Oltrarno: The South Bank Quarter
Cross the Ponte alle Grazie from Santa Croce and you enter the Oltrarno — Florence's most characterful neighbourhood, where gilders, bookbinders, leather-workers and picture-framers still occupy the same workshops their grandparents did. This is the Florence that the centre has largely lost.
Via Maggio & the Antique Dealers
Via Maggio runs south from the Ponte Santa Trinita and is lined with serious antique dealers selling 17th-century Florentine furniture, old master paintings and decorative arts. The shops are not cheap and not aimed at casual tourists — but walking the street is free and the window displays alone are an education in Florentine craftsmanship.
Turn into the side streets: Via dello Sprone and Via dei Serragli are full of artisan workshops where you can watch craftspeople at work. Many welcome visitors who show genuine interest. A hand-bound leather notebook bought directly from a bookbinder on Via dei Serragli costs €20–40 and will outlast anything sold in a souvenir shop.
Piazza Santo Spirito
The neighbourhood's living room is Piazza Santo Spirito, anchored by Brunelleschi's unfinished church of the same name (the plain facade was never completed — the architect died in 1446 before it was resolved). The interior, however, is a masterpiece of Renaissance proportion: 38 semi-circular chapels run around the perimeter in perfect rhythm.
The piazza outside hosts a small organic farmers' market on Monday and Thursday mornings and transforms into an aperitivo hub from 18:00 onwards. Caffè Ricchi on the square has been serving the neighbourhood since 1969 and offers one of the most pleasant outdoor tables in Florence.
Boboli Gardens & Palazzo Pitti
The Oltrarno's grandest address is Palazzo Pitti, the Medici's vast 15th-century palace that now houses six museums including the Palatine Gallery, with works by Raphael, Titian and Rubens hung salon-style in gilded rooms. The combined museum ticket is expensive (€16) but the Palatine Gallery alone justifies it.
Behind the palace, the Boboli Gardens are a 45,000-square-metre Renaissance garden of grottos, fountains, cypress alleys and hilltop viewpoints. Entry is included in the Palazzo Pitti ticket. Go on a weekday morning when the grotto of Buontalenti — its stalactite interior housing original Michelangelo prisoners — is practically deserted.
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