It’s midnight, and I am lost in Florence. I’m on a bike without lights (almost no one has lights on their bikes in central Florence, just as no one has a helmet) and whichever turn I take to get me to the River Arno seems to get me back to the Duomo. But what a sight it is, its magnificent light and dark marble rising majestically out of the night. I have a bag of locally made chocolate in my basket and suddenly I realise that being lost in the Renaissance city in the middle of the night, with a supply of cioccolato con nocciole, makes me perhaps the luckiest person alive.
Florence is a glorious city and I am blessed to be spending a lot of time in it right now, working on a project about female Renaissance artists (yes! they were here all the time, painting alongside da Vinci and Michelangelo, Botticelli and Caravaggio; it’s just taken us a few hundred years to clock their existence). Sometimes I rent a room in the centre, but this week I am based 4km from the Duomo (hence the bike), in an architect-designed collection of rooms and flats on the Oltrarno (translation: “the other side of the Arno”). It’s called Riva Lofts, and cycling back to it 15 minutes later along the river path, when I eventually get my bearings, feels like being transported to the Umbrian countryside.
The concept at Riva Lofts is to give visitors an oasis of calm that could be 50 miles away from the city centre, but is in fact within easy distance of it. Ten rooms and apartments are arranged around a courtyard; there’s a walled garden with a small swimming pool and plenty of space to lounge around. Breakfast can be in your room or served around a large table in the in the communal space with sofas and rustic exposed brick walls. All the rooms and apartments have a fridge and cooking facilities; and in the courtyard there’s a rack of bikes – you simply take one and pedal down the river towpath into town when you’re ready to brave the crowds.
It’s almost always crowded in Florence, but autumn or spring are the perfect times to visit. To be fair, the molten concoctions at Carraia, my favourite gelateria, taste divine at any time of year; they’re the best thing you’ve ever tasted even on a drizzly autumnal morning.
Rainy days come with a premium in Florence, because they give you the chance to look round the museums and churches; and since this city has the highest concentration of famous western artwork on the planet, it bursts with possibilities. If you’ve not been before you’ll want to visit the must-sees: the Duomo (don’t miss its museum, housed in a separate building, which features a full-scale model of the first facade, the originals of the extraordinary baptistry doors, and a late, unfinished Pietà by Michelangelo); the Accademia (home of Michelangelo’s David); the Uffizi and Pitti Palace galleries (Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, and several Raphaels – as well as the best-known painting by the most famous female artist of the Italian Baroque, Judith Beheading Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi), and the San Marco museum where Fra Angelico lived and whose walls are adorned with his stunning frescoes. But the greatest joy of this city is that there are jewels to be seen far from the madding crowds of the big-name venues.
One of my favourites is the Andrea del Sarto Museum. It’s an easy bike ride from the city centre, but you’ll likely have the place almost to yourself. And, as well as del Sarto’s richly coloured and elegant Last Supper (as fine as any other you’ll find), you can also see several paintings by another of those long-ignored, now on the up, Renaissance women, Plautilla Nelli.
Another less-visited gem is the Ospedale degli Innocenti in the centre, the Hospital of the Innocents, designed by Brunelleschi (architect of the Duomo). Some of the displays document its fascinating history as a home for abandoned children, telling the story of the 17th-century wheel device that enabled parents to leave children they couldn’t afford to care for at the hospital door without being seen. Its art collection, too, is stunning. Unlike the Uffizi or the Pitti Palace it’s not overwhelming, but its high points are just as impressive, with a Madonna and Child by a youthful Botticelli, and an intricate and arresting Ghirlandaio altarpiece featuring the Adoration of the Magi. The café, one of the best in the city, has views across the rooftops to the cupola of the Duomo and the dome of the synagogue.
As with the art, so with the food: Florence has a surfeit of greatness. One of the best places to head for a meal is the indoor market, whose huge food hall is packed with different options: the brave try tripa Fiorentina, local tripe piled into a bread roll; the more cautious enjoy the range of antipasto, pork stews and bean soups. On the café front, the city is equally well-endowed: try the book-lined Hemingway on the Oltrarno, where the speciality is hot chocolate in a range of different cocoa concentrations, or Chiaroscuro on the Via del Corso, where the coffee comes from a breathtaking range of nations, and you can match your after-supper cup, as you might your wine, with the food you’ve eaten.
The aperitivo tradition took off in Milan, but caught on in Florence and today there are countless places to enjoy either an early-evening snack or a cut-price dinner, depending on how you think of it and how much you eat. Between 7pm and 9pm, the cost of a beer, wine or cocktail includes a plate of food from a buffet. The bars around Santo Spirito are the cheapest. Try Cabiria on the piazza, where for an €8 drink you can enjoy a delicious spread including broccoli cheese bake, antipasto, pasta bolognese and salad.
The nights are fun in Florence, but for me the early mornings are the best and, with a bike, the just-waking city is entirely yours. One dawn I cycled right along the Arno and across an empty Ponte Vecchio, the ancient bridge of shops mercifully spared the bombs of the Luftwaffe and then I parked my bike and climbed up the hillside to the basilica of San Miniato. From there I gazed out at the ribbon of river and the coffee-and-cream coloured buildings and rooftops, and felt as every visitor longs to feel: that here, for now at least, was a city to which I belonged.
Essentials
Rooms at Riva Lofts are three tram stops from Florence station and cost from £110 a night for two, including breakfast and bikes. Easyjet has fares to Pisa from £60 return; use the Pisamover transit to get to Pisa Centrale, from there it’s an hour-long train ride to Florence. For more information on Florence, see destinationflorence.com
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