Florence is a small city with an outsized claim on Western civilization. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Medici-funded Renaissance concentrated more art and architecture here than almost anywhere else on earth, and the results are still on view in a compact historic centre that you can walk across in twenty minutes. The Uffizi Gallery holds the world's greatest collection of Renaissance painting. The Galleria dell'Accademia has Michelangelo's David. The Duomo, designed by Brunelleschi with an engineering audacity that was unmatched for a century, still dominates the skyline. The Baptistery opposite it has Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise and a mosaic ceiling of ten million tesserae.
But Florence rewards those who go beyond the famous. The Bargello is less crowded than the big names and contains Donatello's bronze David and the competition panels by Ghiberti and Brunelleschi. San Miniato al Monte has Benedictine monks singing Gregorian vespers at 17:30 most evenings, free and extraordinary. Santa Croce has Giotto and the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli. Santa Maria Novella near the station has Masaccio's Holy Trinity — the first painting to use mathematical perspective — and Ghirlandaio's frescoes. Museo di San Marco has Fra Angelico's extraordinary cell frescoes, one per monk, each a meditation on the life of Christ. Museo Galileo has two of Galileo's original telescopes and his preserved middle finger.
The Oltrarno, on the south bank of the Arno, is a different city. The Palazzo Pitti and Boboli Gardens are here, as is Pontormo's Deposition in Santa Felicita, and the neighbourhood around Piazza Santo Spirito has a local character that the north bank has largely lost to tourism.
Florence's food is straightforward and excellent. Bistecca alla Fiorentina — thick-cut T-bone, grilled rare over charcoal — is the signature. The Mercato Centrale has some of the best ingredients in the city. For the purest version of Florentine lunch, Trattoria Mario has operated on communal benches steps from the market since 1953.
