Tours in Florence

Florence is small, and the surprise is how small. The historic centre fits inside a twenty-minute walk, and the Renaissance happened in about six streets of it. Brunelleschi closed the cathedral dome in 1436 without a supporting frame, and nobody has fully explained how. The Medici paid for most of what you queue to see.

The collections and what is in them:

• The Uffizi. The Medici's own gallery — Botticelli, Leonardo, Caravaggio — and the busiest ticket in the city.
• The Accademia. One statue is the reason for the queue: Michelangelo's David, finished 1504.
• Pitti Palace. The Medici's later home across the river, with the Palatina gallery and the Boboli gardens behind it.
• The Duomo complex. Cathedral, baptistery, campanile and dome climb, sold as one ticket.

The other half of the catalogue is what sets it apart. Food and wine run almost level with sightseeing. Chianti half-days, market tours that turn into pasta classes, tastings with a sommelier, and the wine windows in the palace walls that reopened recently.

Florence is also a base. Siena, San Gimignano and Pisa go together in one long day, and Cinque Terre is a longer one. Opera and chamber concerts fill the deconsecrated churches most evenings.

Practical

• Uffizi and Accademia. Timed entry, booked ahead, and worth it: the walk-up line runs to three hours in summer.
• The dome climb. Four hundred and sixty-three steps, no lift, a separate reservation from the cathedral ticket.
• Museum Mondays. Most state museums close, including the Accademia. Plan the Chianti day for then.
• Driving. The centre is a restricted traffic zone and the cameras fine you by post, months later. Park outside.
• Season. April to June and September to October. August is hot and half the city is shut.