In winter, this Italian tourist mecca is a different (better) city

Commonly, it’s during peak season that most tourists visit Florence.

Years later they will recall al fresco dining by the Arno, crossing the sun-kissed Ponte Vecchio and meandering through Boboli Gardens all in the overexposed sepia of nostalgia.

Yet memory is unreliable, particularly when reinforced by carefully curated images on social media that omit the long lines, chafing walks in baking sun and hours spent online jostling for flights, trains and accommodation.

Ponte Vecchio straddles the Arno River.Credit: iStock

Of course, there is an alternative. While a winter-time trip to Florence will never be yours alone, the experience is smoother, chafe-free and one which allows you to adopt a laziness that feels in keeping with the true spirit of the city.

Disembarking at Firenze Santa Maria Novella, the city’s main railway station, I am immersed in the normal bustle minus the heat and flaring tempers. Outside, navigating the Romanesque basilicas and piazzas demands less strategic awareness, so upon reaching the narrow alleys, that in summer form crowd funnels, I can idle, peering into the designer shop windows at their elegant winter collections.

I reach Ponte Vecchio, or “old bridge”. Despite being midday, the low winter sun casts an afternoon light on the bridge that rises to a jumble of buildings straddling the dark and languid Arno River.

By the bridge is Uffizi Galleries, which contains the single greatest collection of Renaissance art in the world. The people who queue at the ticket window are calm and resigned. In winter, temperatures remain low.

The lines to enter Uffizi Galleries are shorter in the wintertime.Credit: iStock

Having bought a single ticket for five consecutive days to all Uffizi galleries (including Palazzo Pitti and Boboli Gardens, and usually €38 [$63], but €18 in the low season), I skip the line and walk right in.

I’m trained for the usual summer manoeuvres: the tactical dash for the gap, the head craned for a direct line of sight through the raised phones. But winter affords a different approach: a luxuriant amble along the checkerboard hallways, flanked with sculptures of king, priest and god.

Even Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, instantly recognisable and recognisably Instagrammy does not draw a permanent crowd. They come in waves, which, if timed for a low point, allows me to stand before Venus – or Caravaggio’s Medusa or da Vinci’s Adoration of the Magi – to admire each stroke at leisure as if this was my own living room.

Hall after hall of the Medici family’s great collection brings the cadence of a cultural degustation, course after rich course with no end in sight.

From the tentative beginning reading each plaque, I speed up to welcome moments of respite found in walls of windows peering out over the terracotta roofs to the steeple of the mighty Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore or across the river to houses clinging to the rising hill.

At some point, nearly intoxicated by the relentless finery, I find myself lined up at the gallery cafeteria, a rare opportunity to sit outside and pitch my seat into direct sunlight, an indulgence without value in summer, and judging by the full tables, in constant demand now.

Bistecca Fiorentina is a simply prepared steak dish synonymous with Florence.Credit: iStock

Later that night, I dine at Trattoria da Garibardi (no reservation required), in a glass panelled room in the piazza. I’ve noticed Italians often opt to dine outside, if any table is free, no matter the temperature or the weather. I have even seen families rugged up sitting outside under umbrellas in some rain-lashed piazzas.

Waiters thread between tables balancing bistecca Fiorentina, huge slabs of charred porterhouse seasoned with only salt, pepper and rosemary, sliced into thin ruby strips. After dinner and a stroll past the Cathedral, I return to my Airbnb accommodation – €100 a night yet only a few minutes walk to the Ponte Vecchio, booked a few days ago. And that’s the point: winter provides room for spontaneity, a crucial ingredient of the freedom that should come with any holiday jaunt.

The next day I visit Palazzo Pitti and the palatial Boboli Gardens, all included in the original €18 ticket.

Palazzo Pitti with views of the Tuscan hills.Credit: iStock

Perhaps the only compromise of winter is Boboli Gardens. While still majestically symmetrical, its verdancy is vacant, or at least dormant, awaiting the explosive splendour of spring.

It begins to drizzle as I climb up to the Fountain of Neptune, I overlook Florence and then reach the upper botanical garden, its tropical plants looking particularly put out by the wet.

There I ponder how easy it would be to return to summer with a purely al fresco itinerary and appreciate a different season and a different city.

Details

Visit
A five-day pass to Ufizzi Galleries costs €18 during off-peak periods.

Fly
Florence’s Amerigo Vespucci airport is serviced by major carriers such as KLM, Swiss Air and British Airways. Trains from Rome, Milan and Venice arrive into Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station.

Stay
Hotel David is an affordable option at $189 a night. If the budget allows, Hotel La Gemma is $781 a night.

The writer travelled at his own expense.