Three Days in Florence: Art, Gardens and Hills

Florence rewards a little space between its masterpieces. Begin at the Uffizi Galleries, cross into the Oltrarno for palace rooms and an unhurried dinner, then give the cathedral and Michelangelo their own day. The last day trades sculpture for garden terraces and a view back across the city. Each route ends in a neighbourhood where you can sit down to eat rather than race to another sight.

Before the first morning

Best days for this sequence

Tuesday–Saturday; put day 2 after the first Tuesday of the month

First morning

Uffizi Galleries, 09:00

Do not put either gallery day on a Monday: the Uffizi and Accademia are closed. Pitti Palace and the Bargello also close on Mondays. The cathedral interior has no Sunday visitor access, and a Sunday morning will not work for Santa Croce, where visitor entry begins in the afternoon. On the first Tuesday of each month, leave the Opera del Duomo Museum for another day, because its closure breaks the second-day sequence.

Individual Uffizi timed booking is optional, while the five-day combined ticket requires you to reserve an Uffizi slot and go there first. Accademia reservations are optional but help avoid a long wait. Wear comfortable walking shoes and carry drinking water: the Dome has stairs without a lift, and the third afternoon climbs the south-bank hillside. For a first visit arriving by rail, the Santa Maria Novella side of the centre is a convenient base, but you begin the route at the Uffizi, not at the station.

Tickets for the galleries and Dome

Adult ticket	On the day	In advance / reservation	Covers on this route
Uffizi	€25	€29 in advance	Uffizi
Pitti Palace	€16	€19 in advance	Palatine Gallery and palace museums
Boboli Gardens, optional	€10	€13 in advance	Boboli
Pitti + Boboli	€22	€25 in advance	Pitti, Boboli, Bardini
Uffizi PassePartout, five days	€40	Uffizi slot required	Uffizi, Pitti, Boboli
Brunelleschi Pass	€30	Dome slot included	Dome, bell tower, Baptistery, Opera Museum, Santa Reparata
Accademia	€20	+€4 timed booking	Accademia
Bargello	€12	+€4 optional booking	Bargello
Accademia + Bargello, 48 hours	€26	—	Accademia, Bargello
Santa Croce	€10	+€1 online	Santa Croce
Bardini via Boboli + Bardini	€15	Ticket office only	Both gardens

Choose the €40 five-day PassePartout if you plan to enter both Uffizi and Pitti: those two single tickets cost €41 on the day, and the pass adds optional Boboli. It requires the Uffizi first, at a reserved day and time, and Pitti and Boboli follow within five consecutive days. If you want Pitti and Bardini but will skip the Uffizi, the Pitti–Boboli combination includes Bardini too. The Boboli–Bardini garden ticket is sold only at the ticket office on the day. These are Uffizi Galleries tickets, not cathedral tickets.

The cathedral organisation’s Brunelleschi Pass includes your reserved Dome climb as well as the Baptistery and Opera del Duomo Museum, while the cathedral itself is free to enter. Separately, the Accademia and Bargello combined ticket saves €6 against their €32 single-ticket total if you visit both within its 48-hour validity. Add optional booking charges if you reserve. Santa Croce is separately ticketed, with an online surcharge. Palazzo Vecchio and the Medici Chapels are optional paid detours, not essential to the main route.

Day 1: Uffizi and the Oltrarno

At the Uffizi, Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus and Primavera anchor a morning of Renaissance painting, and Leonardo’s Annunciation makes another strong stop. Keep your attention on a few rooms, rather than trying to see every gallery. The route begins here after opening. Last admission is 17:30.

Piazza della Signoria turns the gallery visit outward: Cellini’s Perseus stands in the Loggia dei Lanzi, while a replica of Michelangelo’s David marks Palazzo Vecchio’s entrance. You can appreciate this civic setting without another ticket.

If you want an interior, Palazzo Vecchio is the first stop to drop if the morning runs long. Its immense Salone dei Cinquecento and Francesco I’s studiolo give a different view of Florentine power from the square outside. Museum admission is €18 per adult, and an advance booking adds €1. The museum opens 09:00–19:00 except Thursdays, when it closes at 14:00. Last tickets are sold an hour before closing.

Ponte Vecchio carries you across the Arno between rows of jewellery shops. Rather than eating beside the busiest bridge approaches, continue to Piazza Santo Spirito for lunch. A simple seated lunch around this square typically costs €18–30 per person, with a lighter counter meal at the lower end.

At Pitti Palace, the Palatine Gallery places Renaissance and Baroque pictures amid richly decorated rooms rather than the Uffizi’s chronological galleries. Make the Palatine Gallery your focus so the afternoon still has room for a garden or a pause. The palace is closed on Mondays. Last admission is 17:30.

Optional Boboli Gardens adds formal avenues, the amphitheatre and Neptune Fountain. The route from Pitti to the mapped garden point is about 1.1 km, a longer walk than the central crossings. It opens at 08:15. Last entry is 16:30 in standard-time March and October, 17:30 in daylight-saving March and October and in April, May and September, and 18:10 in June–August. It closes on the first and last Monday of each month and can shut in dangerous weather. Rest at your accommodation afterwards.

After the rest, Piazza della Passera makes a smaller-scale Oltrarno evening than the main squares. Continue to San Frediano for dinner around the local evening meal hour. Expect roughly €25–40 for a seated dinner per person, depending on courses and drinks. For ideas beyond the first street you reach, Florence wine bars with food offers more options for a seated evening.

Day 2: Dome, cathedral and David

From the previous evening in San Frediano, return to the cathedral precinct for an 08:15 Dome slot. Climb the 463 steps only if stairs without a lift are manageable for you. You pass close to the inside of the dome before reaching the city view. Backpacks and medium or large bags must go to the luggage storage at Piazza Duomo 38/r before the climb, because arriving with prohibited items can prevent entry.

Across the square, the Baptistery of St John gives you the gilded Last Judgment mosaics above the interior. It opens 08:30–19:30, making it a useful stop before the cathedral’s separate visitor window, but on the first Sunday of each month it closes at 13:30.

Florence Cathedral opens to visitors Monday to Saturday from 10:15 to 15:45, but not during religious celebrations or on Sundays. Its frescoed Last Judgment is worth seeing again from the floor after the close-up Dome passage. The cathedral and Dome do not share an entrance timetable.

At the Accademia, Michelangelo’s David is the centrepiece, but his unfinished Prisoners show figures emerging from marble on the approach. A reserved entry keeps this part of the morning less uncertain. Last admission is 18:10. After it, lunch around Piazza di San Lorenzo typically costs €15–28 per person, with counter service usually cheaper than a seated meal.

Back near the cathedral after lunch, the Opera del Duomo Museum holds the original Gates of Paradise, Donatello’s Penitent Magdalene and Michelangelo’s Pietà.

The optional Medici Chapels near San Lorenzo add Michelangelo’s New Sacristy, with the tomb figures Night and Day. Admission is €11 per adult, plus €3 if reserved. The chapels open Tuesday–Sunday 08:15–18:50, with last admission 40 minutes before closing. Leave this visit out if you want a longer rest after the Dome and museum.

After resting at your accommodation, spend the early evening in Piazza Santa Maria Novella, where the church façade gives the open square its focal point. Have dinner in the surrounding district at the local dinner hour. A seated meal typically runs €25–40 per person, rising with extra courses and wine.

Day 3: Santa Croce and the hillside

From the previous evening around Santa Maria Novella, begin at Santa Croce for Michelangelo’s and Galileo’s tombs and Brunelleschi’s Pazzi Chapel. Last admission is 17:00 on ordinary visitor days. Cover your shoulders and legs to enter. The church offers disposable cover-ups at the ticket office in summer.

The Bargello changes the medium from tombs to sculpture: Donatello’s bronze David, Michelangelo’s Bacchus and Giambologna’s Mercury make a strong short selection in this former civic palace. It closes on Mondays. On Tuesday–Sunday last admission is 18:10.

Optional Orsanmichele rewards a look at Orcagna’s Gothic tabernacle around the Madonna delle Grazie, as well as the saints in its exterior niches. It opens Tuesday–Sunday 08:30–18:30 with last entry at 17:50. If the morning stretches, leave it out and go to Sant’Ambrogio for lunch. Around the market district, a typical lunch is €15–28 per person, depending on whether you eat at a counter or sit down.

After lunch cross the Arno for Bardini Garden, where the Baroque staircase, water cascade and upper terrace build towards a view across Florence. Spring wisteria over the pergola is a seasonal bonus, not a reason to rush the climb. Entry ends at 18:30 under the garden’s year-round schedule. Keep your shoes suited to slopes and steps for the rest of the hillside route.

The optional Rose Garden adds Jean-Michel Folon’s bronze sculptures to the planting on the slope. It opens at 09:00 daily and closes at 17:00 in January–February and November–December, 18:00 in March and October, 19:00 in April and 20:00 from May to September. Drop it if the gate is shut or rain makes the paths unpleasant.

Optional San Miniato al Monte rewards the uphill walk with its green-and-white marble Romanesque façade. Afternoon visitor access is 15:30–19:00, and morning access is 09:30–13:00 Monday–Saturday or 08:15–13:00 Sunday, except during services. If delayed, leave out this climb rather than hurry through the viewpoint.

At Piazzale Michelangelo, pause above the river for the broad view back to the cathedral. Late light is the reason to linger here in the longer days, but in winter, see the outlook before darkness and shorten the optional garden and church stops. In persistent rain, keep Santa Croce and the Bargello and treat the exposed hillside as the flexible part of the day. Descend for dinner in San Niccolò, where a seated meal typically costs €25–40 per person depending on courses and drinks.

Where to stay for the walks

Stay around San Lorenzo if the Dome morning matters most: you start close to the cathedral, and the Accademia and Uffizi are also reachable on foot. The Santa Maria Novella side of the centre gives you a similarly walkable base with convenient access to the railway station, though the cathedral is farther away. For a double room, expect roughly €130–230 a night in these central areas outside major events, often more in peak spring and autumn.

Across the Arno, Santo Spirito puts Pitti Palace and day one’s lunch square close to your door, while San Frediano suits an evening around its own dining streets. From either, allow a river crossing before the Uffizi and Dome starts, especially when you have a reserved slot. Double rooms commonly run around €120–210 a night, with season and proximity to the central sights shifting the price.

If you have two days or arrive late

With two full days, keep the Uffizi on one available morning and the Dome and Accademia on the other. Drop Palazzo Vecchio, Boboli, the Medici Chapels and the third day’s hillside before you cut the principal art stops. A dedicated two-day Florence itinerary gives you a shorter walking sequence rather than compressing all three routes into two evenings.

If you arrive late, eat in the neighbourhood around your accommodation and start the timed visits the next morning. Do not attach a rushed museum to arrival day. An early departure cuts the Bardini-to-Piazzale Michelangelo hillside from the final day first, while Santa Croce and the Bargello remain a useful compact morning if their access windows fit. A full-day excursion replaces that flexible third Florence day, not a morning already committed to the Uffizi or Dome.

Sources & fact-checking

Checks against the sources below cover: opening hours, fares and charges, closures, and services. Route times and distances were calculated from geolocated stops.

• Comune di Firenze – Musei Civici Fiorentini — opening hours
• Comune di Firenze — Musei Civici Fiorentini — fares and charges
• Uffizi Galleries — opening hours
• Gallerie degli Uffizi — opening hours
• Uffizi Galleries — closures
• FAQ — What are the opening hours of the monuments?
• Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze e Musei del Bargello (GAMB) — opening hours
• Direzione regionale Musei nazionali Toscana — opening hours
• Organizza la tua visita
• Opening hours
• Cappelle Medicee | Musei del Bargello
• The Luggage Storage is mandatory for visitors to the monumental complex of Piazza Duomo
• Tickets | Uffizi Galleries
• Gallerie degli Uffizi — fares and charges
• Tickets – Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze
• Opera di Santa Croce — fares and charges
• Museo Nazionale del Bargello | Musei del Bargello
• Combined ticket for Boboli Gardens and Bardini Gardens
• Official tickets fares of the Uffizi Galleries
• Combined ticket for the Uffizi, Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens
• Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore — fares and charges
• Brunelleschi Pass | Tickets Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore
• Opera di Santa Croce — opening hours
• Opera di Santa Croce — service
• Istituto Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze e Musei del Bargello (GAMB) — opening hours
• Orsanmichele | Musei del Bargello
• Fondazione Parchi Monumentali Bardini e Peyron — opening hours
• Abbazia di San Miniato al Monte — opening hours
• Municipality and Metropolitan City of Florence — service
• Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze — closures
• Uffizi Galleries – Rules and Regulations
• Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze — service