It is a nineteenth-century terrace built as a viewing platform, and it does exactly what it was designed to do: the whole city, the river and the bridges laid out in one frame with the dome in the middle.
It is busiest at sunset by a wide margin. The light is genuinely best then, so the trade-off is real.
You can walk up through the Rose Garden from the Oltrarno, which is prettier than the road, or take a bus if the hill is not appealing.
⚠️ Keep climbing. San Miniato is five minutes further up, free, older, and almost empty by comparison.
Piazzale Michelangelo in pictures
