Renaissance art on a walkable scale
Florence is compact, and most of what you came for sits within a 20-minute walk: the Duomo, the Uffizi, the Accademia and the Ponte Vecchio. The Uffizi and the Accademia (home to Michelangelo's David) both sell out in high season, so book timed tickets in advance and build the rest of your day around those slots.
Tuscany is on the doorstep. A day trip to the hill towns, a wine estate or Pisa and Lucca is the best use of a spare day, and a food tour in the Oltrarno district is the best use of an evening.
- April to June and September to October. August is very hot and many locals leave, which means some small restaurants close.
- Two days for Florence itself, one or two more for Tuscany.
- Walk. The historic centre is largely traffic-restricted. Trains to Pisa and Siena are straightforward, but a tour is the easy way to reach wineries.