The Oltrarno and Piazzale Michelangelo on foot: a self-guided walk from the Ponte Vecchio to San Miniato al Monte, 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 the Ponte Vecchio, where the historic centre walk ends, and finish at San Miniato al Monte: 3.5 km, about 45 minutes of walking and a day with the stops, with 1.1 km of it uphill from San Niccolò. Go Thursday to Saturday: the Pitti Palace is shut on Mondays, the Brancacci Chapel on Tuesdays and Santo Spirito on Wednesdays. San Miniato is shut to visitors from 13:00 to 15:30 and during services, with vespers at 18:30; Piazzale Michelangelo is free and always open. Or book a tour: the Golf Cart Tour of the Hills and Piazzale Michelangeload is from €40 (GetYourGuide).

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 crosses to the south bank, the Oltrarno (“beyond the Arno”), and runs past the Pitti Palace to Piazza Santo Spirito and the lanes behind it. It then returns east along the river to San Niccolò and climbs the hill to Piazzale Michelangelo and the abbey above it. Prices are the adult rate in euros from each operator.

Walk it with a guide

A guide adds the stories, or takes the hill for you. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices, per person.

• Florence Golf Cart Tour of the Hills and Piazzale Michelangeload: from €40, 4.9 stars from 425 reviews, 1 hour 30 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes. A private electric golf cart takes in the hills and sites linked to Galileo, with a short walk to Piazzale Michelangelo. It is a private group, and booking closes 30 minutes ahead.
• Florence: Food Walking Tour with Local Steak and Tuscan Winead: from €69, 4.9 stars from 803 reviews, 3.5 hours. An evening food and wine tour through the Santo Spirito neighbourhood, with 14 tastings at four stops.
• Florence: Pitti Palace, Boboli Garden, Palatine Gallery Tourad: from €83, 4.8 stars from 663 reviews, 3 hours. A guided tour with entry tickets to the palace and the gardens.

1. The Ponte Vecchio

Free · always open

The walk starts at the south end of the bridge, where the historic centre walk ends. If you begin here instead, Santa Maria Novella station is 1.3 km away on foot, about 18 minutes. Oltrarno means “beyond the Arno”: the quarter runs from the river up to the hill.

• First leg: Via dei Guicciardini leads 440 m to Piazza dei Pitti.
• The bridge itself, with its history and the Vasari Corridor overhead, is the last stop of the historic centre walk.

2. Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens

Palace €16 on the day, €19 booked · gardens €10 or €13 · both €22 or €25 · palace Tuesday to Sunday 8:15 to 18:30 · gardens daily from 8:15

The Isolotto in the Boboli Gardens. Photo: Armin Kleiner, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cosimo I de’ Medici and Eleanor of Toledo bought the palace in 1550 as their residence, and it later housed the Habsburg-Lorraine and Savoy courts. It holds five museums, among them the Palatine Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art, and the Boboli Gardens climb the hill behind it. You can enter the gardens through the palace courtyard, the Annalena gate on Via Romana, Porta Romana or the Forte di Belvedere gate. The square in front is free.

• Closed days: the palace on Mondays, 1 January and 25 December; the gardens on the first and last Monday of each month (2 and 30 November and 7 and 28 December 2026) and on 25 December.
• Garden closing: 17:30 until 31 October, then 16:30 in November and December; last admission is an hour earlier. The gardens can shut at short notice for a weather warning.
• Shut rooms: the Treasury of the Grand Dukes has been closed since 3 February 2026, and the Palatine Gallery has rooms closed for works.
• The Royal Apartments tour is free with the palace ticket and must be booked.
• Detail: Pitti Palace and Boboli tickets.

3. Piazza Santo Spirito

Basilica free · sacristy with Michelangelo’s crucifix €2, no booking · Monday, Tuesday, Thursday to Saturday 10:00 to 13:00 and 15:00 to 18:00 · Sunday 11:30 to 13:30 and 15:00 to 18:00 · closed Wednesdays

The nave of Santo Spirito. Photo: Sailko, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5.

Via Maggio leads 340 m west to the square. Brunelleschi designed the church, which faces the square with a plain front. Inside, the basilica is free. A separate route, paid at the church, leads into the sacristy that Giuliano da Sangallo designed, where Michelangelo’s wooden crucifix stands, and on to the Cloister of the Dead, the chapter house and the refectory with Poccetti’s three Suppers.

• Closed: every Wednesday. Services come first, and visitors are asked for suitable clothes and silence. Photography is not allowed.
• Markets: the square holds Arti e mestieri d’Oltrarno, a crafts market, on the second Sunday of the month from 9:00 to 19:00 (8 November and 13 December 2026), and the Fierucola, an organic farmers’ market, on the third Sunday from 9:00 to 19:30 (15 November and 20 December). Neither runs in August, and the crafts market is off in July too.
• Tickets: the €2 for the sacristy route is paid at the basilica and is not sold online.

Detour: the Brancacci Chapel

€15 · Monday and Wednesday to Saturday 10:00 to 17:00, Sunday 13:00 to 17:00 · closed Tuesdays

Skip this on a short day: it adds about 1.0 km there and back, 490 m each way along Via Santa Monaca, plus the visit. The chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine holds the cycle of St Peter that the merchant Felice Brancacci commissioned from Masolino and Masaccio in the 1420s. The entrance is on Piazza del Carmine 14, at the door to the cloister.

• Timed entry: a group of up to 30 goes in every 20 minutes from 10:00 to 17:00, with the last entry at 16:30, and MUS.E recommends booking the day and time. Each visitor may stay 30 minutes. The ticket office closes 45 minutes before closing.
• Tickets: €15; €10 for ages 18 to 25; free under 18. With the Firenze Card a booked time is mandatory.
• Closed: Tuesdays, 1 January, 7 January, Easter Sunday, 16 July, 15 August and 25 December.
• Detail: Florence museums.

4. Borgo Tegolaio and Via Toscanella

Free · crafts stalls on the second Sunday of the month, 9:00 to 19:00, except July and August

Borgo Tegolaio leaves the south-east corner of the square and runs south-west, and the city’s list of periodic fairs puts the stalls of Arti e mestieri d’Oltrarno, the crafts and trades fair, in the square and here. Walk its length, come back along Via Maggio and turn into Via Toscanella, which joins Via Maggio near the Pitti Palace and leads to Piazza della Passera. The workshops and shops on these lanes keep their own hours, so treat the stop as a walk past the windows.

• Gelato and tripe: Gelateria della Passera is at Via Toscanella 15/r and Il Magazzino, a tripe and lampredotto osteria, at Piazza della Passera 2/3: see where to eat.
• The way on: Via Toscanella ends at Via dei Guicciardini, which runs down to the river. Turn east along Via dei Bardi.

5. San Niccolò

Free · the streets are always open

Porta San Niccolò on Piazza Poggi, with the Duomo and Palazzo Vecchio across the river. Photo: PROPOLI87, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Via dei Bardi, Via dell’Olmo and Via del Giardino Serristori lead east to the church of San Niccolò Oltrarno, and Via di San Niccolò runs on to the gate. The quarter lies at the foot of the hill, and the climb starts here: 640 m from the church to Piazzale Michelangelo by Via San Miniato and Via di San Salvatore al Monte. The ramps named after Giuseppe Poggi, who laid out the square, are the other way up.

• Lunch: Zeb, on Via San Miniato 2r, is closed on Wednesdays and on Sunday evenings, and takes lunch walk-ins: see where to eat.
• The rose garden: the Giardino delle Rose is a public garden on the slope below the square.

6. Piazzale Michelangelo

Free · always open · buses 12 and 13 stop here

Giuseppe Poggi designed the square, and the works ended in 1875. In the middle stands a monument made of bronze copies of Michelangelo’s David and of the four allegories in the Medici Chapels: Day, Night, Twilight and Dawn. The view runs from the Forte di Belvedere to Santa Croce, over the Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo and Palazzo Vecchio.

• Buses: 12 and 13 stop here, at the stop called Piazzale il David. Bus 12 runs between the square and Santa Maria Novella station.
• Views: Best views in Florence compares the square with the towers.

7. San Miniato al Monte

Free, no booking · Monday to Saturday 9:30 to 13:00 and 15:30 to 19:00 · Sunday 8:15 to 13:00 and 15:30 to 19:00 · shut to visitors during services

The choir and apse of San Miniato al Monte. Photo: Rufus46, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Climb 490 m by Via di San Salvatore al Monte and Via delle Porte Sante to the abbey, a Tuscan Romanesque basilica. The monks sing vespers in Latin and Gregorian chant every afternoon at 18:30.

• Services close it: Mass is at 18:00 on weekdays, in Latin and chant, and on Sundays and holidays at 8:30, 10:00, 11:30 and 17:30, the last in Latin and chant. Visit between 15:30 and 18:00 on a weekday, or stay for vespers.
• Detail: Florence churches has the dress rules.

Where to eat

Gelateria della Passera

Via Toscanella 15/r, Oltrarno

A shop with the workshop in view, opened in 2010. Its site says it uses seasonal ingredients, so the flavours change through the year. Stop here at stop 4, on Via Toscanella.

Il Santo Bevitore

Via di Santo Spirito 64/66, off Piazza Santo Spirito · book through ilsantobevitore.com

A restaurant that Michelin lists as Selected and names in its list of the best trattorie, with its wine bar, Il Santino, next door at no. 60. Book ahead.

Zeb

Via San Miniato 2r, San Niccolò · lunch 12:30 to 15:30, dinner 19:30 to 22:30 · closed Wednesday and Sunday evening

A gastronomia that holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, on the way up to Piazzale Michelangelo. It takes bookings only for the evening, so lunch is a walk-in; phone +39 055 23 42 864. See where to eat in Florence for more.

The best day to go

The timing that works, Thursday to Saturday: take the Pitti Palace when it opens at 8:15 if you want the interior, book a Brancacci slot from 10:00, and be in Santo Spirito before it shuts at 13:00. Lunch is at Zeb or on Via Toscanella. Reach the climb by 15:00, and be in San Miniato between 15:30 and 18:00, before the Mass, or stay for vespers at 18:30. Piazzale Michelangelo is open all day, so the light decides when to stand there.

What closes:

• Boboli closing hours: 17:30 until 31 October, 16:30 in November and December.
• Markets: the crafts market is on 8 November and 13 December 2026 and the Fierucola on 15 November and 20 December.
• 25 December and 1 January: the Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens are shut on 25 December, and the Brancacci Chapel on both days.

What does not close: the streets, Piazza Santo Spirito, Borgo Tegolaio, San Niccolò and Piazzale Michelangelo. A Monday still makes a good walk: Santo Spirito, the Brancacci Chapel and San Miniato are open, and only the palace and, on the first and last Monday of the month, the gardens are shut.

Getting there and back

• To the start: the Ponte Vecchio has no station. Santa Maria Novella is 1.3 km away on foot; the historic centre walk covers the same ground from the station and ends at the bridge.
• From the end: walk 490 m back down to Piazzale Michelangelo for buses 12 and 13, or take Via di San Niccolò to the Ponte Vecchio, 1.5 km from the square and about 20 minutes. Florence public transport has the bus fare.
• In reverse: go up by bus 12 or 13 and walk down, with San Miniato first at 15:30; Santo Spirito shuts at 18:00.

What to do with the rest of the day

• The historic centre: the historic centre walk ends at the Ponte Vecchio, where this one starts.
• The views: Best views in Florence adds the Forte di Belvedere and the towers.
• 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 in the Oltrarno, see where to stay in Florence.

Common questions

How long is the Oltrarno walk?

3.5 km from the Ponte Vecchio to San Miniato al Monte, measured along the streets: about 45 minutes of walking, of which the 1.1 km from San Niccolò to the church is uphill. The Brancacci Chapel detour adds 1.0 km there and back.

Is the Oltrarno walk free?

The streets, Piazza Santo Spirito, Piazzale Michelangelo and San Miniato al Monte cost nothing, and the Santo Spirito basilica is free, with €2 for the sacristy that holds Michelangelo's crucifix. The Pitti Palace is €16 on the day and €19 booked, the Boboli Gardens €10 or €13 and the Brancacci Chapel €15.

What do I need to book for the walk?

Nothing is compulsory. The Brancacci Chapel lets in up to 30 people every 20 minutes and recommends booking a day and time. Pitti and Boboli tickets are cheaper on the day than booked, and Santo Spirito takes no reservations.

Which day is best for the Oltrarno walk?

Thursday to Saturday. The Pitti Palace is shut on Mondays, the Boboli Gardens on the first and last Monday of the month, the Brancacci Chapel on Tuesdays and the Santo Spirito basilica on Wednesdays. On Sundays Santo Spirito opens at 11:30 and the Brancacci Chapel at 13:00.

When can I visit San Miniato al Monte?

Monday to Saturday 9:30 to 13:00 and 15:30 to 19:00, and on Sundays from 8:15 to 13:00 and 15:30 to 19:00. Entry is free, and the basilica is closed to visitors during services. The monks sing vespers in Gregorian chant at 18:30 every day.

How do I get back from Piazzale Michelangelo?

Bus 12 runs from the square to Santa Maria Novella station, and bus 13 also serves it. On foot the Ponte Vecchio is 1.5 km downhill, about 20 minutes.