Beyond a postcard-perfect Florence, unfolding along its iconic routes, lies another, unexpected Florence, the one this private tour sets out to reveal: a city that simply lives at its own rhythm, made of panoramic lanes just outside the center, artisan workshops, cloisters, local piazza markets, silent churches, and lesser-known squares. These are the very places that gave the city the image that draws the world to it.
It is a slower, more human way of discovering Florence, yet also a more immediate one, made of discoveries that appear only when you leave the main street. Our aim is not to see everything in a single outing (in a city where every stone has a story, that would be impossible), but to rediscover an authentic genius loci.
It will be a fluid journey that follows the pace of the city: mostly on foot, with the possibility of stepping inside some accessible interiors or, depending on the occasion, a museum.
The Human Face of Florence: Artisans and Historic Workshops
The myth of Florence was born of hands as well as ideas. For centuries the city’s wealth and fame rested on its artisans, who still work leather, wood, gold, mosaic, and paper in small workshops hidden in the side streets, handing down their knowledge with a patience that no mass production can imitate.
The Florence That Created the Myth: Fashion and Opera
The centuries-old tradition of the wool and silk guilds, whose cloth was sought after across Europe during the Renaissance, still runs through Florentine fashion. That legacy came full circle in 1951, when the landmark fashion show in the Sala Bianca of Palazzo Pitti announced to the world what would become Italian style.
Music, too, has deeply Florentine origins. Opera was born here in the 1590s, in the circle of musicians and humanists known as the Camerata de’ Bardi, and Jacopo Peri’s Euridice, performed at Palazzo Pitti in 1600 for the wedding of Maria de’ Medici, is the oldest opera whose music survives. Today that legacy lives on at the Zeffirelli Centre, dedicated to Franco Zeffirelli, a Florentine by birth and one of the greatest international interpreters of the genre.
The Foreigners Who Stayed: The English Cemetery
Florence has always attracted those who came looking for the myth and never left. In the English Cemetery, a non-Catholic burial ground of cypresses and time-worn marble, the tombs of the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning and the writer Walter Savage Landor are among those that tell the story of travellers and expatriates who fell so deeply in love with the city that they chose to remain for ever. It is one of the most moving and least visited places in Florence, a silent chapter of its history written by those who adopted it.
Art You Don’t Expect: Free Churches and Hidden Cloisters
Art remains the great protagonist of Florence, and much of it can be admired without a ticket. Many churches open their doors free of charge and hold a Renaissance that few visitors ever see: at Ognissanti, where Botticelli is buried, his Saint Augustine in His Study; at Santo Spirito, designed by Brunelleschi, a wooden crucifix attributed to the young Michelangelo. We also admire Brunelleschi’s loggias, beginning with the portico of the Ospedale degli Innocenti, begun in 1419, and step into the cloisters of Santa Maria Nuova, founded in 1288 by Folco Portinari, father of Dante’s Beatrice, and one of the oldest hospitals in Europe still in operation.
A Tour That Follows the Pace of the Seasons
The itinerary adapts to the season and the time of day, so that we always see the city at its best: gardens in spring and autumn, markets, workshops, and many churches and cloisters all year round. Occasionally we may add a small paid entrance, such as a lesser-known museum.
If this spirit of discovery speaks to you, you will bring home not a postcard but a piece of Florence, and our journey together will have fulfilled its purpose. Book your own Florence off the beaten path.
What You’ll Do
We will make a selection from everything that follows, and not all of it on every tour: the stops are chosen each time according to the season and the time of day at which the experience takes place. Guests are welcome to express a preference or an interest in the stops we will make together.
- Meet Florentine artisans in their workshops and discover how traditional crafts are kept alive.
- Follow the roots of Florentine fashion in the centuries-old tradition of wool and silk.
- Step into the world of opera at the Zeffirelli Centre, where the genre born in Florence meets the stage.
- Walk through the English Cemetery, listening to the stories of the foreigners who made Florence their final home.
- Discover free churches with works by Botticelli and Michelangelo and admire Brunelleschi’s loggias.
- Step into the cloisters of Santa Maria Nuova, one of the oldest hospitals in Europe.
- Stroll through local markets and, in the right season, the gardens of the city.
- Walk along delightful country lanes just a step from the center.