Best For
Short walkable stays, art with older kids, Tuscany bases
Recommended Nights
2-3
Getting There
Fast train from Rome in about 1 hr 30
Known For
The Duomo, the Uffizi, David, the Arno, Tuscany at the door
Small Enough To Walk, Which Changes Everything
After Rome, Florence feels like somebody turned the volume down. The historic center is roughly a mile across. You can go from the Duomo to the Ponte Vecchio to the Uffizi in fifteen minutes on foot, which means naps are possible and nobody has to fight a metro with a stroller.
We came through in October 2010 in the camper. The cupola over the Duomo was our first stop and just walking around the outside of that building took a trip in itself. The Campanile next door offers a 414 step climb for the ambitious and we were, honestly, not the ambitious. We fought through a crowd to see the bronze doors on the Baptistery, which sits at the entry to the oldest building in Florence, and then did what we always do and just walked. Along the Arno, through the streets, no plan.
That is still my advice for Florence. Pick one or two big indoor things, then walk. This city rewards wandering more than it rewards a schedule, and it is the rare Italian city where a family can actually pull that off.
Who it is for
Families with older kids who will tolerate a gallery, or families with young kids who are happy to skip the galleries entirely and use Florence as a walkable base for Tuscany. Both versions work. Pretending you are going to do six museums with a five year old does not.
Who should skip it
Nobody, really. But if your kids are small and you have already done Rome, consider giving Florence one full day off a Tuscany base instead of two nights in the center. The city does not need as long as people think.
Getting There
General ranges, not exact schedules. Traffic and season move all of these.
The Uffizi And The Accademia, And Whether To Bother
The Uffizi: Only With Older Kids
It is one of the great collections on earth and it is also room after room of Renaissance panel painting. Kids under about ten will be done in twenty five minutes and you will have spent an hour of your life in a line. If you go, book the first slot of the day, walk straight to the Botticellis, and leave when you are done rather than when the map says you are.
The Accademia: Yes, And It Is Quick
The Accademia is basically one hallway and one very famous statue. That is a feature, not a flaw. Forty five minutes, done, and every kid I have sent has actually remembered David because he is seventeen feet tall and the scale does the work for you. This is the museum I recommend when families will only do one.
The Dome Climb: Know The Number
Brunelleschi’s dome is over 400 steps with no elevator, up narrow curved passages between two shells, and there is no turning around once you are in. The Campanile next door is 414 steps and gives you the view with the dome in it, which is arguably the better photo. Either one is a hard no for anyone claustrophobic.
What Is Genuinely Worth Your Hours
The Duomo complex
The cathedral itself is free to walk into and the line moves. The dome, the Campanile, the Baptistery with its bronze doors and the crypt are the ticketed part. Even if you never buy a ticket, standing outside that building and walking all the way around it is worth an hour with kids.
The Uffizi
Botticelli, Leonardo, Caravaggio, and a corridor with a view down to the river. Book a timed slot, go at opening, and give yourself ninety minutes rather than four hours. The courtyard outside is free, full of statues and street musicians, and honestly a good compromise if the kids are small.
David at the Accademia
The copy in Piazza della Signoria is free and outdoors and plenty of families stop there instead. It is a good copy. But the real one is a different experience, and it is the one museum visit in Florence that has never once been reported back to me as a waste of time.
What It Costs And Which Pass Is A Trap
Five Things To Eat In Florence
Bistecca alla fiorentina
Ribollita
Schiacciata
Crostini
GelatoNicole’s Perspective
The One I Underestimated
These are the gilded bronze doors on the Baptistery, and this is my own photo of them from the camper trip in October 2010. We fought through a crowd to get close enough to look at them. The building behind them is the oldest in Florence. I did not have a plan for this city. We had come off Venice and the Po Valley and I think I assumed it would be a smaller Rome.
It is not. It is its own thing, and the thing is scale. Everything in Florence is close together, and the buildings are so oversized for the streets they sit in that you keep turning a corner and running straight into a cathedral. That is a great experience for a kid. You do not have to explain it. It is just there, enormous, at the end of a normal street.
I taught social studies for eight years before I stood in any of these places. Florence is where the textbook stopped being a textbook for me. If your kids are old enough to have heard the word Renaissance, this is where it becomes real.
Rome, Sicily and Tuscany are all on my books for clients this winter. Send me your dates and I will tell you whether Florence should be two nights or a day trip for your family.
What Actually Works With Children Here
Florence is a walking city with no real playground problem and no metro to fight. The trap is stacking galleries. One indoor thing a day, maximum.
Downtime Pick
The Boboli Gardens. Behind the Pitti Palace, across the river, big enough to run in, with fountains and grottoes and long views back over the city. It is ticketed but cheap, and it is the release valve when everyone is done being cultured.
Tuscany Starts At The Train Station
Siena, San Gimignano, Chianti, Pisa
This is the real argument for Florence. It is the best base in Italy for a day out, and the day out is often the better memory. Siena is about an hour and a quarter by bus and the Piazza del Campo is a giant sloped shell that kids sit down in and refuse to leave. We got so turned around in Siena that it took ten different locals to help us find our camper again.
San Gimignano is towers on a hill and it is small enough to do in half a day. Chianti is the drive, the vineyards and a long lunch, and it needs a car. Pisa is an hour by regional train and it is exactly what you think it is, white marble and a leaning tower, and it is genuinely fun for about two hours.
If you have a car, remember that most Tuscan hill towns are ZTL restricted at the top. Park at the bottom, walk up, and do not follow a navigation app straight into a camera.
Cross The River
The Oltrarno
The far side of the Arno is where Florence keeps its workshops and its dinner. Santo Spirito and San Frediano are ten minutes on foot from the Ponte Vecchio and the prices drop off a cliff the second you cross. Same rule as everywhere in Italy. A photo menu and a man waving you in means you are paying tourist rates for tourist food.
For lunch, the Mercato Centrale near the station has an upstairs food hall where everybody in the family can order something different and nobody has to sit through a two hour meal. With kids that is worth a lot.
Where The Money Is Actually Worth Spending
Stay In The Center Or Stay In The Hills
There is no good middle option in Florence. Either be inside the walls where everything is a ten minute walk, or get properly out into the hills where there is a pool and a view and you drive in for one day. The suburbs in between give you the worst of both.
The two upgrades I push. A guided hour in the Uffizi with somebody who knows which six paintings to stop at, because the difference between a guided Uffizi and an unguided one with kids is enormous. And one night in a Tuscan agriturismo with a pool, which is worth more to most families than a third night in the city.
Two Nights, And Why Four Is Too Many
One full day is not enough. Four is too many for most families. Two nights is the answer, three if you are using it as a Tuscany base and one of those days leaves the city.
Day one, the center
Duomo complex in the morning while legs are fresh, lunch at the Mercato Centrale, Accademia in the early afternoon, then walk the Arno and cross to the Oltrarno for dinner.
Day two, out of town
Siena, San Gimignano or Pisa. Leave early, come back late afternoon, and let the kids run somewhere with grass in it. This is the day they will talk about.
The optional third
Uffizi at opening if your kids are old enough, Boboli Gardens after, then Piazzale Michelangelo for sunset. If your kids are not old enough for the Uffizi, do not add this day. Go to Tuscany instead.
Things I Tell Every Client Before Florence
More From Us In Italy
The real posts from the 2010 camper trip, plus the guides. A note on the photos. The featured images on several of these old posts are broken in the archive and point at unrelated pictures, so each card below uses a real photo from that actual stop instead.
Florence With Kids, Answered
How many days do we need in Florence?
Two nights for most families. One full day only sees the center and feels rushed. Four is too many unless you are using the city as a base and leaving it on two of those days.
Is the Uffizi worth it with kids?
With kids over about ten, yes, for ninety minutes at opening. Under that, no. Do the Accademia instead. It is one hall, one statue, forty five minutes, and they remember it.
Do we need the Firenze Card?
Almost certainly not. It is 85 euros for 72 hours and only breaks even past about four major museums, and it does not cover the Duomo complex at all. Buy individual tickets.
Can kids climb the dome?
Physically, most kids over about eight can. It is over 400 steps, no elevator, narrow and enclosed, and you cannot turn back once you start. The Campanile is 414 steps and gives you the dome in the view, which many families prefer.
Is Florence better than Rome?
Different. Rome is the one I would never skip. Florence is the one that is easier with a family, because everything is close and nothing needs a metro. Most first trips should do both, with Rome first.
Does using a travel advisor cost me extra?
No. I am paid by the suppliers, not by you. You get the planning, the ticket sequencing and somebody to call when something goes sideways mid trip.
Ready To Put Florence On The Calendar
Send me your dates and your kids’ ages and I will tell you whether Florence is two nights or a day trip for you, which tickets to actually buy, and which Tuscan day out fits your family.
Plan Your Florence Trip