Day One: The Historic Centre
Begin at the Uffizi before it opens. The queue in summer begins at 7am. Book tickets online at least two weeks in advance and arrive at opening. Start with the Botticellis — room 10 to 14 — and work your way through the Caravaggios on the ground floor. Give yourself three hours minimum. Leave before lunch, before the day-tour groups arrive and the rooms become difficult.
Mercato Centrale for Lunch
The covered market on Via dell'Ariento is two floors: the ground floor is the traditional market — meat, fish, vegetables, cheese, olive oil — where Florentines have shopped for a century. The upper floor is a more recent food hall, good but touristy. Go downstairs to the sandwich counter by the entrance for a lampredotto panino — tripe braised in broth, tucked into a roll, dressed with salsa verde. Bracingly good. Deeply Florentine.
The Oltrarno Afternoon
Cross the Ponte Vecchio to the Oltrarno — the south bank, less visited and more residential. Walk through the Boboli Gardens (the formal Renaissance garden behind Palazzo Pitti), then find your way into the Oltrarno streets: antique dealers, bookbinders, gold craftsmen whose workshops have been in the same buildings for generations. This neighbourhood is where Florentines live. It feels like it.
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Bistecca Fiorentina for Dinner
The bistecca fiorentina is not a steak in the ordinary sense. It is a T-bone from the white Chianina cattle, cut to at least 1.2 kilograms, cooked over charcoal, served rare or it is not served at all. Order at Buca Mario (the oldest restaurant in Florence, opened 1886) or at Buca dell'Orafo near the Ponte Vecchio. It is priced by weight. Order one between two. Order the Chianti Classico. Eat with bread and silence.
Day Two: Fiesole and the Hills
On the second day, escape the city. Bus 7 from the station takes you to Fiesole in twenty minutes — an Etruscan hill town above Florence with Roman ruins, a cathedral, and views of the valley that explain why the Medici built their villas here. Walk back down through the olive groves. By the time you reach the city again, you will understand why people have been choosing to live here for three thousand years.