Firenze Trip Overview
Active Florence Walking Tour. This tour will start with a minimum of 2 pax and a maximum of 8 pax.
Get your running shoes ready and charge your tracker because on this tour you will get your workout and steps in!
Accompanied by our knowledgeable tour guide you will walk back in time and learn about Florence’s great history while exploring the San Niccolò area and climbing the hill all the way to Piazzale Michelangelo passing from the amazing sculpture Rose Park.
After taking some panoramic pictures and visiting San Miniato al Monte church (unless there is mass), we will start our descent back the hill and end our hike at the Ponte Vecchio.
Additional Info
Duration: 3 hours
Starts: Firenze, Italy
Trip Category: Cultural & Theme Tours >> Cultural Tours
Explore Firenze Promoted Experiences
What to Expect When Visiting Firenze, Toscana, Italy
Active Florence Walking Tour. This tour will start with a minimum of 2 pax and a maximum of 8 pax.
Get your running shoes ready and charge your tracker because on this tour you will get your workout and steps in!
Accompanied by our knowledgeable tour guide you will walk back in time and learn about Florence’s great history while exploring the San Niccolò area and climbing the hill all the way to Piazzale Michelangelo passing from the amazing sculpture Rose Park.
After taking some panoramic pictures and visiting San Miniato al Monte church (unless there is mass), we will start our descent back the hill and end our hike at the Ponte Vecchio.
Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product
Stop At: San Niccolo, San Niccolo, Florence, Tuscany
The San Niccolò neighborhood is one of the districts of the Florentine Oltrarno, that area of the historical center located on the opposite riverbank of the Arno river to the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.
It is a very lively and characteristic neighborhood with many special and lesser known spots of the city. Here the cobbled streets wind through the old noble palaces of the Oltrarno and climb up the hills all the way to Piazzale Michelangelo and Forte Belvedere.
The symbol of the San Niccolò district is the medieval gate, called Porta San Niccolò. The tower was built around 1324 following a design by Orcagna and it gives access to the pedestrian Rampe designed by Giuseppe Poggi in the late 1800s, which lead all the way up to Piazzale Michelangelo.
In the neighborhood you can still glimpse some parts of the ancient city walls, such as the long stretch that runs along Via di Belvedere. Inside San Niccolò, which extends from Piazza Giuseppe Poggi to Piazza dei Mozzi, there is the Bardini Museum and Villa Bardini with its amazing garden, famous for its wisteria blooming in spring.
Our Street Art Tour of Florence starts right from the district of San Niccolò, since along Via San Niccolò there are the studios of some Street Artists such as Clet Abraham and Blub.
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: Folon e il Giardino delle Rose, Viale Giuseppe Poggi, 2, Florence Italy
Panoramic rose garden with a rich collection of Folon’s statues
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: Piazzale Michelangelo, Piazzale Michelangelo, Florence, Tuscany
Piazzale Michelangelo is the panoramic terrace of the city of Florence. It is located on the hill of San Miniato and offers one of the most beautiful views of Florence at any time of the day and in any season. Here you can admire all the bridges, including Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio and the other architectural elements that characterize the skyline of the city.
Piazzale Michelangelo was built in the second half of the nineteenth century based on a design by the architect Giuseppe Poggi, in charge of the renovation works of the city of Florence, the capital of Italy at the time. It was in that same period that the ring roads were created as well as the Viale dei Colli and Repubblica square.
In Poggi’s original design, the large piazza was to become a monument to the great Michelangelo, so much so that the loggia, now a panoramic restaurant, was designed to be a Michelangelo museum. At the center of Piazzale Michelangelo there are bronze copies of the artist’s extraordinary works: the great bronze David turns his gaze towards the city, while on the sides of the pedestal there are the four allegories of day, splendid sculptures created by Michelangelo for the Medici Chapels of San Lorenzo.
Piazzale Michelangelo can be reached on foot from the center of Florence with a nice walk, along Poggi’s ramps that climb the hill which start from San Niccolò tower. Below the Piazzale is the Rose Garden, where some bronze works by Folon are exhibited and from which you can enjoy another spectacular view of the city. On the right side of the square, looking towards the city, you can see the Iris Garden, which can only be visited during the blooming of these wonderful flowers from about April 25 to May 20 of each year.
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: Basilica San Miniato al Monte, Via delle Porte Sante 34, 50125, Florence Italy
The Basilica of San Miniato is located above Piazzale Michelangelo, on one of the highest points in the city.
According to legend, the basilica stands on the site where Saint Miniato, after being beheaded on the riverbank of the Arno river, went to die while carrying his own head in his arms. The basilica was started in 1018 and is one of the few examples of Florentine Romanesque style. Particularly beautiful is the facade with its geometric decorations in white and green marble.
Inside, the basilica retains a magnificent inlaid marble floor, displaying arabesque and embroidery-like patterns and a wonderful zodiac. Following the panels on the floor you arrive at the Chapel of the Crucifix designed by Michelozzo to house a miraculous crucifix which is now preserved in Santa Trinita church. The vault of the chapel is decorated with glazed terracotta by Luca della Robbia, while in the center we can admire a large altarpiece by Agnolo Gaddi depicting San Giovanni Gualberto and San Miniato, and some scenes from the life of Jesus.
Particularly impressive is the panorama that can be enjoyed from the Basilica of San Miniato al Monte, as it is perched on one of the highest places in the city. One of the most sought-after photographs is the one with a standing angel watching over one of the tombs of the large monumental cemetery at the foot of the basilica. The cemetery houses some illustrious personalities including Carlo Lorenzini, writer of Pinocchio, and the artists Ottone Rosai and Pietro Annigoni.
Duration: 40 minutes
Stop At: Ponte Vecchio, 50125, Florence Italy
The Ponte Vecchio is one of the most famous monuments in Florence and is certainly one of its major attractions. Vecchio means “old” in Italian and the name comes from the fact that the bridge is built in the narrowest point of the Arno river, where there has always been a bridge since the Etruscan times. The current bridge was built in 1345, after the previous one was swept away by the terrible flood of 1333. This is also the only bridge that survived the Second World War. On the night between the 3rd and 4th August 1944 the Nazis blew up all the bridges in the city, saving only the Ponte Vecchio.
On the Ponte Vecchio today we can admire the famous and dazzling shop windows of Florentine jewelers and goldsmiths, whose shops have been there since 1593 when Ferdinand I ordered the goldsmiths to replace the beccai (the ancient butchers) established on the bridge since 1442. A legend narrates that Cosimo I while walking over the bridge exclaimed: pecunia non olet “money does not smell” thus suggesting the use of metallic materials for the products sold on the bridge.
Halfway across the bridge there is the bronze bust of Benvenuto Cellini, a Florentine goldsmith and sculptor of the sixteenth century, inventor of the famous technique of chiseled gold, also known as “Florentine gold”.
Above the shops of Ponte Vecchio there is the Vasari Corridor, a famous passage built by Giorgio Vasari in 1565 at the behest of Cosimo I. The corridor was built to allow the future Grand Duke to move undisturbed and safely between the center of the political and administrative power, in Palazzo Vecchio, and his private residence in the Oltrarno area, the Pitti Palace.
Duration: 15 minutes
