Things to See in Florence

A great bar on a quiet corner of San Niccolò, this place gets a chirpy, suave crowd and is a wonderful spot to mingle with the locals, refuel on an impressive spread of aperitivi and slip into delicious cocktails. Hunker down inside, sit down on the pavement terrace or opt for shady spot in the back.

Cabiria, a popular cafe by day, converts into a busy nocturnal music bar that continues on way past your bedtime. In summer, the buzz extends onto Piazza Santo Spirito, which becomes a stage for an outdoor bar and regular free concerts.

Fashionable Capocaccia is an elegant cafe-bar with an alternative menu of snacks by day and one of the places to be seen at night, when cool Florentines snuggle up to other cool Florentines and the self-conscious bonhomie spills out onto the street. Throw in the occasional DJ and you'll see why it's almost impossible to get your motorino through the throng.

Zoe is popular with a sexy student crowd who come for the fruitylicous cocktails and the glowing red interior, bedecked with changing art exhibitions. The bar is so popular with young locals that they are known to spill out onto the street.

Caffè La Torre is a popular hangout near the Arno where you can eat and drink your fill without emptying your wallet. Live music goes on into the wee hours, with customers swaying and tapping along to jazz and blues or Latin rhythms.

Founded in 1912, this is the oldest children's clothing shop in Florence. The styles of their exquisite suits and dresses have changed little since - all the clothes are still made by hand and with the best fabrics.

Data prides itself on finding all sorts of obscure stuff in CD and vinyl which is quite a job considering the sheer volume of records stacked up in a seemingly arbitrary fashion. There's a big bargain section and some choice rarities out the back.

Follow your nose to this ancient Dominican apothecary, one of the world's oldest pharmacies. Housed in a 14th-century chapel, its ornately decorated and heavenly-scented rooms are stocked with a range of emollients, perfumes and herbal medicines designed to fix anything from tired eyes to cellulite.

No appointment is required. Doctors speak English, French and German.

The main Italian student and youth travel organisation.

A special branch of the police specifically for tourists.

Designed by Olga Polizzi in homage to Florentine designer Salvatore Ferragamo, this five-star splurge delivers up a supreme sense of well-being along with the knowledge that you are living, at least temporarily, among the uncompromisingly chic.

Hidden at the end of a monumental and classically Florentine courtyard, you will find a tiny lift that takes you to this charming if unassuming guesthouse. The best quarters are those in the back that look out across a tranquil series of red-tiled roofs to the bright green of the Boboli Gardens - one of the most charming views in town.

When it comes to Florentine beds, it's hard to get better value for your money than at this surprising little guesthouse. It is set in an imposing 19th-century building on a quiet street and is a welcome remove from the hubbub of central Florence.

It isn't pretty in this arcade but if you want to choose from almost 20 delicious, heaped and filling takeaway sandwiches from this Florentine institution, you'll have to run the gauntlet of the hobos. There's also reasonable food at the comfy cafe next door, where you can enjoy slow jazz and blues tunes with your meal.

This traditional Tuscan eatery is a good spot for bistecca alla fiorentina and the minestrone if you are not fussy about your surrounds. A no-nonsense approach dominates. Locals know the place as Il Troia - the (Male) Slut - because they say its 19th-century owner had the habit of touching up his guests. Don't worry, he's long gone.

A young team have created this fresh dining idea, a modern enoteca-cum-restaurant, in which the menu covers all sorts of regional dishes, often with an unexpected twist. The tagliolini neri al riccio di mare con pesto (black pasta with sea anenome and pesto) is a good example. Metallic chairs and glass-topped tables lend a crisp air to the place.

A must for visiting foodies, this elegant and discreet restaurant combines the best of contemporary Italian cooking with a monumental wine list featuring labels from throughout Italy and a few from France. Dine under the exquisite medieval frescoes, among them the earliest known portrait of Dante.

One of the few restaurants to seriously cater to vegetarians, this is an unassuming locale with a great selection of fresh food, salads and mains. The menu changes regularly, partly dictated by the availability of fresh produce. Try the gazpacho (a cool Spanish, tomato broth) or risotto integrale con radicchio rosso (whole rice risotto with red lettuce).

The Romanesque Baptistery may have been built as early as the 5th century on the site of a Roman temple. It is one of the oldest buildings in Florence. The present facade dates from about the 11th century. It is said that the eighth side represents the (nonexistent) eighth day of the week, which symbolises birth, death and resurrection all in one.

Completed in 1385, this Gothic temple is as much the resting place of a Who's Who of Florentine greats as repository of stunning art. The magnificent facade is a neo-Gothic addition of the 19th century! Deceptive, huh? Michelangelo's tomb here was designed by Vasari. Galileo and the composer Rossini also rest in peace here.

Designed and built by Vasari in the second half of the 16th century at the request of Cosimo I de' Medici, the Palazzo degli Uffizi, originally housed the city's administrators, judiciary and guilds. It now houses the world's single greatest collection of Italian and Florentine art. Be warned, if you don't book ahead you could be queuing for literally hours.

Built by Orcagna in the late 14th century as a platform for public ceremonies, this elegant arcade now serves as an open-air sculpture gallery, with highlights such as Cellini's magnificent bronze Perseo (Perseus). Also known as the Loggia dei Lanzi, the arcade was named after Cosimo I's Swiss mercenaries, the Lances, who were once stationed here.

It seems odd that the Medici chapels, built to balance the Brunelleschi sacristy on the other side of the church, have for organisational purposes been hived off from the church itself. Visitors enter from another point behind the church rather than from inside and thus have difficulty picturing how the chapels fit in with the rest of the complex.

This is the holy centre of Florence and once the site of the town's Roman temple. As the city emerged to become the dominant power in medieval Tuscany, it lavished money and genius on this piazza, a place for Florence to beat its chest proudly and show the world its greatness.

On the southern flank of Piazza del Carmine, this chapel is a treasure trove of paintings by Masolino da Panicale, Masaccio and Filippino Lippi. Above all, the frescoes by Masaccio are considered among his greatest works, representing a definitive break with Gothic art and a plunge into new worlds of expression in the early stages of the Renaissance.

When the Pitti, a wealthy merchant family, asked Brunelleschi to design their home, they did not have modesty in mind. Great rivals of the Medici, there is not a little irony in the fact that their grandiloquence would one day be sacrificed to the bank account.