# Florence: map, what to do and when to go

Florence packs Renaissance art into a few streets, and demand is so high that the dome, the Uffizi, and the David require timed tickets. Capital of Tuscany, it was also the cradle of the language: the 14th-century literary Florentine of Dante became the basis of standard Italian.

Canonical: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/florenca/
Language: en. Extended author commentary and itinerary notes may remain in Portuguese. Dates below belong to individual sources; this is not live availability.

## Direct answer
- **Florence: How do you get from the airport to downtown?** Tram T2 “Vespucci” leaves from the terminal door and reaches Santa Maria Novella station in about 20 minutes, with departures every 4 to 6 minutes and a standard €2 ticket, then continues to Piazza San Marco.
- **Florence: How do you get to Fiesole?** Fiesole lies 8 km north, 25 minutes on bus 7 from Piazza San Marco, with a €2 city ticket.
- **Florence: Do I need to carry cash?** Only a little: contactless cards work for almost everything, but street carts and market stalls sometimes only take cash, so carry a few small euro bills.

## The religious axis and the civic axis
Climb the dome's 463 steps at 8:30am, in the slot you booked in advance, and come down in time to enter the cathedral nave, which is free and opens at 10:15am.
- Catedral de Santa Maria del Fiore e a cúpula
- Batistério de San Giovanni
- Galleria degli Uffizi
- Palazzo Vecchio e Piazza della Signoria

## Michelangelo in the morning, Oltrarno in the afternoon
Have coffee and buy fruit at 8am at the Mercato di Sant'Ambrogio, at neighborhood prices rather than center prices.
- Galleria dell'Accademia
- Ponte Vecchio e o Corredor Vasariano
- San Miniato al Monte e Piazzale Michelangelo

## Sculpture, cells and the hill
Arrive at 8:15am at the Bargello, the sculpture museum housed in the podestà's palace of 1255, and give the first hour to Donatello and to the two Sacrifice of Isaac panels that Ghiberti and Brunelleschi entered in the 1401 competition for the Baptistery doors.
- Museo Nazionale del Bargello

## Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and the dome
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/florenca/#g-lugar-catedral-de-santa-maria-del
Florença
Begun in 1296 by Arnolfo di Cambio and closed by Brunelleschi's dome between 1420 and 1436: a 45.5 m span, herringbone brickwork, two shells and no wooden centering. The nave is free and opens at 10:15am, Monday to Saturday, with a line and a bag check; the climb up the 463 steps needs a booked time slot and comes with the Brunelleschi Pass (about €30, valid 3 days), which also covers Giotto's campanile (84.7 m, 414 steps), the crypt of Santa Reparata and the Museo dell'Opera.
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## Baptistery of San Giovanni
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/florenca/#g-lugar-batisterio-de-san-giovanni
Florença · Up to half an hour
The oldest standing building in the center, octagonal, faced with white and green marble from Prato between the 11th and 13th centuries. The Last Judgment mosaic on the dome dates from the 13th century. Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise (1425–1452) on the east facade are copies; the ten original gilded bronze panels have been restored and are on display at the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, across the square.
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## Galleria degli Uffizi
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/florenca/#g-lugar-galleria-degli-uffizi
Florença
Vasari built it between 1560 and 1580 as offices (uffizi) for the ducal administration; it opened to the public in 1765. It holds Botticelli (Primavera and The Birth of Venus), Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian and Caravaggio across about a hundred rooms. Timed-entry tickets cost about €25 in high season and about €16 for entry from 4pm, a rate introduced on January 1, 2026.
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## Galleria dell'Accademia
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/florenca/#g-lugar-galleria-dell-accademia
Florença · One to two hours
It exists because of one statue: Michelangelo's David, 5.17 m carved from a single block of Carrara marble between 1501 and 1504 and brought here from Piazza della Signoria in 1873. In the entrance corridor stand the four unfinished Prisoners, showing the figure emerging from the stone. About €16 plus a booking fee; 40 to 60 minutes are enough.
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## Palazzo Vecchio and Piazza della Signoria
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/florenca/#g-lugar-palazzo-vecchio
Florença
Seat of government since 1299–1314, with the 94 m Torre di Arnolfo and the Salone dei Cinquecento, a hall of about 54 by 23 m decorated by Vasari over unfinished frescoes by Leonardo and Michelangelo. In the square, the David is a copy installed in 1910, and the Loggia dei Lanzi (1382) houses Cellini's Perseus, from 1554. A round granite plaque marks the spot where Savonarola was burned in 1498.
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## Ponte Vecchio and the Vasari Corridor
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/florenca/#g-lugar-ponte-vecchio
Florença · Up to half an hour
Rebuilt in 1345 after the 1333 flood, it's the only bridge the Germans didn't dynamite in August 1944. The butchers were expelled by a 1593 decree of Ferdinando I and replaced by goldsmiths, who remain in the same overhanging shops. Above it runs the 750 m corridor Vasari built in 1565, reopened to the public in late 2024 with its own ticket (a supplement on top of the Uffizi entry). Since May 25, 2026 the bridge has been under restoration, with pontoons on the river; crossing on foot remains open.
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## Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/florenca/#g-lugar-palazzo-pitti
Florença
A palace bought by the Medici in 1550 and expanded until its facade reached over 200 m of pietra forte stone. The Galleria Palatina keeps its paintings hung floor to ceiling, as in the 17th century, with eleven canvases by Raphael. Behind it, the 45 hectares of Boboli, an Italian garden begun by Tribolo, with an amphitheater, Buontalenti's grotto and a link to Forte Belvedere. A combined ticket with the Uffizi is available for five days.
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## Basilica of Santa Croce
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/florenca/#g-lugar-basilica-de-santa-croce
Florença · Up to half an hour
Franciscan, begun in 1294, with Giotto's frescoes in the Bardi and Peruzzi chapels and Brunelleschi's Pazzi Chapel in the cloister. It became Italy's pantheon in the 19th century: the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli and Rossini, and an empty cenotaph for Dante, buried in Ravenna since 1321. In the 1966 flood the water reached about 5 m inside here; the mark is signposted.
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## Museo Nazionale del Bargello
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/florenca/#g-lugar-museo-nazionale-del-bargello
Florença
The podestà's palace from 1255, later a prison and the seat of the chief of police (the bargello), today a sculpture museum. It holds Donatello's bronze David, the first freestanding male nude since Antiquity, his Saint George, works by Michelangelo, Cellini and Giambologna, and the two 1401 panels of the Sacrifice of Isaac with which Ghiberti and Brunelleschi competed for the Baptistery doors, displayed side by side.
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## San Miniato al Monte and Piazzale Michelangelo
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/florenca/#g-lugar-san-miniato-al-monte
Florença
A Romanesque church from 1018–1207 at the highest point of the south bank, with a geometric marble facade, a 12th-century floor with zodiac signs and an active Olivetan monastery. The monks sing vespers in the late afternoon, at a time posted on the door. Just below, the Piazzale Michelangelo, a terrace opened by Giuseppe Poggi in 1869 with another bronze copy of the David. The walk up the ramps takes about 25 minutes from the river.
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**Florence: How do you get from the airport to downtown?**
Tram T2 “Vespucci” leaves from the terminal door and reaches Santa Maria Novella station in about 20 minutes, with departures every 4 to 6 minutes and a standard €2 ticket, then continues to Piazza San Marco.

**Florence: How do you get to Fiesole?**
Fiesole lies 8 km north, 25 minutes on bus 7 from Piazza San Marco, with a €2 city ticket.

**Florence: Do I need to carry cash?**
Only a little: contactless cards work for almost everything, but street carts and market stalls sometimes only take cash, so carry a few small euro bills.

**Florence: How do you order coffee at the counter?**
In many bars you order and pay at the register first, take the receipt to the counter and drink there, because sitting down changes the price.

**Florence: Is it a safe city?**
Florence is safe to walk at any hour, and violent crime against visitors is rare. The real risk is pickpocketing, concentrated around Santa Maria Novella station and the surrounding streets, the San Lorenzo market, the C-line minibuses, and the crush of the Ponte Vecchio and Piazza del Duomo on a busy day: wear your backpack on your front and keep your phone out of your back pocket. The common scams always work the same way: men who tie “free gift” bracelets onto your wrist near the Baptistery and the Piazzale and then charge for them, fake-petition clipboards worked by a pair, and cars that offer themselves as taxis outside the airport, when the legal taxi is white, with a number on the door and a meter.


## In the Nilo app
- Plan these 2 days on the map: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/app/guide/florenca/?utm_source=llm&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=door-itinerary
- Mark your hotel on the map: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/app/map/florenca/?utm_source=llm&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=door-stay

## Full editorial guide (Portuguese)
https://nilopelomundo.com/llm/florenca.md