NAMED Europe’s best city 2026 by Travel + Leisure earlier this year, Florence’s easy-to-traverse streets make it an ideal weekend away.
You can find world-famous art and fantastic pizza just steps from each other. Here’s why a trip to the beautiful Italian city should be on everyone’s bucket list…
WHY SHOULD I GO?
Florence is now a bit easier to visit, with easyJet expanding its city break package destinations.
Two-hour flights, cheap package holidays and weather that is still warmer than the UK’s are just some of the many reasons it’s great.
STREETS MADE FOR WALKING?
Forget taxis and trains — Florence is insanely walkable, with its top attractions and restaurants all within spitting distance of each other.
Perfect if you love a mooch without having to work out how to use a foreign public transport system.
ANYTHING FOR BUCKET LIST?
The city is known for its Renaissance art, so most people head straight to the Uffizi Gallery to see Botticelli’s most famous painting, The Birth Of Venus.
But I’d recommend heading over the river to Palazzo Pitti instead. Owned by the Medici family back in the 1500s, the palace was said to have inspired Versailles in France.
Now it is home to five separate museums, with 500 paintings across 28 ornately decorated halls.
The highlight is Italy’s largest Museum of Costume and Fashion, featuring pieces from Chanel, Dior and Schiaparelli. Speaking of fashion, make sure you don’t leave without a leather souvenir, as Florentine leather is world-famous.
There are more market stalls and shops than you can shake a stick at, so you’ll be spoilt for choice for bags, belts and even more leather pieces.
WHERE SHOULD I EAT?
The city is known for its Renaissance art, so most people head straight to the Uffizi Gallery to see Botticelli’s most famous painting, The Birth Of Venus.
But I’d recommend heading over the river to Palazzo Pitti instead. Owned by the Medici family back in the 1500s, the palace was said to have inspired Versailles in France.
Now it is home to five separate museums, with 500 paintings across 28 ornately decorated halls.
The highlight is Italy’s largest Museum of Costume and Fashion, featuring pieces from Chanel, Dior and Schiaparelli. Speaking of fashion, make sure you don’t leave without a leather souvenir, as Florentine leather is world-famous.
There are more market stalls and shops than you can shake a stick at, so you’ll be spoilt for choice for bags, belts and even more leather pieces.
I FANCY A DRINK
Florence is hardly short of wine bars, but my favourite is Oratio, in a tiny library dedicated to wine books where wines are organised into regions of Italy.
Service is friendly, the menu is affordable, and you can pick up a book or two if you want to learn more about what you are drinking.
There are also Florence’s famous wine windows — 300 portals in the city’s stonework which were used to serve wine and food to people during the plague without risking physical contact.
Glasses of wine are still passed through the windows, and a popular one is part of the restaurant Babae, where you can even keep the plastic souvenir wine glass.
WHERE SHOULD I STAY?
There’s no better stay than at the 4H Palazzo Monnalisa, a city-centre hotel, but in a quiet street.
The building dates from the 14th century but recently completed a two-year renovation, so rooms are modern and cosy yet arty and chic — think terracotta tiles and textured mural wallpaper showcasing famous Italian skylines.
The rooms surround a private garden courtyard, making it feel worlds away from the busy city.
Breakfast is small but enough to line your stomach for the day, in the form of fresh pastries and fruit, or a hot menu offering dishes such as eggs benedict.
The restaurant is here too, with the bar on the other side to grab a wine to take to the outdoor patio.
The hotel almost feels like a museum in itself, from the painted wooden ceilings to its time-worn stone steps.
GO: Florence
GETTING/STAYING THERE: Three nights’ room-only at the 4H Palazzo Monnalisa is from £536pp including flights from Gatwick on February 5. See easyjet.com/en/holidays. Use code BLKFRIDAY to get money off bookings made before December 1.