Map of Florence's Sights and the Tours That Cover Them

Florence’s sights sit close together on both banks of the Arno: on our map, drawn to scale from OpenStreetMap positions, the two points farthest apart, Santa Maria Novella railway station and Piazzale Michelangelo, are about 2 km apart in a straight line, and everything else is closer. North of the river are the Duomo, the Accademia with Michelangelo’s David, San Lorenzo and the Medici Chapels, the Mercato Centrale, Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi and Santa Croce. Ponte Vecchio crosses the Arno. South of it, in the Oltrarno, are Palazzo Pitti, the Boboli Gardens and, up the hill, Piazzale Michelangelo.

The table below the map gives each sight’s 2026 rules and the page of this site that covers it.

The sights, what they need, and who covers them

Prices and hours from each site’s own pages, read in October 2026.

The Accademia, the Uffizi and Brunelleschi’s dome take the most planning. Uffizi tickets and the Brunelleschi Pass carry the visitor’s name, as do Accademia tickets bought online or by phone; the Accademia and the dome sell entry at a set time, and the dome slot cannot be changed or refunded. There is no paid queue-jump on top of a booked slot: the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore says it has no such service and never will, because booking the time slot is already the service meant to avoid queues.

Where golf carts may go

Since 15 October 2025 a Comune regulation (council resolution 54 of 30 July 2025) has banned tourist transport by golf cart, caddy or rickshaw across Florence’s UNESCO area: the city inside the ring of avenues that follows the old walls, plus San Miniato al Monte since 2021, with the Cascine park excepted. The one exception is the white electric “navetta turistica”, carrying at most 8 passengers and run by a travel agency with a Comune permit, on one of two fixed routes. Route A runs along the western Lungarni, the riverside avenues, and stops on Lungarno Vespucci. Route B is the Piazzale Michelangelo loop, with its stop at the Piazzale. Neither route enters the core around the Duomo, Piazza della Signoria and Ponte Vecchio, and passengers board only at the start or the end.

Since 1 April 2026 a licensed guide or tour leader drives or rides along. Fines are €500, and a vehicle with no permit is seized for confiscation. The regional administrative court upheld the regulation on 19 June 2026, and each permit runs for one year from its own decree, the first dated 15 April 2026.

On the map, then, a cart can show you the riverside west of the centre and the hill around Piazzale Michelangelo, but not the Duomo, Piazza della Signoria or Ponte Vecchio. The golf cart tours page leads with this rule and lists the routes out to Fiesole. Inside Florence the rule applies to every cart, so ask any operator where its cart drives in the city.

How do tourists get around in Florence?

On foot: the station to the Duomo takes about 10 to 12 minutes.

By bus and tram: a ticket costs €2.00 since 1 August 2026, or €3.00 from the driver, and lasts 90 minutes on Florence’s buses and trams; you can also tap a contactless card on board, one card per ticket. The T2 tram runs from the airport to San Marco in about 35 minutes. For the centre, get off at Valfonda, Alamanni or Fortezza, since it no longer serves Unità. Bus 12 runs from Santa Maria Novella station to Piazzale Michelangelo.

By bike: RideMovi’s bike share operates in Florence. You may ride in Piazza della Signoria, Piazza della Repubblica and Piazza del Duomo, but bikes are pushed across Ponte Vecchio.

By car: the whole historic centre is a limited-traffic zone (ZTL) with camera gates that read every number plate, and the fines for driving in without a permit are steep.

By hop-on hop-off bus: City Sightseeing runs Line A, about 60 minutes, and Line B, about 120 minutes by way of Fiesole; this site does not sell them.

By golf cart: only on the two routes above.

Every section page on this site

• Walking tours: guided walks past the Duomo, Piazza della Signoria and Ponte Vecchio; some add the Medici Chapels, or the Uffizi and the Accademia, with tickets.
• Golf cart tours: the 2026 rules first, then a licensed operator’s tour, a private tour and two hill routes to Fiesole.
• Bike tours: bike and e-bike tours of the centre, and the e-bike rides up to Piazzale Michelangelo.
• Food tours: street food and dinner walks; the featured one spends half an hour in the Mercato Centrale.
• Cooking classes: pasta, pizza and tiramisu classes, two of them on farms outside the city, and a perfume masterclass.
• David and Accademia: timed entry to see the David, and guided visits, one of which adds the Uffizi.
• Duomo: the climb up Brunelleschi’s dome, with the passes and guided visits that include it.
• Uffizi: guided Uffizi tours with tickets, some adding the Accademia, one with the Vasari Corridor as an option.
• Day trips: Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa, the Chianti and the Cinque Terre; by its listing, the featured trip starts in front of Santa Maria Novella station.

Questions people ask

How long does it take to walk across Florence?

No official figure covers the whole centre. The one walking time we can source runs from Santa Maria Novella station to the Duomo: about 10 to 12 minutes. On our map the longest straight line, from the station to Piazzale Michelangelo, is about 2 km. On foot it is longer, because the streets wind and the last stretch climbs the hill. The UNESCO-listed historic centre, the city inside its 14th-century walls’ ring of avenues plus San Miniato al Monte, covers 532 hectares, about 5.3 km².

What are the top 3 things to see in Florence?

No official ranking exists, and we won’t make one up. The three that take the most planning are the Accademia for the David, the Uffizi and the climb up Brunelleschi’s dome, and booked ahead, all three issue tickets in the visitor’s name. The free ones are the Cathedral (Monday to Saturday), Ponte Vecchio, the Loggia dei Lanzi with its free ticket, Piazzale Michelangelo and San Miniato al Monte. Things to do in Florence sorts the rest by ticket, reservation or free.

What is the best guided tour in Florence?

There is no single best; it depends on what you want covered. The rules are the same for all of them: since Law 190/2023 the guide licence is national, and guiding without it is fined; since February 2025 no guide on the street may use a voice amplifier, and groups of more than 8, guide not counted, must use wireless headsets; inside the Uffizi a group is at most 16 people, guide included. The section pages set the formats side by side: walking tours for the centre on foot, the Uffizi and David and Accademia pages for the museums, and the Duomo page for the dome climb.

Are there any parts of Florence to avoid?

We know of no official list of places to avoid. The Prefect of Florence has made the area around Santa Maria Novella station, the Cascine park and parts of the city’s Quartiere 2 and Quartiere 5 “zones of reinforced surveillance”, where police may order away people reported for listed crimes in the past five years who behave violently or in a harassing way; the order was extended by five months on 2 October 2026. The US and UK governments both warn of pickpocketing and bag-snatching in tourist areas and on public transport.

What is a must buy in Florence?

Nothing official ranks shopping. On Ponte Vecchio the city’s rules allow only the trade in jewellery, watches, art and antiques, with no food or drink served on the bridge, and by the city’s account the goldsmiths’ workshops replaced the butchers’ and fishmongers’ shops there in 1593. The Ponte Vecchio guide covers the bridge.

What are 10 things I must do in Florence in one day?

Florence in one day sets out what fits into a day, and in which order, timed reservations first.

What should I include in a 2-day itinerary for Florence?

The Florence itinerary plans two days and three, each day’s bookable part linked to its page here.

What’s the best month to visit Florence?

It depends on how you take heat, rain and crowds. August is the hottest month on average, November the wettest, and January and February were the quietest months of 2024 and 2025 by the region’s counts. The best time to visit Florence goes month by month.

Sources: the Comune di Firenze, the museums and the two Operas, San Miniato al Monte, the market operators, Autolinee Toscane, GEST, City Sightseeing, the Prefettura di Firenze and the US and UK travel advice; map positions from OpenStreetMap; tour details from each listing. Checked October 2026.