Florence's historic centre on foot: a self-guided walk from Santa Maria Novella station to the Ponte Vecchio, with what is open each day

One of 2 self-guided walks in Florence. See every walk.

In this guide

💡 The Short Version: Start at Santa Maria Novella station and finish at the Ponte Vecchio: 2.9 km, about 40 minutes of walking and a full day with the tickets. Walk it on a Tuesday or Wednesday. The cathedral and San Lorenzo are shut on Sundays, the Medici Chapels, Orsanmichele and the Uffizi on Mondays, and Palazzo Vecchio closes at 14:00 on Thursdays. The dome needs a booked slot and photo ID on the €30 Brunelleschi Pass; the cathedral is free. Or book a tour: the Highlights Walking Tour with Expert Guidead (from €28, 1.5 hours) passes the cathedral and the Ponte Vecchio with a local guide.

The route

Map of the walk numbered stops in walking order

Open the whole route in Google Maps - all the stops in walking order, set to walking directions, which is the version to put on your phone.

The route runs east from the station to San Lorenzo and the market behind it, turns south to the Duomo and follows Via dei Calzaiuoli to Piazza della Signoria, then passes the Uffizi to the bridge. Prices are the adult rate in euros from each operator.

Walk it with a guide

A guide adds the stories and the order. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices, per person.

• Florence: Highlights Walking Tour with Expert Guidead: from €28, 4.6 stars from 6,142 reviews, 1.5 hours. A small-group or private walk with a local expert past the cathedral and the Ponte Vecchio; booking closes 4 hours ahead.
• Florence: Renaissance and Medici Tales Guided Walking Tourad: from €12, 4.8 stars from 2,160 reviews, 2 hours, wheelchair accessible. It tells how the city became the cradle of the Renaissance and what the Medici did to it.
• Florence Small Group Walking Tour: Stories & Secretsad: from €34, 4.8 stars from 135 reviews, 1.5 hours, with a private option. It takes in the cathedral and Piazza della Signoria.

Florence walking tours compares ten more, including the tip-based walks and the tours with the Uffizi and the Accademia inside.

1. Santa Maria Novella station

Free · left luggage inside the station · trams T1 and T2 meet here

The station has a ticket office, left luggage, toilets and a pharmacy. The T2 tram from the airport stops in Piazza Stazione. Florence public transport has the tickets.

• Leave bags here. The Duomo’s monuments refuse backpacks and large and medium bags, and the Uffizi sends them to its cloakroom.
• The first leg is 410 m from the station to the basilica.

2. Santa Maria Novella basilica

€7.50 · Monday to Thursday 9:00 to 17:30, Friday 11:00 to 17:30, Saturday 9:00 to 17:00, Sunday 13:00 to 17:00 · Piazza Santa Maria Novella 18

The nave of Santa Maria Novella. Photo: Zairon, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

One ticket covers the Dominican basilica and the museum next to it. The basilica holds Masaccio’s Trinity, Giotto’s crucifix, Brunelleschi’s crucifix and the Tornabuoni Chapel painted by Ghirlandaio. The museum adds the Cloister of the Dead, the Green Cloister, the Spanish Chapel, the Ubriachi Chapel and the Refectory.

• Tickets are sold at the basilica’s ticket office on the day, with no booking needed. Ages 11 to 18 pay €5, and under-11s and Florence residents enter free.
• Last admission is an hour before closing. The basilica is shut on Good Friday and Holy Saturday, and on 1 November, 8 December and 25 December it keeps the Sunday timetable.
• Rules: suitable clothes, and no bulky luggage or trolleys.
• More: Florence churches has the dress rules and the other churches’ prices.

3. San Lorenzo and the Medici Chapels

Basilica €9, Monday to Saturday 10:00 to 17:30, last entry 16:30 · Medici Chapels €11, Tuesday to Sunday 8:15 to 18:50

Walk 450 m east to Piazza San Lorenzo. The basilica was enlarged by Brunelleschi from 1418 for Giovanni de’ Medici. Its €9 ticket covers the basilica, Brunelleschi’s Old Sacristy, the cloisters, the treasury museum, the crypt and the underground rooms. The Medici Chapels are a separate museum, entered from Piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini behind the apse, and hold Michelangelo’s New Sacristy (1519 to 1534), the Chapel of the Princes and the Medici crypt.

• Closed days: the basilica on Sundays, 1 January, 6 January and 10 August; the chapels on Mondays, 25 December and 1 January. Last entry to the chapels is 40 minutes before closing.
• Booking: a reservation for the chapels is optional, at €4. Michelangelo’s hidden room is reservation only, for four people at a time.
• Free days: the chapels are free on the first Sunday of the month (1 November and 6 December 2026) and on 4 November, with no booking.
• Evening opening: the chapels open 17:15 to 21:00 on Monday 30 November 2026.
• Detail: Medici Chapels and San Lorenzo tickets.

4. The Mercato Centrale

Free · stalls Monday to Friday 7:00 to 15:00, Saturday 7:00 to 17:00 · food hall daily 9:00 to 23:00

The Mercato Centrale, built in 1870 to 1874, with the Duomo’s dome beyond the roofs. Photo: Fred Romero, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

The market hall is a few minutes’ walk north of the chapels, on Piazza del Mercato Centrale. The ground floor has been the city’s market since 1874, with butchers, fruit and vegetable stalls, fishmongers, bakeries and fresh pasta; Da Nerbone, the lampredotto and bollito counter, is among them. The food hall above has a pizzeria, a steak restaurant and other counters.

• Sundays: the ground-floor stalls have no Sunday hours, and the food hall is open.
• Tables: you can sit anywhere in the food hall, and book at the pizzeria and the steak restaurant.
• Lunch: Trattoria Mario is round the corner.
• Street food: Florence street food says what to order at the lampredotto stands.

5. Piazza del Duomo

Cathedral free, Monday to Saturday 10:15 to 15:45 · Baptistery daily 8:30 to 19:30 · Bell Tower daily 8:15 to 18:45 (last slot) · dome Monday to Friday 8:15 to 18:45

The Baptistery beside the cathedral. Photo: Zairon, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

Go back to Piazza San Lorenzo and follow Via dei Martelli to the square. The cathedral is free and needs no ticket, but refuses flip-flops, bare shoulders and legs uncovered above the knee. Every other monument is on a pass valid for three days:

• The dome has 463 steps and is entered at a booked time with photo ID; the Opera says online availability is final. It is closed 16 to 20 November 2026, and its hours are Saturday 8:15 to 16:30 (last slot) and Sunday 12:45 to 16:30.
• The Bell Tower has 414 steps; the top terrace is open, but the restoration may partly reduce the views. It is closed 9 to 13 November 2026.
• The museum is closed on the first Tuesday of the month (3 November and 1 December 2026). The Baptistery’s vault mosaics are under restoration and cannot be seen, and it closes at 13:30 on the first Sunday of the month.
• Bags: the free store at Piazza Duomo 38/r is open daily 7:30 to 20:15.
• Closed: the whole complex shuts on Easter Sunday, 25 December and 1 January.
• Detail: Duomo tickets and the dome climb.

6. Orsanmichele

€10 · Tuesday to Sunday 8:30 to 18:30, last entry 50 minutes before closing · closed on Mondays

Take Via dei Calzaiuoli south for 320 m. Orsanmichele began as the city’s grain market and became a church. Its ground floor holds Orcagna’s marble tabernacle (1359) with Bernardo Daddi’s Madonna and Child, and the first floor is a museum of the sculptures made for the niches on the outside. The statues in the niches now are copies, so the originals are inside.

• Tickets: €10, €2 for EU citizens aged 18 to 25, free under 18; booking online adds €3. It is free on the first Sunday of the month.
• Sundays: the museum closes from 12:20 to 13:30 for the weekly service.
• Evening opening: 17:15 to 21:00 on Monday 30 November 2026.
• No lift, no toilets inside.

7. Piazza della Signoria

Square and Loggia dei Lanzi free, always open · Palazzo Vecchio museum €18, tower €20, each plus €1 online · 9:00 to 19:00, Thursday to 14:00

The Loggia dei Lanzi on Piazza della Signoria, with Cellini’s Perseus. Photo: Txllxt TxllxT, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Via dei Calzaiuoli brings you into the square, which grew up with Palazzo Vecchio in the 13th and 14th centuries and has been the political centre of the city ever since. In front of the Fountain of Neptune a plaque marks the spot where Savonarola was burned on 23 May 1498. The statues in front of the palace include a copy of Michelangelo’s David, whose original is in the Accademia. The Loggia dei Lanzi holds Cellini’s Perseus and Giambologna’s Rape of the Sabine Women, and Giambologna’s equestrian statue of Cosimo I stands in the square.

• The museum is at booked times, 9:00 to 19:00, and on Thursdays 9:00 to 14:00. The ticket office closes an hour before. Some rooms are closed, among them the Tesoretto and the Terrazza di Saturno.
• The Arnolfo Tower has 418 steps to the walkway, with a booked time and no entry for under-6s. It is closed in rain, and on Thursdays it closes at 14:00.
• Mondays: Palazzo Vecchio is open, when the Uffizi next door is shut.
• Detail: Palazzo Vecchio tickets.

8. The Uffizi courtyard

Courtyard free, always open · gallery €29 booked, €25 on the day · Tuesday to Sunday 8:15 to 18:30, ticket office closes 17:30

The courtyard opens off the square beside the Loggia dei Lanzi and runs down to the Arno between the two wings of the building Giorgio Vasari designed for Cosimo I de’ Medici. The gallery’s entrance is in it, and walking through costs nothing.

• Tickets: booking is optional and costs €4; an Afternoon ticket for entry from 16:00 is €20 booked and €16 on the day. The €2 ticket is for EU citizens aged 18 to 25, and under-18s are free.
• Closed: Mondays, 1 January and 25 December. The Uffizi is free on the first Sunday of the month and on 4 November 2026, with a queue.
• The Vasari Corridor is a separate slot at least two hours after your gallery slot: see Vasari Corridor tickets.
• Detail: Uffizi tickets.

9. The Ponte Vecchio

Free · always open

The north end of the Ponte Vecchio, from Via Por Santa Maria. Photo: Armin Kleiner, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Walk 270 m along the Arno to the bridge. After the flood of 1333 it was rebuilt with three arches on two piers and rows of shops along both sides, and the shops are still there. Above them runs the Vasari Corridor, which Vasari built in 1565 to link Palazzo Vecchio with the Pitti Palace; it is ticketed and has its own page.

• The walk ends here. The Oltrarno walk starts at the south end of the bridge and climbs to Piazzale Michelangelo.
• Back to the station is 1.3 km, about 18 minutes on foot.

Where to eat

Trattoria Mario

Via Rosina 2r, behind the Mercato Centrale · Monday to Saturday 12:00 to 15:30 · no reservations

A lunch-only trattoria with shared tables, where the menu changes daily but the bistecca alla fiorentina, the ragù and the ribollita are on every day. Staff take a name at the door. Stop here after stop 4.

Perché No!

Via de’ Tavolini 19r · 11:00 to 20:00 from November to February, closed on Tuesdays · 11:00 to midnight from March to October, Tuesday 12:00 to 20:00

A gelateria beside Piazza della Repubblica, near Piazza della Signoria, that has made gelato since 1939. Its classics are crema, bacio and pistachio. Stop here between stops 5 and 7.

All’Antico Vinaio

Via dei Neri 65 to 78 · daily 10:00 to 22:00

A schiacciata sandwich shop founded in 1989, 160 m from the Uffizi courtyard. Il Giornale del Cibo reports queues of more than half an hour in the sun. See Florence street food for the other shops, and where to eat in Florence for more.

The best day to go

The timing that works, Tuesday or Wednesday: leave the station for Santa Maria Novella’s 9:00 opening, be at the Medici Chapels (open since 8:15) and San Lorenzo (from 10:00) by 10:30, and have lunch at the market before the ground-floor stalls close at 15:00. Be in the cathedral before 15:45, then choose one anchor for the afternoon: the dome slot you booked, Palazzo Vecchio (open to 19:00, with the tower shut in rain), or the Uffizi on the Afternoon ticket from 16:00.

What closes:

• Dated closures: the Bell Tower is shut 9 to 13 November 2026 and the dome 16 to 20 November. The Opera del Duomo Museum is shut on 3 November and 1 December.
• First Sunday of the month (1 November and 6 December 2026): the state museums, among them the Uffizi, the Medici Chapels and Orsanmichele, are free, with a queue. The Baptistery closes at 13:30.
• 25 December and 1 January: the Duomo complex, the Uffizi and the Medici Chapels are shut, and San Lorenzo is shut on 1 January.

What does not close: the streets and squares, Piazza del Duomo, Piazza della Signoria, the Loggia dei Lanzi, the Uffizi courtyard and the Ponte Vecchio. A Monday still makes a good walk: the cathedral, Palazzo Vecchio and the market are open, and only the Medici Chapels, Orsanmichele and the Uffizi are shut.

Getting there and back

• To the start: Santa Maria Novella is the city’s main station. The T2 tram runs to it from the airport in about 20 minutes. Florence airport to the city compares the options.
• From the end: the Ponte Vecchio has no station. The station is 1.3 km on foot, and the Oltrarno walk goes on across the bridge.
• In reverse: the route works from the Ponte Vecchio too, but San Lorenzo and the cathedral close in the afternoon, so start early and finish at the market for lunch.

What to do with the rest of the day

• The Oltrarno: the Oltrarno walk starts at the Ponte Vecchio and climbs to Piazzale Michelangelo.
• The museums: Uffizi tickets and Accademia and David tickets are the two slots to book first.
• A plan for the whole stay: Florence in one or two days and 3 days in Florence build the days round the bookings, and what to book before you go to Florence has every ticket. To sleep near the route, see hotels near the Duomo and where to stay in Florence.

Common questions

How long is the walk through Florence's historic centre?

2.9 km from Santa Maria Novella station to the Ponte Vecchio, measured along the streets: about 40 minutes of walking. With the Medici Chapels, the dome and Palazzo Vecchio it fills a day.

Is the historic centre walk free?

The streets, the cathedral, Piazza della Signoria, the Loggia dei Lanzi, the Uffizi courtyard and the Ponte Vecchio cost nothing. Santa Maria Novella is €7.50, San Lorenzo €9, the Medici Chapels €11, Orsanmichele €10, Palazzo Vecchio €18 and the Uffizi €29 booked or €25 on the day. The Baptistery is on the Ghiberti Pass, €15.

What do I need to book for the walk?

The dome, which is entered only at a booked time with photo ID on the €30 Brunelleschi Pass, and the Palazzo Vecchio museum and tower, which are sold for booked times. Booking is optional at the Uffizi (€4 extra) and the Medici Chapels (€4 extra). Santa Maria Novella and San Lorenzo sell tickets at the door.

Which day is best for the historic centre walk?

Tuesday or Wednesday. On Mondays the Medici Chapels, Orsanmichele and the Uffizi are shut, on Thursdays Palazzo Vecchio closes at 14:00, on Fridays Santa Maria Novella opens at 11:00, and on Sundays the cathedral and San Lorenzo are shut.

Where does the walk start and finish?

It starts at Santa Maria Novella station, where trams T1 and T2 and the main trains stop, and finishes at the Ponte Vecchio, 1.3 km on foot from the station. The Oltrarno walk starts at the bridge.

When is the Mercato Centrale open?

The stalls on the ground floor are open Monday to Friday 7:00 to 15:00 and Saturday 7:00 to 17:00, and have no Sunday hours. The food hall on the first floor is open every day from 9:00 to 23:00.