Florence
You can be here in May for about €897, 4 days, direct.
Why now
Good time in May: 23°C days, 14 rainy days.
November to February, outside the holidays, is the only time the Uffizi and Accademia are not a queue; late spring and September are pleasant and packed. Summer is very hot in the stone streets, and many Florentines close up in August.
Best months here: June, September, October. May is not one of them — the label above measures the month against a fixed bar, not against the rest of the year here. Daytime highs, sea temperature and rainy days from three years of Open-Meteo reanalysis; a rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain, which is the WMO threshold and not the same as "it drizzled".
The place
Florence is a compact Renaissance city that receives more visitors than it can absorb, and the difference between a good visit and a bad one is mostly timing and distance from the Duomo. It suits people who book museums in advance and cross the Arno for dinner; it exhausts anyone who tries to do it in a day.
What you can do
- 01Book the Uffizi's first slot for Botticelli and Piero, and the Accademia for the David, well ahead.
- 02Climb Brunelleschi's dome by timed ticket, or the campanile if the dome is sold out; both are over 400 steps.
- 03Eat a lampredotto sandwich from a cart near the Mercato Centrale, and bistecca alla fiorentina, shared, in the Oltrarno.
- 04See Masaccio's frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel and Fra Angelico's cells at San Marco, both quieter than the big two.
- 05Walk up to San Miniato al Monte for the monks' sung vespers, then down through the rose garden past Piazzale Michelangelo.
Where to stay · neighbourhoods
Stay in the Oltrarno or San Niccolò for a first visit and cross the bridges to the sights; avoid the streets between the Duomo and the station, which are loud and largely rented out.
Unusual things
- ◦The Museo Galileo behind the Uffizi, with Galileo's telescopes and his mummified middle finger.
- ◦The Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella, a pharmacy founded by Dominican friars in the thirteenth century and still selling.
- ◦The Bardini Garden on the Oltrarno hill, with a wisteria pergola in spring and views most people miss for Boboli.
Day trips
Flight options
Routes come from OpenFlights (historical) and a 2026 route reference compiled from public timetables. Durations are the published schedule where we have it, otherwise a block-time model fitted on measured nonstop flights. Verify schedules with the airline before booking.
Entry requirements · IT passport
Source: passport-index-data, March 2026 (coarse indicator), covering 258 of our 268 destinations for each of 199 passports. Always confirm with the destination's official site.
Airports
Distances are centre to airport derived · nonstop counts are our route reference for 2026, not every flight that exists.
Local transport
- Airport to city
- Tram T2, 20 min, €1.70
- Car needed?
- No — walkable or good public transport
- Getting around
- The centre is a 20-minute walk end to end and the ZTL keeps cars out; the T2 tram runs from the airport to the station in about 20 minutes. Florence is flat except the hills south of the river.
- Clock
- Same time as Paris (Europe/Rome) derived
- Daylight
- 14.7 hours of daylight in May · sunrise 05:50, sunset 20:32 derived
- Currency
- EUR
Good to know
The Uffizi and Accademia sell out in season and the streets around the Duomo have restaurant touts; book ahead and eat elsewhere.
Alternatives at a similar price
Whole trip per person for 4 days from Paris in May, then the flight time; estimates, like the total above.
Madrid
Fez
Djerba
Cape Verde
Dakar
Kos