The best things to do in Florence, Italy
The concept of a "new Florence" might seem like an oxymoron; like the new Botticelli or Michelangelo, two masters of the Renaissance that the city of the Rinascimento has leaned on for the last five centuries. Florence is so rich with artistic and architectural wonders, who can blame the conservative Florentines for resting on their laurels, or sore-footed visitors for having the sensation that the great Tuscan capital is just one big stifling museum?
But Florence is changing. Firstly, it’s bigger: in 2021 UNESCO added the churches of San Miniato al Monte, San Salvatore al Monte, Giuseppe Poggi’s renovated ramps and Piazzale Michelangelo in the Florentine hills to its World Heritage Sites, extending the centro storico to 530 hectares. It’s also quieter, cleaner and brighter since motor vehicles were banned in the city centre and the rebirth of some of Florence's most important artworks and museums via a series of recent ambitious restorations.
Meanwhile, a refreshing breeze has swept across Florence’s airless traditions. A new hotel landscape brings playful visions of the contemporary city; an energetic dining scene embraces New York-style glamour and the multi-cultural – from Neapolitan pizza sensations to Tuscan-Chinese dim sum and vegan fare (notably Amza Zahouani’s Oltrarno ventures) – alongside its traditional trattoria dishes. And a generation of artisans is breathing sustainability and diversity into Florence’s ancient arts and crafts.
Since architect Paolo Desideri’s €175-million conversion of the Teatro Comunale into a multifunctional music space and opera house, urban regeneration projects go from strength to strength. The city’s former granary and army barracks are now a co-working hub and Manifattura Tabacchi, a disused tobacco factory near Piazza Puccini undergoing a progressive €250 million transformation, is destined to be Florence’s new dynamic creative and fashion hub.
Italy's most enchanting city is going through a sparkly revival, with iconoclastic art, edgy architecture and quirky twists on regional food popping up everywhere. There's so much more to explore but where to begin? These are all the very best things to do in Florence.
John RizzoWhat to see in Florence
Bargello Museum
The new €1.8 million re-haul of the Bargello Museum, which was kicked off by a major Donatello exhibition in 2022, is one of a number of recent renovation projects polishing up the city’s greatest hits. Most wondrous are the works at the Brancacci chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine church, where scaffolding forms viewing platforms from which to see Masolino and Masaccio’s restored frescoes masterpieces – often cited as the genesis of the Renaissance.
Website: chiesadelcarmine.net
Bardini Villa
With so much art it’s easy to forget Florence’s proximity to nature both in its glorious hilly surround and its superstar Renaissance gardens – manicured works of art, too grand to be classed as mere “green spaces.” Most magical are the gardens of the Bardini Villa above the city where one can walk through boughs of wisteria, and further on – the terraced Rose and Iris Gardens in the new UNESCO extension – before watching the sun set into the great bowl of Florence from romantic working monastery San Miniato al Monte.
Website: villabardini.it
Getty ImagesPalazzo Strozzino
A dialogue between Renaissance and the contemporary art age housed in the palace of the Medici's nemesis, the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation upped its game when it hired Arturo Galansino formerly of London's Royal Academy in 2015. Since then it has become a major Florentine institution showing the works of Ai Weiwei, Marina Abramović and Jeff Koon as well as co-hosting the likes of the Donatello exhibition. Meanwhile, the iconic Odeon cinema in Palazzo Strozzino across the road is to become a new multifunctional cultural centre.
Website: palazzostrozzi.org
Marino Marini Museum
Henry Moore visited Florence in his youth, went on to sculpt the same marble as Michelangelo, showed in Florence in 1972 and donated works to the city – all the while cross-fertilising with Tuscan primitivist sculptor Marino Marini. One of the most important Italian artists of the 20th century. Marini’s monolithic equestrian sculptures are shown in this under-the-radar ex-tobacco factory once a chapel designed by Leon Battista Alberti.
Website: museomarinomarini.it
The Ginori Museum
Set to re-open in 2025, it will be a cult classic: the museum of Richard Ginori in Sesto Fiorentino, with 8,000 pieces of porcelain by the company founded in 1735, art directed mid-century by Gio’ Ponti and bought by Gucci’s Kering in 2013, set in the 1965 rationalist building designed by the architect of Santa Maria Novella station. Meanwhile, things are hotting up with the gardens opening and virtual exhibitions online.
Getty ImagesWhere to shop in Florence
Florence is known for the Big Three: Gucci, Emilio Pucci and Salvatore Ferragamo, a fashion game that can now be spotted in any major global city. But a new generation of Florentine labels has restored the hunting thrill to shopping in the city.
Superduper Hats
With a new space at the urban regeneration project Manifattura Tabacchi, Superduper Hats is the brainchild of Matteo Gioli, Ilaria and Veronica Cornacchini’s who fashion unisex millinery showpieces on antique wooden moulds.
Website: superduperhats.com
Il Vecchio Conventino
Officina Creativa at Il Vecchio Conventino, located in San Frediano is the city’s craft hub, an ex-Carmelite convent housing the ateliers of 20 different artisans from jeweller makers to potters, fashion designers and painters curated by Artex, the Centre for the Artistic Handcrafts of Tuscany.
Website: officinacreativafirenze.it
Iacobella Gaetani
Inspired by the Colombian Mochila, Iacobella Gaetani founded her eponymous handbag label in 2019. A fusion of Florence’s leather- and jewellery-working cultures, Iacobella’s hand-stitched plaited bags often use recycled leather strips and have a gem fastening as their trademark.
Website: iacobella.com
Gioia Bini
Following the haute couture seams of Loretta Caponi, young Fiorentina Gioia Bini – now a regular in the pages of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar – designs limited edition hand-sewn bell-shaped and architectural dresses with up-cycled fabrics from the region’s best textile mills.
Website: gioiabini.com
Marcela Schneider FerreiraSileno Cheloni
New perfume laboratory Sileno Cheloni is a nod to the Officina Profumo-Farmaceutico Santa Maria Novella, the historic pharmacy founded by Dominican friars in 1221 with its flagship in the celestial chapel of San Niccolo’. Nearby, in a space that rather conjures the dark arts, master perfumer Cheloni has created an “olfactory library” of 2,000 essences for his one-off alchemical creations, which also come in the form of medieval-style scented silver pomanders.
Website: silenocheloni.com
Where to eat in Florence
Cammillo, Buca Lapi, 13 Gobi… When it comes to the carnivorous classics – Fiorentina steak, finocchiona salami, pappardelle al cinghiale (wild boar) – the city stills has trattorias where Florentines and visitors happily co-exist, with a concentration around hotspot Via Della Spada. But a host of new restaurants are elevating and widening Florence’s culinary repertoire.
Chic Nonna
At Palazzo Portinari Salviata, a new smart residential and fine-dining complex with 13 additional suites in a 15th-century palace purported to be the birthplace of Dante’s Beatrice, is Vito Mollica’s new venture, Chic Nonna. The former executive chef of Michelin-starred Il Palagio at the Four Seasons elevates grandmothers’ cooking to celestial heights in the grand Corte degli Imperatori.
Address: Via del Corso, 6, 50122 Firenze FI, Italy
Website: chicnonna.com
Ph. Lapo BaraldiCibrèo
The late Fabio Picchi’s Sant’Ambrogio favourite founded in 1979 is spreading its love – and lauded seasonal fare – across Florence under the dynamic helm of son Giulio. In late 2021, Cibrèo restaurant was inaugurated at Helvetia & Bristol hotel in a New York-y space. Meanwhile, Ciblèo turns its hand to Tuscan-Asian fusion.
Address: Via Andrea del Verrocchio, 8r, 50122 Firenze FI, Italy
Website: cibreo.com
Sophie DelauwLa Ménagère
Lauded as the sexiest contemporary locale in Florence, all vaulted ceilings and Crittall doors, San Lorenzo’s florist-restaurant-cocktail bar La Ménagère reopened in November 2021 after a makeover. Meanwhile, San Lorenzo market’s incarnation as a high-end food hall goes from strength to strength.
Address: Via de' Ginori, 8/R, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy
Website: lamenagere.itIginio Massari, Alta Pasticceria Florence
At hotel Helvetia & Bristol is pastry maestro Iginio Massari’s haut patisserie in a marble and pastel pink space as pretty as a box of macaroons, a contemporary take on 18th-century Caffe’ Gilli.
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Il Santo Bevitore
Despite its off-putting hipster website, Il Santo Bevitore in the Oltrarno’s Santo Spirito remains at the top of the love tree for Florentines and visitors alike for its wine list and twists on traditional dishes. The owners also run historic bakery S.Forno.
Address: Via Santo Spirito, 64r, 50125 Firenze FI, Italy
Website: ilsantobevitore.comCortese Caffé 900
Meanwhile, at Cortese Caffé 900 in the Museo del Novecento, “raw food” pastry chef Vito Cortese magics up treats for the sweet-toothed that are vegan, gluten-free and free of refined sugar.
Address: P.za di Santa Maria Novella, 10, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy
Website: museonovecento.it
Where to drink in Florence
Gucci Garden
Some credit must go to Gucci’s Alessandro Michele for rebooting Florentine cool when he inaugurated the Gucci Garden in Palazzo della Mercanzia in 2018, a collaboration with then-Italian number one chef Massimo Bottura. His next endeavour is Gucci Garden 25, a cocktail bar and cafe with peacock-blue leather banquets in an adjacent florist, headed up by mixologist Martina Bonci who shakes up floral cocktails.
Address: P.za della Signoria, 10, 50122 Firenze FI, Italy
Website: guccigarden.gucci.comManifattura
At Manifattura, Fabiano Buffolino brings Made in Italy to his cocktail list, a witty – and very wordy – post-modern celebration of Italianness – from forgotten labels once emblems of sprezzatura to “miscugli ardimentosi” dedicated to the Italian greats from Gabriele d’Annunzio to Neapolitan singer Renato Carosone.
Address: Piazza di S. Pancrazio, 1, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy
Website: manifattura-firenze.eatbu.comLocale
It would be no surprise in Naples, Rome or Milan, but it was the Florentine bar that recently claimed the 51st spot on The World’s 50 Best Bars. Locale, a multiple dining space spread out over candlelit 13th-century Palazzo Concini in Sant’Ambrogio, has wowed the mixology world with its whimsical art-themed cocktails.
Address: Via delle Seggiole, 12r, 50122 Firenze FI, Italy
Website: localefirenze.it
Getty ImagesDitta Artigianale
Good coffee in Florence is as plentiful as tourists. And there are historic (and expensive) places to get it. A world away in Sant’ Ambrogio is Ditta Artigianale . Here caffeine scientist Francesco Sanapo percolates beans collected from all over the world in lab-like vials. A stock of 40 boutique gins, makes Ditta Artigianale a day-to-night artisanal hotspot.
Address: Via dei Neri, 30/32 R, 50122 Firenze FI, Italy
Website: dittaartigianale.comMAD Souls & Spirits
A Florentine rite is a night out in the Oltrarno, Florence’s living-and-breathing bohemian quarter with Piazza Santo Spirito as its beating heart. There’s Rasputin and Volume, but for a down-and-dirty evening where anything can happen, the surefire is hole-in-the-wall hipster joint MAD Souls & Spirits in San Frediano, a loud antidote to the polite Florentine aperativo.
Address: Borgo S. Frediano, 36/38r, 50124 Firenze FI, Italy
Website: madsoulsandspirits.comRead about the best rooftop bars in Florence
Where to stay in Florence
25hours Hotel Piazza San Paolino
25hours Hotel Piazza San Paolino is Florence’s mischievous 171-room newcomer housed in an ex-monastery and masterminded by Milanese designer Paola Navone. Opened in 2021 on the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, the German brand’s hip new Florence outlet is themed around The Divine Comedy: guests are assigned celestial white or fiery red rooms in designated heaven or hell.
Address: Piazza di S. Paolino, 1, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy
Website: 25hours-hotels.com/florenzThe Place
Sense of place – specifically Piazza Santa Maria Novella – is the genius in architect Luigi Fragola’s new venture in the former JK Place building, beloved since 2003 for its feel as a homey Florentine Pied-a’-terre. Now just The Place, the smart townhouse holds up a contemporary mirror to polymath Leon Battista Alberti’s marble basilica outside in a green and cream palette. The hotel’s new font is based on letters and symbols on the church’s facade.
Address: P.za di Santa Maria Novella, 7, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy
Website: theplacefirenze.comHotel Savoy
Our favourite refresh – Rocco Forte’s Savoy, redesigned by Olga Polizzi in 2018 in collaboration with fashion house Emilio Pucci jazzed up with dashes of black and fuchsia silk, is a contemporary recalling of the glamour of Florence’s jet-set era.
Address: Piazza della Repubblica, 7, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy
Website: roccofortehotels.com/hotel-savoy
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Laura RoldanIl Tornabuoni
Il Tornabuoni, Florence’s luxury standard bearer which opened as part of Hyatt’s Unbound Collection in 2022, boldly re-channels the jewel-toned opulence of the Renaissance over five floors and 62 bedrooms. The Tornabuoni family, namesakes of Florence’s parade of flagship stores, commissioned the likes of Botticelli and Ghirlandaio. But Andrea Auletta’s redesign of 13th century Palazzo Minerbetti with custom-made chevron wallpaper and animal print art would also not be out of place in a Gucci advertisement. The flagship store is up the road.
Address: Via de' Tornabuoni, 3, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy
Website: hyatt.com/il-tornabuoni
Stefano ScatàHelvetia & Bristol
Also framing a fresh idea of Florence is reimagined Grand Tour icon Helvetia & Bristol, which just opened after a five-year renovation with the addition of 25 rooms and suites and a re-design by Anoushka Hempel. It’s now a temple to the best of Florentine craftsmanship. Other aces up its sleeve include a new outlet of Sant’ Ambrogio’s legendary Cibrèo and a spa above the ruins of Roman thermal baths, visible through a glass-bottomed swimming pool.
Address: Via dei Pescioni, 2, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy
Website: collezione.starhotels.com/helvetia-and-bristol-florenceDimora Palanca
Contemporary art is the focus of the bespoke gem 19-room Dimora Palanca near the Galleria Dell’Accademia housed in a 19th-century townhouse once a famous artistic salon; Florentine Paolo Dovichi created 40 site-specific works to offset frescoed ceilings.
Address: Via della Scala, 72, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy
Website: dimorapalanca.com