Florence for families

Must-see attractions

Florence's must-see list is not a museum checklist; it is a working catalogue of the buildings, bell towers, churches, theatres and chapels that still shape how the city is read on foot. The twelve here cluster tightly inside the historic centre — most within a few hundred metres of one another between roughly latitude 43.76 and 43.78, longitude 11.24 and 11.27 — which is to say you can walk the list in a long day, or pace it across three. The selection leans toward places that earn a second look: a palace facing its own piazza, a bridge over the Arno, a baptistery and a bell tower facing the cathedral, a Romanesque basilica on the hill above the river, two chapels celebrated for fresco cycles rather than tourist footfall, a still-working theatre, and three palazzi that anchor their own streets. It is built for the reader who wants Florence as Florentines navigate it — by address, by piazza, by the saint a church is named for — not by gift-shop queue. Every claim below traces back to a verified record; everything else is editorial.