Discovering Florence and surroundings

Discovering the city

There are some aspects of Florence that visitors and tourist often ignore, and even more, in some cases, the Florentines themselves. If Florence is in fact one of the most famous art cities in the world, is not only a museum-city, but an international city to discover and enjoy in all its part, from the locations of the city centre to the surroundings.

The historical centre 

Fully exploring the historic centre of Florence is almost impossible: every street hides stories, each building is a monument, and gave birth to important peoples of a glorious past. Beyond the Cathedral, the great basilicas such as San Lorenzo, San Marco, Santa Croce, Santa Maria del Carmine, beyond the famous museums as Uffizi, Bargello, the Museum of San Marco, and Palatine Gallery, Florence offers more. The centre is full of initiatives, fashion, cafés, boutiques, antique shops, restaurants, libraries: you can easily move from the ancient to contemporary. There are many beautiful museums, often snubbed, in the Florence city centre, as: the CCCS of contemporary art at Palazzo Strozzi, the Museum of Science “Galileo Galilei”, the Museo “Marino Marini”, the Astronomical Observatory of Arcetri, the Museum of Natural Science of the University of Florence and the Bardini Museum. 

The modern city

If the historical centre is the symbol of Florence, its neighbourhoods and its surroundings are the places where the real Florence life-style took place. The five districts of Florence are full of entertainment, local art, events and markets to discover. In the surroundings you can have a walk through the Cascine Park, with its green spaces and its discotheques, or in the area called Statuto, with its squares, rich in local restaurants and bars. Recently have been opened centres as the EX3 in Gavinana, in the southern part of Florence, a centre for contemporary. In Florence surroundings you can also enjoys the beautiful gardens of along the Arno River, as the Anconella and the Albereta Parks. In the surroundings you can also visit the gardens of Villa "Il Ventaglio” or Villa Favard in Rovezzano district.

The surroundings

In the surroundings around Florence is easy to discover picturesque towns, immersed in the quiet of the Tuscan countryside. Near Florence, in Galluzzo, you have an awesome abbey of the Carthusian Order, the “Certosa of Florence”. Galluzzo district also own a theatre, one of the most modern theatre of the city, sensitive to productions and shows of young companies. Another village to be discovered is Settignano, between Florence and Fiesole, immersed in the beautiful hills, it offers restaurants, art, bars: a fantastic excursion outside the city. Fiesole is another municipality near Florence, famous for its breathtaking views over the plain of Florence and its monuments, above all the Cathedral, the Franciscan Monastery and the ancient Roman Theatre. Always in the surroundings: the beautiful park of Villa Demidoff, where once stood the Villa Medici of Pratolino. Inside the park are visible works by Giambologna, as the majestic sculpture “the Colossus of the Apennines”. Others Medici's Villa in the surroundings areas around Florence are those of Poggio a Caiano and Castello, where even today is possible to admire the beautiful murals of the Renaissance period, or have walk trough the beautiful Italian gardens. In Poggio a Caiano, inside the Villa there are also two other museums: a collection of “Still life” paintings, and one other dedicated to Ardengo Soffici, an important artist and intellectual from the surroundings of Florence.