Visit Florence

Since early in the nineteenth century FLORENCE has been celebrated as the most beautiful city in Italy. Stendhal staggered around its streets in a perpetual stupor of delight; the Brownings sighed over its idyllic charms;

and E.M. Forster's Room with a View portrayed it as the great southern antidote to the sterility of Anglo-Saxon life. For most people Florence comes close to living up to the myth only in its first, resounding impressions. The pinnacle of Brunelleschi's stupendous cathedral dome dominates the cityscape, and the close-up view is even more breathtaking, with the multicoloured Duomo rising behind the marble-clad Baptistry . Wander from there down towards the River Arno and the attraction still holds: beyond the broad Piazza della Signoria, site of the towering Palazzo Vecchio , the river is spanned by the medieval shop-lined Ponte Vecchio , with the gorgeous church of San Miniato al Monte glistening on the hill behind it.

Yet after registering these marvellous sights, it's hard to stave off a sense of disappointment, for much of Florence is a city of narrow streets and heavy-set, oppressively dour palazzi that show only iron-barred windows and massive, studded doors to the outside world. The alienating effects of this physical entrenchment are redoubled both by an unending tide of mass tourism. You'll find light relief to be in short supply.

The fact is, the best of Florence is to be seen indoors. Under the patronage of the Medici family, the city's artists and thinkers were instigators of the shift from the medieval to the modern world-view, and churches, galleries and museums are the places to get to grips with their achievement. The development of the Renaissance can be plotted in the vast picture collection of the Uffizi and in the sculpture of the Bargello and the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo . Equally revelatory are the fabulously decorated chapels of Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella , forerunners of such astonishing creations as Masaccio's superb frescoes in the Cappella Brancacci , and Fra' Angelico's serene paintings in the monks' cells at San Marco . The Renaissance emphasis on harmony and rational design is expressed with unrivalled eloquence in Brunelleschi's architecture, specifically in the churches of San Lorenzo, Santo Spirito and the Cappella dei Pazzi . The full genius of Michelangelo, the dominant creative figure of sixteenth-century Italy, is on display in the fluid design of San Lorenzo's Biblioteca Laurenziana and the marble statuary of the Cappelle Medicee and the Accademia - home of the David . Every quarter of Florence can boast a church or collection worth an extended call, and the enormous Palazzo Pitti south of the river constitutes a museum district on its own.

Three days is the minimum to get a feel for Florence and its trappings. Since many museums close on Mondays, and many churches close to tourists on Sundays, you'd do best to schedule a midweek visit. Watch out, too, for opening-times : some museums only open in the mornings, the Baptistry only opens in the afternoons, and almost all churches close in the middle of the day. The famous sights, notably the Duomo and the Uffizi, can get absurdly overcrowded - on a whistle-stop visit, it makes sense to reject them in favour of the under-visited Bargello, Cappella Brancacci and Cappelle Medicee. Booking entry to museums in advance is strongly recommended .

Florence's gastronomic reputation has suffered under the pressure of mass tourism, and many locals swear there's scarcely a single genuine Tuscan restaurant left in the city. But don't dispair - this is an exaggeration - a decent meal isn't hard to come by if you explore away from the touristy central streets.

Florentines have always seemed to prefer wine to coffee, and the city can't really claim to have a café tradition like that of Rome or Turin - bars are both more plentiful and generally more attractive places to rest your weary limbs. The university and the annual influx of language students and other young visitors keeps the nightlife lively, while classical music events such as the prestigious Maggio Musicale maintain Florence's standing as the cultural focus of Tuscany.

In gastronomic circles, Florentine cuisine is often accorded as much reverence as Florentine art but quality cooking doesn't come cheap in Florence - most of the restaurants that meet with local approval cost L60,000/?30.99-plus per person, including wine. Yet there are some more affordable and congenial places in districts that have a bit of local colour to them, such as Santa Croce and around Santo Spirito. One thing to be aware of is that many restaurants in Florence will only serve full meals - check the menu outside if you're thinking of just popping in for a quick lunchtime plate of pasta.

At the lower end of the market, one option for a rapid stomach-filler is the friggitoria , a frequently nameless place serving fried food such as polenta and croquettes, while a rosticceria is usually a bit less basic, serving first courses and roast meat dishes often for takeaway only, although some have seating. We've divided our listings by price: expensive means an average full meal (excluding wine) costs more than about L60,000/€30.99 per person; inexpensive means you can eat for L25,000/€12.91 or less; mid-priced is between the two. Pavement cafés are not really part of the Florentine scene. Smaller, less ostentatious venues are more the city's style - one-room cafés, bars or pasticcerie , or places that combine the functions of all three. Many line the big tourist streets around Piazza della Signoria, but it takes only a little effort to find places where prices are lower and non-Florentine faces fewer: a short walk north from the duomo gets you into the university area around San Marco, and it's just as easy to cross the river into Oltrarno, the city centre's most down-to-earth quarter. Many of the café/pasticceria-style places are at their busiest first thing in the morning, as the locals stop off for a quick coffee and a pastry such as a budino di riso (small rice cake) or a simple brioche or cornetto . Devotees of Italian ice cream will find plenty of gelaterie in Florence to sample some wacky concoctions without straying far off the main drags. The city has a fair spread of bars and pubs to fuel an evening's entertainment, and classier, specialist wine-bars are coming back into fashion after a hiatus: one of the focal points of a Florentine parish is the vinaio , an institution that's part wine cellar, part snack bar and part social centre.

Since early in the nineteenth century FLORENCE has been celebrated as the most beautiful city in Italy. Stendhal staggered around its streets in a perpetual stupor of delight; the Brownings sighed over its idyllic charms;

and E.M. Forster's Room with a View portrayed it as the great southern antidote to the sterility of Anglo-Saxon life. For most people Florence comes close to living up to the myth only in its first, resounding impressions. The pinnacle of Brunelleschi's stupendous cathedral dome dominates the cityscape, and the close-up view is even more breathtaking, with the multicoloured Duomo rising behind the marble-clad Baptistry . Wander from there down towards the River Arno and the attraction still holds: beyond the broad Piazza della Signoria, site of the towering Palazzo Vecchio , the river is spanned by the medieval shop-lined Ponte Vecchio , with the gorgeous church of San Miniato al Monte glistening on the hill behind it.

Yet after registering these marvellous sights, it's hard to stave off a sense of disappointment, for much of Florence is a city of narrow streets and heavy-set, oppressively dour palazzi that show only iron-barred windows and massive, studded doors to the outside world. The alienating effects of this physical entrenchment are redoubled both by an unending tide of mass tourism. You'll find light relief to be in short supply.

The fact is, the best of Florence is to be seen indoors. Under the patronage of the Medici family, the city's artists and thinkers were instigators of the shift from the medieval to the modern world-view, and churches, galleries and museums are the places to get to grips with their achievement. The development of the Renaissance can be plotted in the vast picture collection of the Uffizi and in the sculpture of the Bargello and the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo . Equally revelatory are the fabulously decorated chapels of Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella , forerunners of such astonishing creations as Masaccio's superb frescoes in the Cappella Brancacci , and Fra' Angelico's serene paintings in the monks' cells at San Marco . The Renaissance emphasis on harmony and rational design is expressed with unrivalled eloquence in Brunelleschi's architecture, specifically in the churches of San Lorenzo, Santo Spirito and the Cappella dei Pazzi . The full genius of Michelangelo, the dominant creative figure of sixteenth-century Italy, is on display in the fluid design of San Lorenzo's Biblioteca Laurenziana and the marble statuary of the Cappelle Medicee and the Accademia - home of the David . Every quarter of Florence can boast a church or collection worth an extended call, and the enormous Palazzo Pitti south of the river constitutes a museum district on its own.

Three days is the minimum to get a feel for Florence and its trappings. Since many museums close on Mondays, and many churches close to tourists on Sundays, you'd do best to schedule a midweek visit. Watch out, too, for opening-times : some museums only open in the mornings, the Baptistry only opens in the afternoons, and almost all churches close in the middle of the day. The famous sights, notably the Duomo and the Uffizi, can get absurdly overcrowded - on a whistle-stop visit, it makes sense to reject them in favour of the under-visited Bargello, Cappella Brancacci and Cappelle Medicee. Booking entry to museums in advance is strongly recommended .

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