Florence beyond the 200 metres: wine window, secret corridor
A wine window, cells painted by a friar and a secret corridor over the river — seven Florence things that do not fit into two days.
- When
- In the morning
- How long
- Half an hour to an hour each
Florence has the problem every small city with a big name has: the two hundred metres between the Duomo and the Uffizi take so many people that they look like the whole city. What keeps you a third day is outside those two hundred metres — and three of the seven charge nothing.
The buchette del vino
Small bricked-up windows in palace walls, about thirty centimetres high, through which wine was sold straight from the cellar from the sixteenth century — no middleman and no tavern tax. There are over a hundred and fifty in the city, most sealed, and a few reopened after 2020 that genuinely serve through them. You hunt them along the walls, it is free, and it is the best game for walking the centre.
San Marco
A Dominican convent where Fra Angelico painted a separate fresco in every monk's cell in the fifteenth century — forty-three rooms, forty-three paintings, each for the one man who slept there. The quietest museum in Florence and almost always empty, ten minutes from the Duomo. A ticket is €11.
The Brancacci Chapel
In Santa Maria del Carmine in the Oltrarno, with frescoes Masaccio painted in 1425, among the first true uses of perspective in painting of that era. Michelangelo studied and copied here; there was no queue then, and today entry is by slot, fifteen people at a time. A ticket is €10, booking recommended.
Four more
- The Vasari Corridor — a kilometre-long passage above the Ponte Vecchio that let the Medici walk from palace to palace without touching the street. Reopened after restoration, by slot and only with a combined Uffizi ticket, €43–47.
- The Oltrarno workshops — gilding, restoration, papermaking. The doors are open and you walk in; nobody is selling souvenirs.
- The Santa Maria Novella pharmacy — an apothecary the friars opened in 1612, with frescoes and original cabinets. Free to enter, and you need buy nothing.
- The Bardini garden — the hill above the Oltrarno with the same view as the Piazzale, but with shade and no coaches. In April it is a tunnel of wisteria.
One hack
The view everyone climbs to Piazzale Michelangelo for is available two hundred metres further on, from the terrace of San Miniato al Monte — itself an eleventh-century Romanesque church, with monks singing Gregorian chant in the evening. No coaches, no stalls, and far fewer people up there.
Before you go
Short answers to what people ask most before setting out.
What are the buchette del vino?
Small windows in palace walls through which wine was sold from the cellar from the sixteenth century. There are over a hundred and fifty; a few are back in use and genuinely serve through them.
Where is the best view of Florence?
San Miniato al Monte, two hundred metres above Piazzale Michelangelo. The same city in frame, far fewer people, and a Romanesque church into the bargain.
Can you go inside the Vasari Corridor?
You can — it has reopened to visitors, by timed slot and separate ticket, booked in advance.
Ready for Florence?
Where to next
What to eat in Florence
→Lampredotto from a street stall, two soups built on the same stale bread, and a steak ordered by the kilo…
San Gimignano · 38 km
→Walls with fourteen surviving towers out of what was once seventy-two, seen from the road before you even reach the gate.
How well does Florence suit you?
→Six questions: a score for this place and others like it.
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