The whole argument of this site, in four minutes
Cross any bridge — the Ponte Vecchio if you must, Santa Trinita if you would rather see it — and within a few hundred metres the crowd thins, the prices drop and the shops start being workshops again.
The Oltrarno is where the gilders, framers, restorers, leatherworkers and furniture makers still are. It is not a preserved quarter; it is the part of town that never stopped working.
⭐ And it holds the Brancacci Chapel, Santo Spirito, the Pitti, Boboli and the road up to San Miniato.
Where to actually go
Santo Spirito — the square with the market in the morning and half the city in it at night, and Brunelleschi's last church on one side with a blank plaster front.
San Frediano — further west, the least polished part of the centre and the one people who live here name when asked.
San Niccolò — east, under the hill, with the old gate and the start of the climb to the viewpoints.
The bridges themselves
The Ponte Vecchio survived 1944 when every other bridge in Florence was destroyed. Santa Trinita, just downstream, was blown up and then rebuilt from its own stones dredged out of the river.
⚠️ The best view of the Ponte Vecchio is from the next bridge along, not from on it.
⭐ Crossing costs nothing, takes four minutes, and is the highest-value decision in this city.
Ponte Vecchio
Santo Spirito
The Brancacci Chapel
Palazzo Pitti
The Boboli Gardens
Giardino Bardini
San Miniato al Monte