Florence

Why Florence works

Florence's Duomo, its red-tiled dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi in the 1420s without any external scaffolding — a feat unmatched for centuries — remains the largest brick dome ever constructed and still dominates the city's skyline, visible from nearly every rooftop terrace. Inside the Uffizi Gallery, Botticelli's Birth of Venus and works by Leonardo, Titian and Raphael trace the Renaissance's explosive flourishing under Medici patronage, best visited with a pre-booked timed entry to skip lengthy queues. Michelangelo's David, carved from a single block of Carrara marble, stands in the Accademia Gallery, its anatomical precision still startling after five centuries. The Ponte Vecchio, lined with gold and jewellery shops since the 16th century, is the only Florentine bridge to survive German demolition in the Second World War. Across the Arno, the Oltrarno district offers artisan workshops — leatherworkers, frame-makers, restorers — largely unchanged for generations, and the Boboli Gardens behind the Pitti Palace provide sweeping city views away from the crowds. Evenings call for a Chianti at a wine window (buchette del vino), a Renaissance-era feature for passing wine through walls, revived post-pandemic, followed by bistecca alla fiorentina, the city's signature thick-cut steak, at a family trattoria.

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