today, the palazzo and the pavilions of the Giardino di Bóboli hold eight museums, of which the foremost is the huge art collection of the Galleria Palatina (Tues–Sun 8.15am–6.50pm; €12, including the Appartamenti Reali and Galleria d’Arte Moderna). Andrea del Sarto is represented by no fewer than seventeen paintings, but even more remarkable is the assembly of work by Raphael, including portraits of Angelo and Maddalena Doni, the celebrated Madonna della Seggiola, and the equally famous Donna Velata, for which the model was the painter’s mistress, a Roman baker’s daughter known to posterity as La Fornarina. An even larger contingent of supreme works by Titian includes a number of his most trenchant portraits – among them Pietro Aretino, Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici, and the Portrait of an Englishman, a picture that makes the viewer feel as closely scrutinized as was the subject. Elsewhere in the Palatina you’ll find masterpieces by Rubens, Fra’ Filippo Lippi and Caravaggio, to mention but a few.
Much of the rest of this floor comprises the Appartamenti Reali – the Pitti’s state rooms, renovated by the dukes of Lorraine in the eighteenth century, and then again by King Vittorio Emanuele when Florence became Italy’s capital. On the floor above is the Galleria d’Arte Moderna (Tues–Sat 8.15am–6.50pm; same ticket). Displaying a chronological survey of primarily Tuscan art from the mid-eighteenth century to 1945, it’s most rewarding in the section devoted to the Macchiaioli, the Italian division of the Impressionist movement, though the most startling pieces are the specimens of sculptural kitsch, such as Antonio Ciseri’s Pregnant Nun. Entered from the garden courtyard, the Museo degli Argenti (opens daily at 8.15am; March–May & Sept closes 6.30pm; Oct closes 5.30pm; June–Aug closes 7.30pm; Nov–Feb closes 4.30pm; closed 1st & last Mon of month; joint ticket with Museo delle Porcellane, Galleria del Costume, Giardino di Bóboli & Giardino Bardini €10) is a massive collection of portable (and often hideous) luxury artefacts, including Lorenzo il Magnifico’s trove of antique vases, displayed in one of the four splendidly frescoed reception rooms on the ground floor.
Visitors without a specialist interest are unlikely to be riveted by the other Pitti museums. In the Palazzina della Meridiana, the eighteenth-century southern wing of the Pitti, the Galleria del Costume (same hours & ticket as Museo degli Argenti) provides the opportunity to see the dress that Eleonora di Toledo is wearing in Bronzino’s famous portrait of her (in the Palazzo Vecchio). The well-presented if esoteric collection of porcelain, the Museo delle Porcellane, is located on the other side of the Bóboli garden (same hours and ticket as Museo degli Argenti), while the Museo delle Carrozze (Carriage Museum) has been closed for years.
The Giardino di Bóboli and Giardino Bardini
The delightful formal garden of the Palazzo Pitti, the Giardino di Bóboli (same hours and ticket as Museo degli Argenti), takes its name from the Bóboli family, erstwhile owners of much of this area, which was once a quarry. When the Medici acquired the house in 1549 they set to work transforming their back yard into a 111-acre garden. Of all the garden’s Mannerist embellishments, the most celebrated is the Grotta del Buontalenti, beyond the turtle-back figure of Cosimo I’s court dwarf (as seen on a thousand postcards). In among the fake stalactites are shepherds and sheep that look like calcified sponges, while embedded in the corners are replicas of Michelangelo’s Slaves, replacing the originals that were here until 1908. In the deepest recesses of the cave stands Giambologna’s Venus, leered at by attendant imps.
A five-minute walk from the garden’s southeastern exit, the smaller, more manicured Giardino Bardini (same hours and ticket) has beautiful views over Florence’s rooftops from its colonnaded belvedere. The panorama is even better from the Forte di Belvedere, reachable from the same exit but currently closed for renovation. This star-shaped fortress was built on the orders of Ferdinando I in 1590, ostensibly for the city’s protection but really to intimidate the Grand Duke’s fellow Florentines, and is now an exhibition venue.
La Specola
Within a stone’s throw of the Pitti, on the third floor of the university buildings at Via Romana 17, you’ll find what can reasonably claim to be the strangest museum in the city. Taking its name from the telescope (specola) on its roof, La Specola (Tues–Sun 9.30am–4.30pm; €6) is a museum of zoology, housing ranks of shells, insects and crustaceans, and a veritable ark of animals stuffed, pickled and desiccated. The exhibits everyone comes to see, however, are the Cere Anatomiche (Anatomical Waxworks): wax arms, legs and internal organs cover the walls, arrayed around satin beds on which wax cadavers recline in progressive stages of deconstruction, each muscle fibre and nerve cluster moulded and dyed with scarcely believable precision. Most of the six hundred models – and nearly all of the amazing full-body mannequins – were made between 1775 and 1791 by one Clemente Susini and his team of assistants, and were intended as teaching aids.
Santo Spirito
With its market stalls, cafés and restaurants, the lively Piazza Santo Spirito is the social hub of this quarter. Don’t be deterred by the vacant facade of the church of Santo Spirito (Thurs–Tues 8.30am–12.30pm & 4–7pm; free) – the interior, one of Brunelleschi’s last projects, prompted Bernini to describe it as “the most beautiful church in the world”. It’s so perfectly proportioned it seems artless, yet the plan is extremely sophisticated – a Latin cross with a continuous chain of 38 chapels round the outside and a line of 35 columns running in parallel right round the building. Unfortunately, a Baroque baldachin covers the high altar, but this is the sole disruption of Brunelleschi’s arrangement. The best of the church’s paintings is in the south transept – Filippino Lippi’s Nerli Altarpiece.
The Cappella Brancacci
In 1771 fire wrecked the Carmelite convent and church of Santa Maria del Carmine some 300m west of Santo Spirito, but somehow the flames did not damage the frescoes of the church’s Cappella Brancacci, a cycle of paintings that is one of the essential sights of Florence (Mon & Wed–Sat 10am–5pm, Sun 1–5pm; €4). The chapel is barricaded off from the rest of the Carmine, and visits are restricted to a maximum of thirty people at a time, for an inadequate fifteen minutes. Tickets can currently be obtained only by reserving on 055.276.8224 (daily 9am–5pm), at least a day in advance, though this may change; ask at the tourist office about the current situation.
The decoration of the chapel was begun in 1424 by Masolino and Masaccio, when the former was aged 41 and the latter just 22. Within a short time the elder was taking lessons from the younger, whose grasp of the texture of the real world, of the principles of perspective, and of the dramatic potential of the biblical texts they were illustrating far exceeded that of his precursors. In 1428 Masolino was called away to Rome, where he was followed by Masaccio a few months later. Neither would return to the chapel. Masaccio died the same year, aged just 27, but, in the words of Vasari, “All the most celebrated sculptors and painters since Masaccio’s day have become excellent and illustrious by studying their art in this chapel.”
The Brancacci frescoes are as startling as the Sistine Chapel in Rome, the brightness and delicacy of their colours and the solidity of the figures exemplifying what Bernard Berenson singled out as the tactile quality of Florentine art. The small scene on the left of the entrance arch is the quintessence of Masaccio’s art. Depictions of The Expulsion of Adam and Eve had never before captured the desolation of the sinners so graphically – Adam presses his hands to his face in bottomless despair, Eve raises her head and screams. In contrast to the emotional charge of Masaccio’s couple, Masolino’s dainty Adam and Eve, opposite, pose as if to have their portraits painted.
St Peter is chief protagonist of most of the remaining scenes, some of which were left unfinished in 1428 – work did not resume until 1480, when the frescoes were completed by Filippino Lippi. One of the scenes finished by Lippi is the Raising of Theophilus’s Son and St Peter Enthroned, which depicts St Peter bringing the son of the Prefect of Antioch to life and then preaching to the people of the city from a throne. The three figures to the right of the throne are thought to be Masaccio, Alberti and Brunelleschi. Masaccio originally painted himself touching Peter’s robe, but Lippi considered such physical contact to be improper and painted out the offending limb – you can still see where the arm used to be.
San Miniato al Monte
The brilliant, multicoloured facade of San Miniato al Monte lures hordes of visitors up the hill on which it sits, and it more than fulfils the promise of its appearance from a distance: this is the finest Romanesque church in Tuscany. The church’s dedicatee, St Minias, belonged to a Christian community that settled in Florence in the third century; according to legend, after his martyrdom his corpse was seen to carry his severed head over the river and up the hill to this spot, where a shrine was subsequently erected to him. Construction of the present building began in 1013 with the foundation of a Cluniac monastery. The gorgeous marble facade – alluding to the Baptistry in its geometrical patterning – was added towards the end of that century, though the external mosaic Christ between the Virgin and St Minias dates from the thirteenth. The interior (daily 8am–12.30pm & 3–5.30pm; free) is like no other in the city, with the choir raised on a platform above the large crypt. The main structural addition is the Cappella del Cardinale del Portogallo, a paragon of artistic collaboration: the basic design was by Antonio Manetti (a pupil of Brunelleschi), the tomb was carved by Antonio Rossellino, the terracotta decoration of the ceiling is by Luca della Robbia, and the paintings are by Alesso Baldovinetti, except for the altarpiece, which is a copy of a work by the Pollaiuolo brothers (the original is in the Uffizi). Be sure to also visit the sacristy, which is covered in Scenes from the Life of St Benedict, painted in the 1380s by Spinello Aretino.
Eating, drinking and entertainment
For a small city, Florence has plenty of big-city attractions: scores of cafés and restaurants, a full calendar of cultural events and a lot of chic shops to give focus to the evening passeggiata. The main problem is one of identity, in a city whose inhabitants are heavily outnumbered by outsiders from March to October. In recent years several stylish and good-value restaurants have opened, alongside some superb bars. As for nightlife, the university and the influx of language students keep things lively, and events such as the Maggio Musicale maintain Florence’s standing as the hub of cultural life in Tuscany. The following listings are marked on the maps Florence & Central Florence.
Cafés, bars and gelaterie
As elsewhere in Italy, the distinction between Florentine bars and cafés can be tricky to the point of impossibility, but there’s one category of bar that’s quite distinct from cafés, and that’s the enoteca, where the enjoyment of wine is the chief point of the exercise. However, almost all enotecas also serve food, and in some instances they’ve evolved into restaurants with huge wine lists.
Snacks
For picnic supplies an obvious place to shop is the Mercato Centrale by San Lorenzo church (July & Aug Mon–Sat 7am–2pm; Sept–June Mon–Fri 7am–2pm, Sat 7am–5pm), where everything you could possibly need can be bought under one roof: bread, ham, cheese, fruit, wine, ready-made sandwiches. The Mercato Sant’Ambrogio over by Santa Croce (Mon–Sat 7am–2pm) is smaller but of comparable quality. For a hearty sit-down lunch, both markets have an excellent tavola calda, serving meatballs, pasta, stews, soups and sandwiches: Nerbone (Mon–Sat 7am–2pm) in the Mercato Centrale, and Tavola Calda da Rocco (Mon–Sat noon–2.30pm), in the Mercato di Sant’Ambrogio.
If you really want to go native, you could join the throng of office workers around the tripe stall in Piazza dei Cimatori (daily 8.30am–8.30pm). Its speciality is the local delicacy called lampredotto: hot tripe served in a bun with a spicy sauce. The stall also sells wine, so you can wash the taste away should you realize you’ve made a horrible mistake. There’s a similar operation – Da Pierpaolo e Sergio – parked outside the Cibrèo restaurant in Via de’ Macci, close to the Sant’Ambrogio market (Mon–Sat 9am–3pm; closed Aug).
Vinaii
The vinaio – a tiny wine bar with at most a couple of stools by the counter – was once a real Florentine institution. Customers would typically linger at these places for no more than a couple of minutes, long enough to down a glass of rosso and exchange a few words with the proprietor. The number of vinaii has declined markedly in recent years; notable survivors are All’Antico Vinaio, I Fratellini and Quasigratis (see the City centre listings).
City centre
All’Antico Vinaio Via dei Neri 65/R. Located between the Uffizi and Santa Croce, this place preserves much of the rough-and-ready atmosphere that’s made it one of Florence’s most popular wine bars for over a hundred years. Good crostini too. Daily 8am–3pm & 5–9.30pm.
Caffè Gilli Piazza della Repubblica 36–39/R. Founded in 1733, Gilli is the most appealing of this square’s expensive cafés. The lavish belle époque interior is a sight in itself, but most people choose to sit on the big outdoor terrace. Wed–Mon 7.30am–1am.
Cantinetta dei Verrazzano Via dei Tavolini 18–20/R. Owned by a major Chianti vineyard, this wood-panelled place near Orsanmichele is part-bar, part-café and part-bakery, making its own excellent pizza, focaccia and cakes. Sept–June Mon–Sat 8am–9pm; end July & Aug Mon–Sat 8am–4pm; closed first three weeks July.
Grom Via del Campanile. Founded in Turin in 2003, Grom is a retro-styled but very slick operation, concocting fabulous gelati from top-quality ingredients gathered from all over Italy. There’s even a menu of speciality ices that changes monthly. Daily April–Sept 10.30am–midnight; Oct–March closes 11pm.
I Fratellini Via dei Cimatori 38/R. This minuscule, dirt-cheap bar is somehow clinging on in the immediate vicinity of the high-rent Via dei Calzaiuoli. Serves 29 varieties of good panini and local wines. Daily 9am–5.30pm; sometimes closed 2 wks Feb; closed Sun in winter.
Perchè No! Via de’ Tavolini 19/R. “Why Not!” is a superb gelateria that’s been in business since 1939, with seasonal and daily specials: those in the know go for the pistachio and fruit flavours in summer and the castagna (chestnut) and caco (persimmon) in winter. Mon & Wed–Sat: March–Oct 11am–midnight; Nov–Feb noon–8pm.
Quasigratis Piazza del Grano 10. Little more than a window in a wall at the back of the Uffizi, and it doesn’t say Quasigratis (“Almost free”) anywhere – apart from the broken “Vini” sign, there’s nothing to mark it out as an enoteca. Serves cheap wine in plastic glasses, as well as rolls and other snacks. Daily 9.30am–11pm; closed Jan & Feb.
North of the centre
Carabé Via Ricasoli 60/R. Wonderful Sicilian ice cream made with Sicilian ingredients. Also serves delicious cannoli (pastry stuffed with sweet ricotta and candied fruits). April–Oct daily 10am–1am; Nov–March 11am–8pm, but closed mid-Dec to mid-Jan.
Casa del Vino Via dell’Ariento 16/R. The patrons of this atmospheric old bar are mostly Florentines, who pitch up for a drink, a chat with owner Gianni Migliorini and an assault on various panini, crostini, and saltless Tuscan bread and salami. Oct–May Mon–Sat 9.30am–5pm; June, July & Sept closed Sat; closed Aug.
Zanobini Via Sant’Antonino 47/R. Like the Casa del Vino, its rival just around the corner, this is an authentic Florentine bar, whose feel owes much to the presence of traders from the nearby Mercato Centrale. Offers decent snacks, but most people are simply here for a chat over a glass of wine. Mon–Sat 9am–2pm & 3.30–8pm.
East of the centre
Caffè Cibrèo Via Andrea del Verrocchio 5/R. Possibly the prettiest café in Florence, Caffè Cibrèo opened in 1989, but the wood-panelled interior gives it the look of a place that’s at least two hundred years older. Cakes and desserts are great, and the light meals bear the stamp of the Cibrèo restaurant kitchens opposite. Tues–Sat 8am–1am.
Vivoli Via Isola delle Stinche 7/R. Operating from deceptively unprepossessing premises in a side-street close to Santa Croce, this café has long been rated one of the best ice-cream-makers in Florence – the very best, in the opinion of many. Tues–Sun: summer 7.30am–midnight; mid-Nov to March closes 9pm. Closed two weeks in Aug.
Oltrarno
Fuori Porta Via del Monte alle Croci 10/R 055.234.2483. This famous enoteca–osteria has more than six hundred wines to choose from by the bottle, and an ever-changing selection of wines by the glass. Cheese and meat platters are available, together with a full menu of pasta dishes and tasty secondi, mainly under €10. Daily: April–Sept 12.30pm–12.30am; Oct–March 12.30–3.30pm & 7pm–12.30am.
Il Rifrullo Via San Niccolò 53–57/R. Lying to the east of the Ponte Vecchio–Pitti Palace route, Il Rifrullo attracts fewer tourists than many Oltrarno café-bars. Serves a delicious early-evening aperitivo buffet (free with a €7 drink), when the music gets turned up, as well as more substantial dishes, and the Sun brunch (Sept–June) is always packed. Has a pleasant roof terrace, too. Daily 7.30am–2am.
Le Volpi e L’Uva Piazza dei Rossi 1/R, off Piazza di Santa Felìcita. This discreet, friendly little enoteca does good business by concentrating on the wines of small producers and providing tasty cold meats and snacks to accompany them (the selection of cheeses in particular is tremendous). In summer the shady terrace is a very pleasant refuge from the heat. Mon–Sat 11am–9pm.
Zoe Via dei Renai 13. Like the neighbouring Negroni, Zoe is perennially popular for summer-evening drinks, but it attracts lots of young Florentines right through the day. Does good snacks and simple meals, there’s a DJ in the back room, and it’s something of an art venue too. Mon–Sat 8am–2am, Sun 6pm–2am.
Restaurants
Florence has scores of restaurants, but such is the volume of customers that in high season advance bookings are virtually compulsory – especially on Sundays, when many places are closed. And bear in mind that meals – not just snacks – are served in many Florentine bars, so if you’re exploring a particular area of the city and fancy a quick bite to eat rather than a full-blown restaurant meal, take a look at the relevant section in the “Cafés and bars” listings.
West of the centre
Il Contadino Via Palazzuolo 71/R. Small, popular place with simple black-and-white interior and fascinating large photos of old Florence on the walls. Fast and friendly service, shared tables (no booking), very cheap but good food. Two-course lunch menu with wine costs a mere €10.50, €12 at dinner. Mon–Fri noon–9.40pm.
Oliviero Via delle Terme 51/R 055.287.643, www.ristorante-oliviero.it. Oliviero has a welcoming and old-fashioned feel – something like an Italian restaurant from the 1960s. There are two menus – one traditional Tuscan, one modern Italian – and the quality is exceptional: five types of bread, plus pasta and ice cream are all made on site. Expect to pay upwards of €50, without wine. Mon–Sat 11am–3pm & 7pm–1am; closed 3 weeks in Aug.
North of the centre
Da Mario Via Rosina 2/R 055.218.550. For earthy Florentine cooking at very low prices, there’s nowhere better then Da Mario, which has been in operation right by the Mercato Centrale since 1953. It’s just a pity it isn’t open in the evenings. No credit cards; no booking. Mon–Sat noon–3.30pm; closed Aug.
Da Tito Via San Gallo 112/R 055.472.475. Full of locals every night and offering excellent food at fair prices, a meal at Da Tito is well worth the extra few minutes’ walk from the centre. Dishes are simple but elegant – beef fillet with rocket pesto, for example – and secondi go for a reasonable €9–15. The jovial staff are generous with the limoncello at the end of the meal. Mon–Sat 12.30–3pm & 7–11pm, Sun 7–11pm.
East of the centre
Baldovino Via San Giuseppe 22/R 055.241.773. This superb place is renowned above all for its pizzas (made in a wood-fired oven), but the main menu (which changes monthly) is full of good Tuscan and Italian dishes, with secondi around €12–20. Portions are generous. April–Oct Mon 11am–3pm, Tues–Sun 11am–3pm & 7–1pm; Nov–March closed Mon.
Cibrèo Via de’ Macci 118/R 055.234.1100. Fabio Picchi’s Cibrèo is the first Florentine port-of-call for foodies, known for its superb, creative cuisine and top-notch service. You’ll need to book days in advance for a table in the main restaurant, but next door there’s a small, somewhat spartan trattoria section (Trattoria Cibrèo) where the food is similar (though the menu is smaller), no bookings are taken and prices are around €14 for secondi, as opposed to €36 in the restaurant. For a lighter meal, head for the Teatro del Sale, Cibrèo’s latest venture. Tues–Sat 12.30–2.30pm & 7–11.15pm. Closed Aug.
Il Pizzaiuolo Via de’ Macci 113/R 055.241.171. The Neapolitan pizzas here are among the best in the city. Wines and other dishes also have a Neapolitan touch, as does the atmosphere, which is friendly and high-spirited. Booking’s a good idea, at least in the evening. Mon–Sat 12.30–3pm & 7.30pm–midnight. Closed Aug.
Ora d’Aria Via dei Georgofili 11/R 055.2001.699. Marco Stabile, the young boss of Ora d’Aria, has recently relocated his stylish restaurant to this more central location, but his winning formula remains unchanged: a high-quality mix of the traditional and the innovative, in a relaxed yet elegant setting. The tasting menus (from €50) are very good value; à la carte, main courses are around €30. The lunch menu is more traditionally Tuscan, and less expensive, at €14 for mains, plus there’s a tapas option (€3–8 per portion). Mon–Sat 12.30–2.30pm & 7.30–10.30pm; closed 2 weeks Aug.
Teatro del Sale Via dei Macci 111/R 055.200.1492, www.teatrodelsale.com. You have to sign up for membership (€5) before you’re allowed into this theatre-cum-cultural association, where generous breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets (€7/€20/€30) made by Cibrèo chefs are served in an atmospheric old Florentine theatre; dinner is accompanied by a performance – anything from film to theatre to live music. Daily 7.30am–midnight.
Oltrarno
Alla Vecchia Bettola Viale Lodovico Ariosto 32–34/R 055.224.158. Located on a major traffic intersection a couple of minutes’ walk from the Carmine, this wonderfully old-fashioned place has something of the atmosphere of an old-style drinking den; it boasts a good repertoire of Tuscan meat dishes, with main courses reasonably priced from €12. No credit cards. Tues–Sat noon–2.30pm & 7.30–10.30pm.
Il Santo Bevitore Via Santo Spirito 64–66/R 055.211.264. “The Holy Drinker” is an airy and stylish gastronomic enoteca with a small but classy menu (around €30 for a meal without drinks) to complement its enticing wine list. Two doors down, Il Santino, run by the same owners (daily 10am–10.30pm), is a more intimate wine bar with good cheese and cold meat plates. Mon–Sat 12.30–2.30pm & 7.30–11.30pm, Sun 7.30–11.30pm; closed two weeks Aug.
La Casalinga Via del Michelozzo 9/R 055.218.624. This long-established family-run trattoria serves up some of the best low-cost Tuscan dishes in town (from €7 for a secondo). Most nights it’s filled with regulars and a good few outsiders – by 8pm there’s invariably a queue. Mon–Sat noon–2.30pm & 7–10pm; closed three weeks in Aug.
La Mangiatoia Piazza San Felice 8/9/R 055.224.060. Ideally placed for lunch before a visit to Palazzo Pitti, this rosticceria has a no-frills trattoria out back, where a full menu of Tuscan fare is served in a somewhat spartan interior. There are good pizzas too (around €7), cooked in a wood-fired oven. Tues–Sun noon–3pm & 7–10pm.
Olio e Convivium Via Santo Spirito 4 055.265.8198. A gourmet food shop-cum-restaurant that specializes in wine and olive oil. Drop by to pick up some foodie souvenirs from the delicatessen, try a gourmet panino to take away or treat yourself to a sit-down meal in the intimate dining room. The lunch menu is a bargain at €18 for two courses with wine; dinner is pricier and more refined, featuring dishes such as veal shank with potato flan in a mushroom sauce (€16). Mon 10am–2.30pm, Tues–Sat 10am–4.30pm & 5.30–10.30pm.
Osteria Antica Mescita San Niccolò Via San Niccolò 60/R 055.234.2836. This genuine old-style Oltrarno osteria has a small menu of robust and well-prepared Florentine staples (ribollita, lampredotto, etc), at around €10 for main courses; there’s also a good lunchtime buffet for a mere €5–10. Mon–Sat 12.30–3pm & 7pm–1am; closed 10 days in Aug.
Pane e Vino Piazza di Cestello 3/R 055.247.6956. Pane e Vino is a stylish yet relaxed place, with a menu that’s small but consistently excellent (secondi €15–20), featuring two very enticing set menus (€35 & €45). Mon–Sat 7.30pm–1am; closed two weeks in Aug.
Quattro Leoni Via dei Vellutini 1/R, Piazza della Passera 055.218.562. Occupying a three-roomed medieval interior, this is a young, relaxed place with wooden beams and splashy modern art strung across the rough stone walls. In summer you can also eat alfresco under vast canvas umbrellas in the tiny piazza. You can eat very well for around €40 a head, excluding wine. Daily noon–midnight.
Nightlife and entertainment
Many of Florence’s hotter bars now aim to keep punters on the premises all night, by serving free snacks with the aperitivi (usually from about 7–9/10pm) before the music kicks in – either live or (more often) courtesy of the in-house DJ. Florentine nightlife has a reputation for catering primarily to the middle-aged and affluent, but like every university town it has its pockets of activity. Admission is often cheaper for females, and is generally free if you arrive before 11pm. Florence’s cultural calendar is filled out with seasons of classical music, opera and dance to rival the best in Europe.
For information about concerts and shows, get hold of the Firenze Spettacolo monthly listings magazine or drop in at the Box Office ticket agency, which is at Via delle Vecchie Carceri 1, near the Mercato di Sant’Ambrogio (055.210.804, www.boxol.it; Mon–Fri 9.30am–7pm, Sat 9.30am–2pm).
Gay and lesbian Florence
The leading gay bar is Crisco, a short distance east of the Duomo at Via Sant’Egidio 43/R (339.723.0615, www.criscoclub.it; Mon, Wed, Thurs, Fri & Sat 11pm–3am), but the ambience can be a bit heavy for some tastes. Piccolo Café, Borgo Santa Croce 23/R (055.200.1057; daily 6.30pm–2am), has a more chilled-out atmosphere and draws a mixed gay and lesbian crowd, as does the stylish Y.A.G. B@r, also near Santa Croce at Via de’ Macci 8/R (055.246.9022, www.yagbar.com; daily 9.30pm–2am). The key bar-club is the pioneering Tabasco, which has been going for more than 35 years at Piazza Santa Cecilia 3/R (055.213.000, www.tabascogay.eu; Tues–Sun 10pm–6am). For lesbian contacts, check the noticeboard at the women’s bookshop Libreria delle Donne, Via Fiesolana 2/B (Mon & Sat 3.30–7.30pm, Tues–Fri 9.30am–1pm & 3.30–7.30pm).
Bars, clubs and live music venues
Auditorium FLOG Via Michele Mercati 24/B 055.477.978, www.flog.it. One of the city’s best-known mid-sized venues, and a perennial student favourite for all forms of live music (and DJs), but particularly local indie-type bands. It’s usually packed, despite a position way out in the northern suburbs; to get there take bus #4 or #28 from Santa Maria Novella.
Be Bop Via de’ Servi 76/R 055.264.5756. This scruffy music bar, popular with students from 10pm on, is a good bet for a fun night out. There’s always live music, from jazz to rock to tribute bands; for over a decade, Tuesday night has been Beatles night. Tues–Sat 8pm–2am.
Central Park Via Fosso Macinante 2, Parco delle Cascine 347.320.8122. One of the city’s biggest and most commercial clubs, with three dancefloors and DJs who know what they’re doing – and have access to a superb sound system. The first drink is included in the admission – around €10–25 after midnight, usually free before. Summer Wed–Sat 11pm–4am; winter Fri & Sat same hours.
Dolce Vita Piazza del Carmine 6/R. This smart and extremely popular bar with a buzzy outdoor terrace has been going for more than a decade and has stayed ahead of the game by constantly updating. Install yourself on one of the aluminium bar stools and preen with Florence’s beautiful young things. There’s live music (Latin, rock or jazz) Tues from 7.30pm, a DJ other nights, a sushi buffet on Thurs and aperitivi every night 7.30–10pm. Daily 7.30pm–2am.
Noir Lungarno Corsini 12–14/R. Decked out in moody nocturnal tones, this bar has been voted the Florentines’ favourite night-time hangout several times, and it remains out in front. The interior has plenty of tables, but in summer most people take their drinks across the road to perch on the wall overlooking the Arno. In winter, the Sun brunch (12.30–3.30pm) is popular, as is the year-round aperitivo buffet (7.30–10.30pm; €9). DJs nightly. Daily 6pm–3am.
Rex Café Via Fiesolana 25/R 055.248.0331. A friendly bar-club with a varied and loyal clientele. Lots of cosy seating around the central bar, and good cocktails and DJs (from 10.30pm) add to the appeal. The aperitivi session is 6–9.30pm. Daily 6pm–2am; closed June–Aug.
Slowly Via Porta Rossa 63. This slick bar, with its neat little banquettes and candle lanterns, tends to attract a showy, beautifully dressed young crowd, particularly at aperitivo hour (7–10.30pm; €10 a drink, including buffet). The atmosphere is pretty laidback, even when the DJ gets to work (from 10.30pm). Daily 7pm–2am.
Tenax Via Pratese 46 055.632.958, www.tenax.org. Florence’s biggest club, pulling in the odd jet-setting DJ. Given its location in the northwest of town, near the airport (bus #29 or #30 from Santa Maria Novella), you’ll escape the hordes of internazionalisti in the more central clubs. With two floors, it’s a major venue for concerts as well. Admission €20–25. Thurs–Sat 10.30pm–4am. Closed mid-May to mid-Sept.
YAB Via Sassetti 5/R 055.215.160, www.yab.it. Young And Beautiful is a pretty accurate decription of this sleek club’s dressed-up crowd. The best night is Monday’s Smoove – a long-running hip-hop night. Open Mon & Wed–Sat.
Film
In Italy the vast majority of English-language films are dubbed, but the only cinema still in operation in the centre of Florence, the Cinema Teatro Odeon in Piazza Strozzi (055.214.068, www.cinehall.it; closed mid-June to mid-Sept; tickets €7.50), screens films in their original language (versione originale) on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. In summer, open-air screens are set up, mostly out of the centre. The most convenient of these is the Chiardiluna in Oltrarno (Via di Monte Oliveto; 055.2337.042), though films are screened in Italian only.
Classical music, opera and dance
Lasting from late April to early July, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is one of Europe’s leading festivals of opera and classical music. Events are staged at the Teatro Comunale, the tiny Teatro Goldoni, the Teatro della Pergola, the Palazzo dei Congressi, and occasionally in the Bóboli gardens. Information and tickets are available from the Teatro Comunale box office, Corso Italia 16 (055.213.535, www.maggiofiorentino.com). The smaller Estate Fiesolana festival (mid-June to end July; www.estatefiesolana.it) concentrates on classical and jazz music, with most events held in Fiesole’s open-air Teatro Romano and other atmospheric venues around town.
The Teatro Comunale is Florence’s major concert venue, hosting a symphony orchestra which performs a new programme every week during the winter concert season (Jan–March), plus a prestigious opera and ballet season in the autumn (Oct–Dec). The Teatro della Pergola, at Via della Pergola 18 (055.226.4353, www.teatrodellapergola.com), which was built in 1656 and believed to be Italy’s oldest surviving theatre, hosts chamber concerts and small-scale operas (Oct–April), while the Teatro Verdi, Via Ghibellina 99–101 (055.212.320, www.teatroverdionline.it), is home to the Orchestra della Toscana.
Fashion factory outlets
Tuscany is the powerhouse of the country’s textile industry, and the Arno valley is home to many of the factories that manufacture clothes for the top labels. Several of these factories have retail outlets alongside, in which the season’s leftovers are sold at discounts as high as sixty percent. The best of the outlets are listed below; ask at the tourist office for a full list.
Barberino Designer Outlet Via Meucci, Barberino di Mugello 055.842.161, www.mcarthurglen.it/barberino. The biggest range, incuding Cavalli, D&G, Ferré, Missoni and Prada, plus discounted high-street gear from labels such as Diesel, Benetton and Furla. Tues–Fri 10am–8pm, Sat & Sun 10am–9pm, also Mon 2–8pm in Jan, June–Sept & Dec. SITA bus from Via Santa Caterina da Siena or shuttle bus from outside Santa Maria Novella station (2 daily).
Dolce & Gabbana Via Pian dell’Isola 49, Località Santa Maria Maddalena 055.833.1300. This two-storey shed, a few kilometres north of Incisa Val d’Arno, is packed with clothes, accessories and household items from Dolce & Gabbana, plus cheaper stuff from the D&G diffusion label. Daily 10am–7.30pm. Train to Rignano sull’Arno-Reggello, then taxi.
The Mall Via Europa 8, Leccio Regello 055.865.7775, www.themall.it. Outlets for Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Cavalli, Pucci, Fendi, Armani, Marni, Salvatore Ferragamo, Sergio Rossi and Valentino, among others. Gucci is the dominant presence, with a huge range of bags, shoes and sunglasses. Daily 10am–7pm. SITA bus from Via Santa Caterina da Siena or shuttle bus from outside Santa Maria Novella station (2 daily).
Space Levanella, Montevarchi 055.91.901. On a small industrial estate in the Levanella district (on the SS69), this outlet is stacked with Prada clothes, as well as a good selection from Miu Miu. Sun–Fri 10.30am–8pm, Sat 9.30am–8pm. Train to Montevarchi, then taxi.
Listings
Banks and exchange Florence’s main bank branches are on or around Piazza della Repubblica.
Bike, scooter & moped rental Alinari, Via San Zanobi 38/R 055.280.500, www.alinarirental.com; Florence by Bike, Via San Zanobi 120/R 055.488.992, www.florencebybike.it.
Car rental Avis, Borgo Ognissanti 128/R 055.289.010; Europcar, Borgo Ognissanti 53 055.290.438; Hertz, Via Maso Finiguerra 33/R 055.239.8205; Maggiore, Via Maso Finiguerra 13/R 055.210.238.
Consulates UK, Lungarno Corsini 2 055.284.133; US, Lungarno Amerigo Vespucci 38 055.266.951.
Doctors The Tourist Medical Service is a private service with doctors on call 24hr a day (055.475.411, www.medicalservice.firenze.it), or you can visit their clinic at Via Lorenzo il Magnifico 59 (Mon–Fri 11am–noon & 5–6pm, Sat 11am–noon). Note that you’ll need insurance cover to recoup the cost of a consultation, which will be at least €50. Florence’s central hospital is on Piazza Santa Maria Nuova.
Internet Internet Train (www.internettrain.it) has nine outlets in the city, including Via de Benci 36/R, Via Guelfa 54–56/R, Via Porta Rossa 38/R and Piazza Stazione 14 – they’re open daily 10am–10pm and charge €2.70/30min.
Laundry Wash & Dry has branches throughout the city, open 8am–10pm daily, including Via dei Servi 102/R, Via della Scala 52–54/R, Via Ghibellina 143/R and Borgo San Frediano 29/R.
Left luggage Santa Maria Novella station by platform 16 (daily 6am–11.50pm; €4/first 5hr, €0.60/hr thereafter).
Lost property Lost property handed in at the city or railway police ends up at Via Vera Cini 5 (Mon, Wed & Fri 9am–12.30, Tues & Thurs 9am–12.30 & 2.30–4.30pm; 055.367.943; bus #17, #29, #30 or #35).
Pharmacies The Farmacia Comunale, on the train station concourse, is open 24hr. All’Insegna del Moro, at Piazza San Giovanni 20/R, on the north side of the Baptistry, and Farmacia Molteni, at Via dei Calzaiuoli 7/R, alternate their 24hr service every two weeks.
Police To report a theft or other crime, go to the Carabinieri at Borgo Ognissanti 48, to the Questura at Via Duca d’Aosta 3 (both 24hr), or to the tourist police at Via Pietrapiana 50/R (Mon–Fri 8.30am–6.30pm, Sat closes 1pm) – you’re more likely to find an English-speaker at the latter.
Post office The main central post office is near Piazza della Repubblica at Via Pellicceria 3 (Mon–Sat 8.15am–7pm). If you’re having mail sent poste restante, make sure it’s marked for Via Pellicceria, otherwise it will go to Florence’s biggest post office, at Via Pietrapiana 53–55 (Mon–Fri 8.15am–7pm, Sat 8.15am–12.30pm).
Around Florence
The Greater Florence area has a number of towns and attractions to entice you on a day-trip from the city or even act as a base for exploring the region. City buses run northeast to the hill-village of Fiesole, while inter-town services run south into the hills of Chianti, Italy’s premier wine region. To the west of Florence, and readily accessible by train, Prato and neighbouring Pistoia are also well worth an afternoon.
Fiesole
A long-established Florentine retreat from the summer heat and crowds, FIESOLE spreads over a cluster of hilltops 8km northeast of the city. It predates Florence by several millennia: the Etruscans held out so long up here that the Romans were forced to set up permanent camp in the valley below – thus creating the beginnings of the settlement that was to become Florence. ATAF city bus #7 runs hourly from Florence’s Piazza San Marco. The tourist office is just off the square, behind the cathedral at Via Portigiani 3 (March & Oct daily 10am–6pm; April–Sept daily 10am–7pm; Nov–Feb Wed–Mon 10am–2pm; 055.596.1293).
Piazza Mino and around
The slightly unkempt-looking central square, Piazza Mino, is named after the fifteenth-century sculptor Mino da Fiesole, who has two fine pieces in the Duomo (daily: summer 8am–noon & 3–6pm; winter 8am–noon & 2–5pm; free) that dominates the north side of the square. Nineteenth-century restoration ruined the Duomo’s exterior, and the interior is something like a stripped-down version of Florence’s San Miniato; the highlight is the Cappella Salutati, to the right of the choir, which contains two fine pieces by Mino – a panel of the Madonna and Saints and the tomb of Bishop Salutati. Behind the Duomo lie the Museo Archeologico (April–Sept daily 10am–7pm; Oct & March daily 10am–6pm; Nov–Feb Wed–Mon 10am–2pm; €10 for joint ticket including Museo Bandini, valid one day), containing pieces excavated from the Teatro Romano; and the Museo Bandini (same hours and ticket), housing a miscellany of medieval Florentine and Tuscan art. Gates give onto the Area Archeologica behind (same hours and ticket), featuring the 3000-seat Teatro Romano, a baths complex and an Etruscan temple dedicated to Minerva.
The rest of the town
Fiesole’s two other major churches are reached by the narrow Via San Francesco, which rises steeply from Piazza Mino, past the Oratorio di San Jacopo (rarely open), a little chapel containing a fifteenth-century fresco and some ecclesiastical treasures. Sant’Alessandro (open for exhibitions only) was founded in the sixth century on the site of Etruscan and Roman temples and has beautiful marmorino cipollino (onion marble) columns adorning its basilical interior. The Gothic church of San Francesco (daily: April–Sept 7am–noon & 3–7pm; Oct–March 9am–noon & 3–5pm) occupies the site of the acropolis; across one of the tiny cloisters there’s a chaotic museum of pieces brought back from Egypt and China by missionaries. For a lovely walk, head southwest from Piazza Mino for 1.5km down the narrow, winding Via Vecchia Fiesolana to the hamlet of San Domenico. Fra’ Angelico was once prior of the Dominican monastery here and the church retains a 1420 Madonna and Angels by him (first chapel on the left), while the chapterhouse also has the Fra’ Angelico fresco The Crucifixion (ring the bell at no. 4 for entry).
Five minutes’ walk northwest from San Domenico stands the Badìa Fiesolana (Mon–Fri 9am–6pm, closes at 5pm in winter), Fiesole’s cathedral from the ninth century to the eleventh. Cosimo il Vecchio had the church altered in the 1460s, a project which kept the magnificent Romanesque facade intact while transforming the interior into a superb Renaissance building.
The best restaurant in town is La Reggia degli Etruschi, Via San Francesco 18 (055.59.385; closed Tues), with excellent cooking and marvellous views from its terraces.
Prato
PRATO, Tuscany’s second-largest city after Florence, has been Italy’s chief textile centre since the early Middle Ages, and its commercial history is well covered in the city’s Museo del Tessuto (Mon–Fri 10am–6pm, Sat 10am–2pm, Sun 4–7pm; €6, free on Sun), in Via Santa Chiara, close to the white-walled Castello dell’Imperatore. In the same part of town you’ll find Prato’s major Renaissance monument, Giuliano da Sangallo’s Santa Maria delle Carceri (daily 7am–noon & 4–7pm), which was built to honour a miraculous talking image of the Virgin that was painted on the walls of the gaol here – hence the name “Mary of the Prisons”. A few minutes’ walk away, the wide Piazza del Duomo forms an effective space for the Pisan-Romanesque facade of the Duomo (daily 7.30am–7pm), distinguished by Donatello’s and Michelozzo’s beautiful Pulpit of the Sacred Girdle. This unique addition was constructed for the ceremonial display of Prato’s holiest relic, the girdle of the Madonna, a garment allegedly dropped into the hands of the ever-incredulous apostle Thomas at her Assumption. Inside, Filippo Lippi’s wonderful frescoes (Mon–Sat 10am–5pm, Sun 3–5pm; €3), around the high altar, were completed over a period of fourteen years (1452–66) and depict the lives of John the Baptist and St Stephen. Prato’s one other essential sight is the Museo di Pittura Murale (Mon, Wed, Thurs & Sun 9am–1pm, Fri & Sat 9am–1pm & 3–6pm; €5), in the ex-monastery adjoining the mainly fourteenth-century church of San Domenico, which houses Filippo Lippi’s Madonna del Ceppo. Other Lippi pieces are also on show, as well as paintings by his son, Filippino.
Pistoia
The provincial capital of PISTOIA is one of the least visited cities in Tuscany, an unjustified neglect for this quiet, well-preserved settlement. If you’ve come from Pisa or Lucca, the style of Pistoia’s Duomo, the Cattedrale di San Zeno (daily 8am–12.30pm & 3.30–7pm), will be immediately familiar, with its tiered arcades and distinctive Pisan-Romanesque decoration of striped black and white marble. Inside, the main attraction is the Cappella di San Jacopo (€2), which boasts one of the richest pieces of silverwork in Italy, the Altarpiece of St James. Weighing almost a tonne and populated with 628 figures, it was begun in 1287 and completed in the fifteenth century. Opposite is the dapper Gothic Baptistry (currently closed for restoration), designed by Giovanni Pisano and completed in the mid-fourteenth century. On the far side of the square, the Palazzo Comunale contains the Museo Civico (Thurs–Sun 10am–6pm; €3.50, joint ticket valid for three museums €6.50), where the customary welter of run-of-the-mill medieval and Renaissance pieces is counterweighted by an impressive showing of Baroque hyperactivity. Your time might be better spent, however, touring the town’s other main churches, the Abbazia di San Bartolomeo in Pantano, San Giovanni Fuorcivitas and Sant’Andrea, all of which are within a ten-minute walk of the Duomo and house remarkably carved thirteenth-century pulpits. The most photographed feature of Pistoia is the Ospedale del Ceppo, along Via Pacini, which takes its name from the hollowed-out tree stump (ceppo) in which alms were traditionally collected. Emblazoned on its colonnaded facade is the feature that makes it famous, Giovanni della Robbia’s painted terracotta frieze of the Theological Virtues and the Seven Works of Mercy.
Chianti
Ask a sample of middle-class Northern Europeans to define their idea of paradise and the odds are that a hefty percentage will come up with something that sounds a lot like Chianti, the territory of vineyards and hill-towns that stretches between Florence and Siena. Life in Chianti seems in perfect balance: the landscape is a softly varied terrain of hills and valleys; the climate for most of the year is sunny; and on top of all this there’s the wine, the one Italian vintage that’s familiar to just about everyone. Visitors from Britain and other similarly ill-favoured climes were long ago alerted to Chianti’s charms, and the rate of immigration has been so rapid since the 1960s that the region is now wryly dubbed Chiantishire. Yet it would be an exaggeration to say that Chianti has completely lost its character: the tone of certain parts has been altered, but concessions to tourism have been more or less successfully absorbed into the rhythm of local life.
If you’re relying on buses from Florence or Siena, the best targets are Greve in Chianti and Radda in Chianti. But the only realistic way to get to know the region is with your own transport, following the SS222 (or Chiantigiana), which snakes its way between Florence and Siena through the most beautiful parts of Chianti.
Greve in Chianti
The venue for Chianti’s biggest wine fair (the Rassegna del Chianti Classico, usually held in early September), GREVE is a thriving mercantile town where there’s wine for sale on every street. The funnel-shaped Piazza Matteotti – venue for the Saturday-morning market – is focused on a statue of Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European to see what became Manhattan; he was born in the nearby Castello di Verrazzano. Greve’s only real sight is the Museo di San Francesco, at Via San Francesco 14 (April–Oct Tues, Thurs & Fri 4–7pm, Sat & Sun 10am–1pm & 4–7pm; Nov–March Tues & Thurs 3–6pm, Sat & Sun 10am–1pm & 3–6pm; €3), where the chief exhibit is a painted terracotta Lamentation, created in the 1530s.
Greve is equipped with an efficient tourist office, tucked into a corner of Piazza Matteotti at Via delle Capanne 11 (Mon–Sat 10am–1pm & 3–6pm; 055.854.5243), which can give information on vineyards, accommodation in local farmhouses and trekking in Chianti. A couple of three-star hotels on Piazza Matteotti offer comfortable accommodation: Del Chianti at no. 86 (055.853.763, www.albergodelchianti.it; €61–90), with a swimming pool, and Da Verrazzano at no. 28 (055.853.189, www.albergoverrazzano.it; €61–90), whose rooms either overlook the square or have their own private terrace. The hotel also has an extremely good restaurant (April–Oct daily; Nov–March closed Mon & Sun dinner).
Radda in Chianti
A ridge 22km south of Greve is occupied by the well-heeled village of Castellina in Chianti, whose walls and fortress bear testimony to an embattled past on the frontline between Florence and Siena. From Castellina, the SS429 branches east, through the most beautiful Chianti landscape, to RADDA IN CHIANTI. The street plan of this minuscule town is centred on Piazza Ferrucci, where the frescoed and shield-studded Palazzo Comunale faces a church raised on a high platform.
The tourist office, behind the church (Mon–Sat 10.15am–1pm & 3.15–6.30pm, Sun 10.30am-12.30pm), can advise on accommodation in town, but the best place to stay in these parts is La Locanda (0577.738.832, www.lalocanda.it; April–Oct; €151–200), a country house halfway between Radda and Greve. Beautifully restored by affable owners Guido and Martina, it enjoys a scenic hilltop setting and also has a swimming pool and a good restaurant (Mon, Wed & Fri; dinner €35; booking essential). An added attraction is the nearby Il Castello di Volpaia winery (www.volpaia.it), one of the best in the area.