Europe / Italy
Places to go. A little room to wander.
THE SHORTLIST
Florence
The cathedral interior is to a basilica pattern; it's vast and at first feels dark and empty. Give your eyes time to adjust, and admire the stained glass windows, funeral monument of Bishop d'Orso, and altar of St Zanobius. Giotto is believed to lie here somewhere, but his tomb has yet to be identified. Above is the soaring cupola or Dome.
Allow about 90 minutes · planning estimate
Via de Proconsolo 4
Used as a barracks and prison until the 19th century, this museum houses some of the best Renaissance and Mannerist sculpture. Big names here include Michelangelo, Donatello, Ammannati, Bandinelli, Andrea and Jacopo Sansovino, Desiderio da Settignano, Giambologna, and Antonio Rossellino. It also displays ceramics, textiles & tapestries, ivory, silver, armour and coins. Allow two hours. Not nearly as crowded as the Uffizi or Galleria dell'Accademia and paying a fee to book in advance is likely not necessary.
Allow about 90 minutes · planning estimate
Piazzale degli Uffizi
Outstanding fine art museum with Renaissance paintings and sculptures from classical antiquity. It's in a late 16th-century palazzo designed by Vasari, in two wings enclosing a long narrow courtyard, effectively a street, an innovation in its day. Originally the palazzo was magistrates' offices (hence "Uffizi") and state archives; then it came to house the Medici's vast art collection. However, one collections seems to have crossed purposes: the massive number of standardized portraits, placed in the hallway, seem to have been an ID system for identifying important foreigners when they came to town.
Allow about 90 minutes · planning estimate
Piazza dei Giudici 1
This museum shows the evolution of the instruments used in various scientific fields such as mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, astronomy. The room of Galileo Galilei shows some of his original instruments as well as models from his drawings. The room of Spheres and Globes houses an excellent cartographic collection. In a rather macabre twist the museum also has the middle finger of Galileo's right hand on display. The museum offer some descriptions in Italian and English but you can access other languages by scanning QR codes (Chinese, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, German).
Allow about 90 minutes · planning estimate
Florence
Elaborately landscaped and with many interesting sculptures, behind the Pitti Palace. Wonderful city views. Don't miss the Bardini gardens. There are great views of the Duomo from the Bardini gardens.
Allow about 60 minutes · planning estimate
A note before you go. Start with Santa Maria del Fiore, then decide whether Bargello deserves a separate visit rather than rushing both. The suggested days are an editable grouping, not a timed tour. Visit allowances exclude transfers, meals and queues; confirm the exact entrance and current visiting arrangements for Boboli Gardens before setting off.
Reference material retrieved 2026-10-19. Suggested days and time allowances are editorial starting points. Check the linked visitor information for opening hours, access, and reservations.
BEFORE YOU SET OFF
While there are hills north and south of the center of town, almost all of the historic center of Florence is easy for bikers, because it is flat. But there is a problem: traffic is terrible, with buses, trucks, cars, motorcycles, motorbikes, bicycles, and pedestrians fighting for almost no space. However, a network of cycle paths make it often much faster to circumvent the city centre than to cycle directly through historic streets, even if the destination is in an area such as Santa Croce or Santa Maria Novella.
Santa Maria del Fiore and Bargello are about 0.4 km apart in a straight line. Use the route link to compare the actual streets or transport connections before putting both in the same morning; the measurement is not a walking distance or a transfer estimate.
A LITTLE STRUCTURE. ROOM FOR DISCOVERY.
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This city guide includes selected, abridged material by Wikivoyage contributors, adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. The adapted guide text is available under the same license; photographs and website design retain their separate terms. Selected and abridged reference descriptions; operational prices and timetables omitted. Elsewhere added the shortlist, geographic grouping and planning notes.
Reference material retrieved 2026-10-19. It is community-edited background, not firsthand reporting or a live opening-hours service.
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