Florence

A city that kept its trades

Most historic centres have been hollowed out and refilled with shops selling the same things. Florence has lost ground to that as well, though the workshops have held on. Cross the river into the older artisan quarter and the ground floors change character: benches, tools, the smell of glue and leather, doors open onto rooms that have clearly been rooms of that kind for a very long time.

Seek this out early in a stay, because it recalibrates everything that follows. The paintings and the architecture stop being a heritage exhibit and start looking like the output of a city that made things for a living and never really stopped. The dome is not a monument in that reading. It is a workshop culture at full stretch.

When to come

April, May, September and October are the months to aim at. Florence sits in a river basin ringed by hills, which does it no favours in high summer — heat settles in and stays, and the centre is crowded exactly then. Spring and autumn give warm days, cool evenings and a city you can walk around in comfortably.

Couples do well treating the centre as an evening city and a morning one. Days belong to visitors; the hours around dawn and after dark belong to everyone else. Rooftop terraces are the local answer to the middle of the day, and they are worth the small ceremony of finding one.

Whether it is expensive

Less than its reputation suggests, with a sharp gradient. The compact historic centre commands a premium because everyone wants to sleep inside it, and the streets around the main sights are priced for people who booked late and did not compare.

Step across the river, or a few streets out from the centre, and the same city becomes markedly better value while remaining entirely walkable — this is a small place, and almost nothing is far. Eating follows the same rule: a menu in three languages beside a major sight will cost you more than a room full of locals ten minutes away. Given how much the centre's rates swing with the season and the calendar, comparing current stay and experience options across a spread of dates is straightforwardly worth the effort.

What is worth paying for

Skipping the queue, wherever that is possible. The major collections reward planning ahead, and the difference between a booked entry and an unbooked one is measured in hours of your holiday.

Beyond that, spend on a guided hour or two with somebody who actually knows the material — the art here is dense with argument and reference, and half of it is invisible without a translator. And spend on the workshops: something made by hand in the quarter it has been made in for centuries makes a good souvenir.

Where to stay

Splurge

A converted palazzo in the centre with frescoed ceilings, a courtyard and a rooftop terrace looking across the tiled roofs to the dome. These are grand, quiet buildings hiding behind plain façades, which is very much the local manner. Right for travellers who want the city at its most formal and everything within a short walk.

Mid-range

A small design-led hotel or a restored townhouse just outside the busiest streets, often across the river, with a courtyard garden and a proper breakfast. Comfortable, characterful, and ten minutes on foot from everything that matters. A sensible base for couples who intend to walk the city rather than look at it from a window.

Good value

An apartment in a residential quarter beyond the centre, where the market is a real market and the bar downstairs serves the same people every morning. You trade the address for space and a neighbourhood. Ideal for anyone staying long enough to want a routine.

Florence at a glance