Florence

Florence is small. The historic centre, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is roughly a mile across and can be walked end to end in twenty minutes, which is why it feels so crowded, the entire visiting population of a major destination is compressed into a medieval street plan.

It is also unusually legible. One family, the Medici, financed most of what you came to see over three centuries, and the buildings, the paintings and the collections still reflect that single thread of patronage.

The concentration of Renaissance art here has no equivalent. The Uffizi, the Accademia, the Bargello, the Pitti Palace and a dozen churches hold work by Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Donatello and Brunelleschi, most of it within a few hundred metres.

And much of it is still in the setting it was made for: frescoes on the walls they were painted on, a dome that was an engineering problem solved in the fifteenth century and remains the largest masonry dome ever built.

• Climb Brunelleschi's dome, and book it well ahead. The Duomo complex uses timed entry and the dome climb sells out. It is 463 steps, narrow, and passes between the inner and outer shells, which is the point: you see how it was built.
• The Uffizi. Book a timed slot. The Botticelli rooms are the draw, but the corridor of the Medici collection and the views from the loggia over the Arno are what people remember.
• The Accademia, for the David. A short visit for one sculpture, and worth it. The unfinished Prisoners in the corridor leading to it are arguably as interesting. Booking essential.
• The Bargello. Donatello, early Michelangelo and Renaissance sculpture in a medieval fortress, with a fraction of the queues.
• The Brancacci Chapel and Santa Maria Novella: Masaccio's frescoes in the first, Giotto and Masaccio's Trinity in the second; both are where perspective was worked out.
• Cross to the Oltrarno. The workshops of gilders, restorers and leatherworkers still operate in Santo Spirito and San Frediano, and the restaurants are better and cheaper than across the river.
• Piazzale Michelangelo at sunset, reached on foot up through the Rose Garden, with San Miniato al Monte above it, a Romanesque church where the monks still sing Gregorian chant.

April to early June and September to October are the best months: warm, long evenings, and the city usable all day.

July and August are hot, the Arno valley traps heat, and the centre is at its most crowded. Many Florentines leave in August and some family-run businesses close.

November to March is the quiet season: cool, sometimes wet, and the museums finally breathable. January and February are the cheapest weeks of the year and a very good time to come if art rather than terraces is the point.

Whatever the month, the difference between eight in the morning and eleven in the centre is the difference between two different cities.

The historic centre puts everything within a ten-minute walk and costs accordingly; streets near the Duomo are noisy well into the night.

The Oltrarno: Santo Spirito and San Niccolò, is the best compromise: across the river, quieter, full of artisans and good restaurants, still a five-minute walk to the Ponte Vecchio.

San Marco and the university quarter is central, less touristed, and close to the Accademia.

Santa Croce is lively, with the leather workshops and a strong evening scene.

Near Santa Maria Novella station is convenient for day trips and the least charming part of the centre.

Note that historic buildings often lack lifts, and that the city charges a per-person nightly tourist tax usually collected at the property.

Duomo and the centro storico: the cathedral, baptistery, campanile and the streets between them.

Piazza della Signoria and the Uffizi: the civic centre, the Palazzo Vecchio and the sculpture loggia.

Santa Croce: the Franciscan basilica with the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli, plus leather workshops.

San Lorenzo and the Mercato Centrale: the Medici church and chapels, and the covered food market.

Oltrarno: Santo Spirito, San Frediano, San Niccolò: artisan workshops, the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens, and the best neighbourhood eating.

San Marco: Fra Angelico's frescoed monastery cells and the Accademia.

Fiesole: an Etruscan hill town above the city, reachable by bus, with the best long view.

Walk. The centre is largely pedestrianised and everything is close; buses and the tram exist mainly to reach the outskirts and the airport.

The critical driving point: the historic centre is a ZTL, a limited traffic zone monitored by camera. Driving into it without a permit generates fines that arrive by post months later, often multiple fines for multiple cameras. If you arrive by car, park outside the zone (the garages near the ring road or at the station) and walk in. Hotels inside the ZTL can sometimes register a guest's plate, but confirm in advance rather than assuming.

Trains from Santa Maria Novella reach Pisa, Lucca, Siena, Bologna and Rome easily; the high-speed line makes Rome about an hour and a half away.

Cobbled streets and uneven paving make wheeled luggage hard work and sensible shoes necessary.

Florentine cooking is Tuscan peasant food elevated by good ingredients. Bread is made without salt, which is why it works in dishes rather than alone: panzanella and ribollita both use it stale.

The classics: bistecca alla fiorentina, a thick T-bone from Chianina cattle, served rare and sold by weight for sharing; lampredotto, the tripe sandwich sold from street carts and the true local street food; crostini di fegatini; pappa al pomodoro; and pecorino from the surrounding hills.

Wine means Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino and the Super Tuscans, and the house wine in a carafe is usually local and decent.

Practical notes: a cover charge per person is standard and displayed; coffee costs more at a table than standing at the bar; and the best rule for choosing a restaurant is to walk three streets away from any major sight and look for a short handwritten menu.

Siena: the shell-shaped Piazza del Campo, a striped cathedral and a medieval centre, about an hour and a half by bus, which is better than the train here.

Pisa and Lucca: an hour or less by train; the leaning tower and cathedral square in one, and a walled town with a cyclable rampart in the other. Easily combined.

San Gimignano: the towered hill town, best reached via Poggibonsi, and much better early or late when the coaches have gone.

Chianti: the wine country between Florence and Siena, needing a car or a tour.

Bologna: about forty minutes on the high-speed train, and one of the best food cities in Italy.

Florence is expensive for accommodation and museum entry and moderate for everything else. The major museums each charge separately, and the Duomo complex uses a single combined ticket for the dome, baptistery, campanile and museum.

Real savings: eat lunch rather than dinner at the good restaurants; buy a lampredotto or schiacciata sandwich from a market stall; drink coffee standing; and cross the river, where the same meal costs noticeably less.

Churches hold an extraordinary amount of the art and most charge little or nothing: Santo Spirito, San Miniato, Orsanmichele and the Duomo interior itself are all free or inexpensive. Some state museums run free-entry days; check the official schedule against your dates, as it changes.

Book the Uffizi, the Accademia and the dome climb before you arrive. All three use timed entry and all three sell out in season. This is the single most important piece of planning for Florence.

Do not drive into the centre. The ZTL cameras will find you, and the fines arrive months later.

Start at eight. The centre belongs to residents and early visitors for the first two hours of the day.

Dress for churches: shoulders and knees covered, enforced at the Duomo and elsewhere.

Watch for the leather and jewellery hard sell around San Lorenzo and the Ponte Vecchio, and be sceptical of unofficial guides offering to skip a queue.

Wear proper shoes. The paving is stone, uneven and unforgiving over a full day.