Everything I Did in Florence and Would Do Again.
Credit: Simple Slow Traveler Guide
I've been to Florence twice and I'm already planning the third visit. The secret, I think, is timing. Do it before 9am when the streets are still quiet and you can actually stand in front of a façade and think. The city is completely different before the crowds arrive, and worth every early alarm.
Start at Piazzale Michelangelo before 8am. The view, the Arno, the Uffizi, the Duomo, the Tuscan hills behind it all, is one of those things that makes you feel lucky to be alive. By late afternoon it's packed. At dawn it's just you and two other people who had the same idea.
The museums
The Uffizi deserves a full morning. Book in advance and don't rush it. Botticelli's Birth of Venus is smaller than you expect and more beautiful than any reproduction has ever conveyed. The Artemisia Gentileschi rooms alone are worth the ticket.
The Duomo is free to enter and the exterior is one of the great works of human ambition, 150 years to build, and you can feel every one of them. I climbed the Campanile di Giotto at sunset rather than the Dome, and I'd do it again. From up there you see the Dome itself, lit up and golden. The Galleria dell'Accademia for Michelangelo's David, which is smaller than you expect and more powerful than any image.
And then there's the Gucci Museo, which I loved more than I expected to, and I already expected to love it. Florence is where the house started, so seeing it there feels right in a way it wouldn't anywhere else. It's part archive, part art installation, completely worth it. The Ferragamo museum is also in Florence and it's been on my list since forever. I didn't make it this time, which I'm still a little annoyed about. Next trip, non-negotiable.
Where to eat
Osteria Pastella for the tagliatelle. It's the Instagram restaurant, yes, but it's earned it. The waiters prepare the dish tableside, setting a cheese wheel on fire before pulling the pasta through it. Book in advance, get the second time slot, arrive early.
La Ménagère for dinner. Beautifully decorated, great food, the kind of place where you don't want to leave.
Walk the Ponte Vecchio at night when it's quieter, then keep walking until you find wherever feels right. Florence at night, with the lights on the Arno and the streets half-empty, is a completely different city. A better one, if I'm honest.
One practical note
No car inside Florence. Residents only, ZTL cameras everywhere, fines arrive weeks later and they are not small. Park on the east side and walk in along the Arno. It's a nicer entrance anyway.
