How many days do I need in Florence?

Three full days covers the major museums, both sides of the river, and a proper meal rhythm without rushing. Two feels tight. Four lets you add a day trip to Siena or the Chianti hills. Most first-time visitors regret not scheduling at least 3 nights.

Is Florence walkable or do I need transit?

Almost everything a first-time visitor wants sits within a 20-minute walk of the Duomo. The terrain is flat in the center. You'll likely walk 15,000-20,000 steps daily without trying. The only common transit need is getting up to Piazzale Michelangelo if you don't want the uphill walk, or reaching Fiesole (bus 7, about 25 minutes from San Marco).

Do I need to book the Uffizi in advance?

Between March and October, strongly yes. Walk-up queues in July can exceed 2-3 hours, and timed-entry slots sell out days ahead for morning times. In January or February you can likely walk up within 30 minutes, but booking still saves the wait. The official site is uffizi.it.

Is Florence expensive compared to other Italian cities?

Restaurants in the centro storico tend to run 15-25 euros for a primo and secondo without wine. That's above Rome's average and well above Naples. Accommodation peaks in May-June and September, when a 3-star double room near the center sits around 150-250 euros per night. Coffee at the bar is still 1.20-1.50 euros everywhere.

What's the tap water situation?

Florence's tap water is safe and comes from Arno valley aquifers. The city has public drinking fountains (nasoni) scattered around, though fewer than Rome. Restaurants will serve tap water (acqua del rubinetto) if you ask, though some push bottled. Carry a refillable bottle.

Can I do a day trip to Siena or Pisa from Florence?

Pisa is 50-70 minutes by train, multiple departures per hour from Santa Maria Novella. The Campo dei Miracoli sits 20 minutes on foot from Pisa Centrale station. Siena is about 75 minutes by bus (SITA/Tiemme from the station) or 90 minutes by the slower train. Both work comfortably as half-day or full-day trips.

What should I know about the ZTL restricted traffic zone?

The ZTL covers most of the historic center and is enforced by cameras 24 hours in some sections, daytime-only in others. If you drive a rental car into the zone without authorization, fines arrive by post weeks later at around 80-100 euros per infraction. Park outside the ZTL and walk or take a taxi. Hotels inside the zone can register your plate temporarily.

Things to Do in Florence: A Complete Guide

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Florence sits in a shallow basin along the Arno, ringed by the hills of Fiesole and Settignano, and on a clear morning you can stand on Piazzale Michelangelo and trace the whole city under the terracotta dome Brunelleschi finished in 1436: still the largest masonry dome ever built, still the thing that orients you when you get lost below. The city is smaller than visitors expect, roughly 383,000 residents in a historic centre barely three kilometres across, walkable end to end in under an hour if you could resist stopping. But you will not resist. The Oltrarno, the neighbourhood south of the river that working Florentines never abandoned even as the north bank tilted toward tourism, runs on its own schedule: furniture restorers and leather workers open their botteghe by eight, and the Santo Spirito piazza fills with locals over coffee long before any museum queue forms across the water. North of the Arno, the concentration of Renaissance art per square metre has no equal (the Uffizi, the Accademia, the Bargello, San Marco) but the city's real education happens between them, in the way a side street off Via dei Calzaiuoli opens onto a thirteenth-century church facade you had no idea existed. Mornings belong to the museums. Afternoons pull you toward the Mercato Centrale or the San Lorenzo food hall, where you eat lampredotto from a stall and wonder why tripe tastes this good only here. Evenings draw you back across the Ponte Vecchio, past goldsmiths who have kept shops on that bridge since the sixteenth century, into Oltrarno bars where a negroni costs what it should. Florence does not sprawl or rush. It compresses five centuries of artistic ambition into a space you can cross on foot before lunch, and then asks you to sit down and eat well.