Everyone loves Tuscany, especially Florence. My love affair with Italy began in 1989 on my first visit to Florence – the imposing Duomo, with its green and pink marble walls and distinctive terracotta-tiled dome, won my heart at first sight.
To this day I love the way you catch glimpses of it from everywhere within the old city. Considered the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, Florence is home to Michelangelo’s David and his unfinished prigioni, as well as the medieval Ponte Vecchio packed with gorgeous shops down both sides. It’s also where you’ll find some of my favourite Italian food and wine. Here’s my Florence food guide plus a suggestion for how to enjoy more delicious Italian food and wine without the hordes of Tuscan-loving tourists.
Where to Stay in Florence Helvetia & Bristol
Right in the heart of Florence’s centro storico, this grand hotel has been welcoming famous guests – from composer Stravinsky to Hollywood idol Gary Cooper – since 1885. It overlooks Renaissance Palazzo Strozzi, and everything from the Duomo to the Ponte Vecchio is an easy stroll away. A 2022 restoration by Florence’s master artisans has returned its silk-hung rooms to their full splendour.
Where to Eat in Florence Buca Mario
Florence’s traditional ‘buche’ are restaurants in the cellars of grand palazzi, and Buca Mario has been serving locals and visitors beneath 16th-century Palazzo Niccolini since 1886. It’s one of the city’s oldest restaurants and on my list of the best restaurants in Italy. Under its vaulted ceilings, charming waiters carve bistecca Fiorentina tableside in a true Florentine ritual, and the memorable dessert trolley is the perfect excuse to linger a little longer.
Where to Drink in Florence Piazzale Michelangelo
Sometimes a little perspective is a good thing – it’s hard to really see the city, especially the Duomo, when you’re right on top of it. So take the 30-minute walk across the River Arno and up the hill to Piazzale Michelangelo and sip a caffè or aperitivo while looking over the panoramic postcard view. Giuseppe Poggi built the terrace in 1869, when Florence was briefly Italy’s capital, and a bronze copy of David stands at its centre.
Where to Shop in Florence Mercato Centrale
Florence’s historic Mercato Centrale is one of my favourite Italian food markets. Its iron and glass hall was designed by Giuseppe Mengoni, architect of Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. In 2014 it underwent a major refurbishment that created a huge artisanal food court on the first floor while leaving the traditional vendors on ground level. There’s lots to love here, and I can never resist Pany da Lory’s schiacciata (Tuscan flatbread).
What to Buy in Florence Enamel & Silver Figurines
Goldsmiths have lined the Ponte Vecchio since 1593, when Grand Duke Ferdinando I evicted its butchers and tanners. I head to S. Vaggi & Figli, founded by Sergio Vaggi, twice named Italy’s best jewellery engraver. Amid the glitter, I find affordable treasures in the menagerie of silver and enamel animals – my favourite, a little cinghiale (wild boar), nods to Florence’s bronze Porcellino and Tuscany’s beloved pappardelle al cinghiale.
Where to Drive from Florence Muraglione Pass
Florence is beautiful, but it can be packed with tourists. Once you’ve had a taste of its food and wine offerings, hire a car and drive across the Apennines, over the 900m (2,950′) Muraglione Pass, and into the lesser-visited, but just as delicious, region of Emilia-Romagna. The views are stunning, especially with a stop just after the summit for a plate of pasta at rustic Ristorante Il Laghetto in San Benedetto in Alpe.
Updated 26 Oct 2026
Bistecca alla Fiorentina is Florence’s signature steak – a thick T-bone, with both the fillet and sirloin on the bone, traditionally from Tuscany’s prized Chianina cattle.
Cut at least three fingers thick, bistecca alla Fiorentina is seasoned simply with salt, pepper and olive oil then grilled over hot coals and served al sangue (rare).
It’s usually priced by the etto (100g/3½oz), and a single steak often weighs over 1kg (2lb 3oz) – so it’s made for sharing. Legend says the word bistecca comes from English visitors calling for ‘beef steak’ at the Medici’s feast of San Lorenzo.
Schiacciata (meaning ‘squashed’) is the flatbread of Tuscany. A type of focaccia, it is leavened dough pressed flat by hand, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with coarse salt before baking – giving it a crisp, golden top and soft centre.
Florentines eat it plain or split and filled with salumi, cheese or porchetta. In autumn, bakers make schiacciata all’uva, studded with wine grapes from the harvest, and during Carnevale, schiacciata alla Fiorentina is a sweet, orange-scented sponge cake dusted with icing sugar, with Florence’s lily emblem stencilled in cocoa.
On the night of 3–4 August 1944, retreating German troops blew up every bridge across the Arno in Florence to slow the Allied advance – except the Ponte Vecchio. Instead, they demolished the medieval buildings at both ends to block access.
Why it was spared is still debated: some credit Hitler’s admiration for the bridge on his 1938 visit to Florence, while others point to German consul Gerhard Wolf, who loved the city.
Either way, it’s now Florence’s oldest bridge, rebuilt in its current form in 1345, and one of only a few remaining bridges worldwide with shops across the full span on both sides, as was once common.
Florence’s Duomo, the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, is clad in three different stones: white marble from Carrara, green serpentine from Prato and pink marble from the Maremma.
Although Brunelleschi’s famous dome was completed in 1436, the original medieval façade was dismantled in 1587 when Grand Duke Francesco I had it pulled down to make way for a modern design by his architect Bernardo Buontalenti, then died that same year.
The cathedral stood with a bare front for almost 300 years and the current neo-Gothic façade, designed by Emilio De Fabris, was only finished in 1887. By then its colours had taken on new meaning, echoing the red, white and green flag of newly unified Italy.
The nose of Il Porcellino (‘the piglet’) in the Loggia del Mercato Nuovo is rubbed for good luck.
The original bronze wild boar fountain was cast by Baroque sculptor Pietro Tacca in the 1630s, copying an ancient marble boar now in the Uffizi. Today’s fountain is a replica, with Tacca’s original in the Museo Bardini.
Tradition says that rubbing its snout ensures good luck and a return to Florence – a custom already recorded in 1766. Thus its nose shines gold while the rest has a bronze patina. For extra luck, place a coin in its mouth: if it falls through the grate below, your wish will come true.
Shiny-nosed replicas now stand in cities from Munich and Brussels to Kansas City and Sydney – where the Porcellino’s coins have helped fund Sydney Hospital since 1968.
