Seven days in Florence is ideal. Most visitors do Florence in three or four days and leave feeling like they rushed the Uffizi and barely touched the city. A week changes that. You have time to do the museums properly, get into the neighbourhoods beyond the tourist circuit, and use Florence as a base for some of the best day trips in Tuscany.

What a Week Actually Gets You

The Uffizi Gallery is large enough to absorb a full morning without covering everything. Booking timed entry in advance is essential. The Accademia, where Michelangelo's David is, deserves its own visit rather than being squeezed in on the same day. The Duomo complex (the cathedral, the baptistery, the campanile, and the Museum dell'Opera) is another full half day if you climb the dome.

The Ponte Vecchio and the Oltrarno neighbourhood on the south bank of the Arno are different from the busy tourist centre and reward a full afternoon. The Boboli Gardens are large and good for an hour or two of wandering. The Piazzale Michelangelo gives you the panoramic view of the city that every Florence photograph is taken from, and it is best at sunset.

Seven days also gives you time for the smaller things that make Florence feel like a real city: the Mercato Centrale for food shopping and eating, the less famous churches with their own excellent art, and the side streets of the Oltrarno where the artisan workshops still operate.

What Still Gets Left Out

Even with seven days, the Bargello Museum (sculpture) and the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo tend to lose out to the bigger names. San Miniato al Monte, the beautiful Romanesque church above Piazzale Michelangelo, is often missed. The smaller Medici chapels and the Palazzo Vecchio interior are both good and both easy to skip by accident.

Siena, San Gimignano, and the Chianti wine country are all excellent day trips from Florence, but each requires most of a day, so you can only realistically do two or three.

How to Structure the Week

Days 1 and 2 go to the big museums. Uffizi in the morning of day one, afternoon for the Duomo complex. Accademia in the morning of day two, afternoon in Oltrarno.

Day 3 goes to the city more slowly. Mercato Centrale, side streets, Boboli Gardens, Ponte Vecchio in the early evening.

Day 4 is Siena. About 90 minutes by bus or train and one of the most beautiful medieval city centres in Italy. The Piazza del Campo alone is worth the journey.

Day 5 is San Gimignano and the Chianti region. Towers, wine, and the Tuscan countryside.

Days 6 and 7 go to whatever slipped through: Bargello, San Miniato, Piazzale Michelangelo at sunset, and a long dinner somewhere in the Oltrarno.

Book the Uffizi and Accademia before you travel. Prices and availability change frequently.

Make the Week Count

Florence has more art per square metre than almost anywhere else in the world, and sequencing it well matters. Our Florence guide gives you the timed-entry booking advice, the neighbourhood breakdown, and the day trip timing to make the whole week work.