Florence 2026: The City That Put Art on the Street

Complete Florence 2026 guide: Uffizi, Duomo, Galleria dell'Accademia, Oltrarno and the best restaurants. Tips to skip queues and what Carmen discovered about art that no audio guide covers.

Carmen here. I spent four weeks reading about the Renaissance. I have three books marked with post-its, a 40-episode podcast listened to twice, and a notebook filled with dates, names and Medici family relationships that rival a period novel's plot. I arrived in Florence convinced nothing would surprise me.

On the first day, I entered the Galleria dell'Accademia at 9 AM. I walked through the corridor of the Prisoners — Michelangelo's four unfinished slaves that seem to be emerging from the marble rather than sculpted into it — and at the end of the corridor I found the David.

Five metres and seventeen centimetres of white marble. Four weeks of preparation. And the first thing I thought was: there's no way to prepare for this.

Getting around Florence

Florence is a small city. The historic centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, can be walked from end to end in twenty minutes. You don't need a metro or taxi for the main monuments.

Amerigo Vespucci airport is 10 minutes away by taxi or the Vola in Bus train. Santa Maria Novella station connects with Rome in 1h30 on the Frecciarossa, Milan in 1h45, and Venice in 2h15.

To enter the Duomo, Uffizi, Accademia, Palazzo Pitti and Boboli Gardens you need paid tickets. ·

The Firenze Card (€72, 72 hours) covers 72 museums with priority access. Worth it if you're planning to visit four or five museums — what Carmen calls "the cultural break-even threshold".

The Uffizi: how not to collapse

The Uffizi Gallery has eighty-six rooms. Most visitors see the first twenty in an hour and a half and leave exhausted without reaching the halfway point.

The mistake: starting from the beginning and following in order. Carmen's strategy: go straight to the Botticelli rooms (rooms 10-14), spend time with The Birth of Venus and Primavera, then backtrack. If you only have two hours, prioritise: Botticelli, the Leonardo room (room 15), Michelangelo (room 35) and the terrace with Arno views.

Book weeks or months in advance. Last-minute tickets exist, but the walk-up queue can be three hours.

The David: what the audio guide doesn't tell you

Michelangelo was 26 years old when he started the David. The marble block had been in the cathedral courtyard for forty years — other sculptors had rejected it for the stone's flaws. Michelangelo took two years to finish it.

The figure represents David in the moment before throwing the stone, not after. The body is at maximum tension: the right hand already tensing the sling, the head turned toward a Goliath who hasn't arrived yet. Michelangelo sculpted adrenaline.

One detail visitors miss until someone points it out: the right hand is disproportionately large. Some historians believe this is intentional — the hand of action dominates the body.

Oltrarno: unfiltered Florence

The Oltrarno district, south of the Arno, is where Florentines have lived for centuries while tourists stayed north of the river. It's also where the city's best restaurants are.

Borgo San Jacopo street runs along the river with views of Ponte Vecchio. Mercato di Santo Spirito on weekends is a craft market during the day and aperitivo with live musicians in the evening. Piazzale Michelangelo, fifteen minutes' walk uphill, has the best views of Florence's rooftops — and the best sunset photos.

Eating in Florence

Florentine cuisine is robust and unapologetic. Bistecca alla fiorentina — Chianina beef T-bone grilled over charcoal, minimum 1 kilo, barely cooked — is the local reference. Eaten with Chianti Classico and nothing but white beans (fagioli) as standard accompaniment.

Lampredotto is another institution: one of a cow's four stomachs, stewed for hours and served in a bread roll at street trippaio carts. The most famous is next to Mercato Centrale. It's one of those foods you either understand or you don't, but trying it once is compulsory.

For a good dinner without tourist prices, cross the Arno. Oltrarno restaurants have midday set menus at €12-15 including first course, main and house wine.

Practicalities

Florence airport operates flights across Europe. For intercontinental destinations, Pisa airport (1h by train) has more options. An eSIM gets you data from landing without paying roaming fees. ·

Best time to visit: spring (April-May) and autumn (September-October). July and August are hot (35°C regularly), very crowded and prices rise significantly.