Slow tourism · Florence
Florence does not end at Piazza del Duomo. A few steps from the crowds, between the alleys of Santa Croce and the markets of Sant'Ambrogio, survive Brunelleschi chapels, forgotten refectories and fragments of the Roman city. This guide gathers six stops for an afternoon of slow tourism, in the spirit of discovery behind the Trim routes.
A silent refectory holds Andrea del Castagno's Last Supper, one of the first great Florentine cenacoli, painted almost fifty years before Leonardo's. Free entry, almost always empty.
Designed by Giorgio Vasari for the fish market of the old Mercato Vecchio, dismantled and rebuilt in Piazza dei Ciompi after the 19th-century clearances. A fragment of Renaissance Florence hidden in a working-class corner.
The green dome you glimpse over the rooftops is the Great Synagogue: Moorish interiors, golden mosaics and a museum telling centuries of Florentine Jewish life.
In the first cloister of Santa Croce, Brunelleschi's chapel is a manifesto of Renaissance balance. Few tourists look for it, yet it is one of the most harmonious spaces in the city.
The house-museum of English collector Herbert Percy Horne: a 15th-century palace with Giotto, Beccafumi and original furniture. It feels like stepping into a Florentine merchant's home.
Walking between Via de' Bentaccordi and Piazza Peruzzi you follow the perfect curve of Florentia's ancient Roman amphitheatre. The houses bend along a plan drawn two thousand years ago.
The Santa Croce demo route turns these places into an urban game of stories, riddles and small local rewards.
Try the Santa Croce route