Oltrarno District
Cross any of the Arno's bridges away from the Uffizi side and the city immediately exhales — the streets narrow, the gelaterias get better and the workshops of leather-workers, gilders and bookbinders still clatter behind half-open doors. Oltrarno is where Florentines actually live, and an afternoon wandering it tells you more about the city than a week of queuing at famous monuments.
Where to wander
Piazza Santo Spirito is the neighbourhood's living room — a slightly scruffy, completely authentic square anchored by Brunelleschi's unfinished church facade, lined with bars where a glass of Morellino di Scansano costs €3.50 and the clientele is entirely local. A small organic farmers' market sets up here on the second Sunday of each month.
Via Maggio is the grand antique-dealer street running south from Ponte Santa Trinita; its palazzi have barely changed since the Medici era and the shops inside them sell everything from 17th-century Flemish oil paintings to Venetian mirrors at prices that reward serious negotiation.
Craft workshops and the Boboli Gardens
The streets around Via dello Sprone and Borgo San Jacopo hide working ateliers where you can watch artisans hand-stitch leather bags, restore gilded picture frames and marble-print paper using techniques unchanged since the Renaissance — many welcome visitors who knock and ask politely.
The Boboli Gardens behind Palazzo Pitti offer 11 acres of terraced Renaissance landscape, grottos and outdoor sculpture — a perfect green escape from stone streets, and one of the few places in central Florence where you can sit on grass.
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