Florence for first-time visitors
Palazzo Strozzi is a working Renaissance palace whose courtyard programme keeps it alive as a contemporary cultural venue. The earliest of the picks for first-time visitors in Florence opens at 08:00 and the latest closes at 01:00.
Florence for first-timers, in numbers
- Picks on this page
- 24 places across 2 lists, led by Palazzo Strozzi, Ponte Vecchio, Florence Baptistery
- Posted hours
- 8 picks post hours earliest 08:00, latest 01:00; 2 open by 09:00, 6 past 21:00
Questions first-timers ask about Florence
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Must-see
Climb Brunelleschi's dome at Florence Cathedral, and book it before anything else in the city. Entry runs on timed slots that tend to sell out days ahead, so you cannot improvise this one. Once you have your slot, build the Uffizi Gallery and the Bargello National Museum around it. The cathedral floor below is free and needs no ticket.
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Best time to visit
April through May and mid-September through October give you Florence at its best. Daytime highs sit between 18°C and 25°C, the Uffizi queue drops to under 30 minutes on weekday mornings, and hotel rates in Santo Spirito run 30-40% below their June peaks. Shoulder months March and November still work if you pack layers.
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Airport to city
From Amerigo Vespucci Airport (FLR), take the T2 tramway to Firenze Santa Maria Novella station. It costs €1.70, takes 20 minutes, and runs every 5 minutes until midnight. After midnight, taxis charge a flat €22 to the centro storico. If you flew into Pisa (PSA), take the PisaMover and Trenitalia train, about 70 minutes and €15 total.
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How to get there
Florence has no transatlantic airport. Fly into Pisa (PSA), 80 km west with Ryanair and easyJet connections, or Amerigo Vespucci (FLR), 5 km from the Duomo with European-only routes. From North America, connect through Rome FCO, Munich, or Amsterdam. High-speed Frecciarossa trains from Rome reach Firenze Santa Maria Novella in 95 minutes for €25-50.
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Getting around
Walk. Florence's centro storico measures about 2 km across, and every major sight from the Duomo to Palazzo Pitti falls within a 20-minute stroll of Santa Maria Novella station. Buses and the T1/T2 tramway fill gaps beyond the old walls, with a €1.70 ticket buying 90 minutes on both. Taxis work for after-dark returns. Leave the rental car outside the ZTL or face €80-100 fines per camera.
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Curated for first-timers
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Must-see attractions
Florence's short list is older than most cities' long one. The twelve places here run from a baptistery dating from 1059 to a theatre dating from 1656, with a bridge from 1335 and a church and municipal building from 1337 in between, and several carry a heritage listing: the Ponte Vecchio is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Palazzo Strozzi is Italian national heritage. This is a list for walkers who would sooner stand in front of 12 real addresses than queue for one famous room. We have been strict about what we print: where we hold a verified address, a date or opening hours, you get them with a source, and where we do not, we say so and point you to the venue's own website rather than guessing. Only one entry comes with verified hours, the Florence Baptistery, open from 09:00 to 19:45, so for everything else confirm the day's opening before you set out. Resist fitting all twelve into a single day; pick four, and give each the time it asks for.
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Best restaurants
Florence feeds its visitors in two ways: quickly and badly near the queues, or properly at an address you had to look up. This list is for the second kind of eater. The 12 places here are not all Tuscan, and that is deliberate: one carries a fine dining tag, two are noodle kitchens, one opens for breakfast and closes at 15:00, and one puts steak house, Japanese and cake under a single roof. What we can vouch for is the practical layer: where each door is, when it opens, and when it does not. That matters more here than in most cities. Several of these kitchens split the day into lunch and dinner with a dead stretch between, while others run straight through to midnight. Skip the menus with photographs and a waiter on the pavement. Pick by the hour you are hungry, check the closing day, and walk to the street number.
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