Florence
UNESCO World Heritage Site (Historic Centre Of Florence, Inscribed 1982), Capital Of Tuscany, Seat Of The Medici And The Birthplace Of The Renaissance · Florence, Tuscany
A small city that produced the Renaissance and has been living off it ever since, which is both the attraction and the difficulty. The historic centre is compact enough to cross on foot in twenty minutes and holds a concentration of painting, sculpture and architecture that no other place of its size comes near: the dome that proved it could be done, the doors that started it, the David, and the Uffizi upstairs from the offices Cosimo built. It was banking money that paid for all of it, and the Medici who spent it, and that story is legible in the buildings if you know the order to read them in. What visitors underestimate is the crush. Florence takes more day trippers per resident than almost anywhere in Italy, the queues are long and the centre in July is punishing. The answer is the same as Toledo: book the big two weeks ahead, start at opening, and stay the night so you get the city after six.
Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Tuscany, 50122, Italy
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED, and the city itself has none: the streets and Piazza della Signoria are public and always open. What has hours are the sites, and three structural facts matter. THE UFFIZI AND ACCADEMIA ARE TIMED and closed one day a week. THE DOME CLIMB NEEDS ITS OWN BOOKED SLOT separate from the Duomo pass. MANY CHURCHES CLOSE FOR A LONG MIDDAY BREAK. State museums are shut on some Mondays. Confirm the closing days before building an itinerary.