The most beautiful trekking and walking routes to discover the wonders of Florence
All beautiful, sometimes unusual, scenic, rich in places of art, faith and culture
It is called Firenze The Walking City and it is the new App created by the city of Florence to walk, feel good and discover the beauties of the territory.
97 kilometres on 18 routes along the river and on the hills, each with its own history and specific characteristics. All beautiful, sometimes unusual, panoramic, rich in places of art, faith, culture. Well-known places and sometimes little-known places, because they are secluded, beyond the usual "routes", but absolutely extraordinary and surprising.
Each with different types in terms of length, gradient and level of physical commitment.
So that you can continue walking, alone, in company, at any age, with friends, with children. We have selected some of the most unmissable.
The Viale dei Colli: a romantic and panoramic walk from the Middle Ages to Florence Capital
Length KM 2.1
Viale Michelangelo, Viale Galilei and Viale Niccolò Machiavelli together make up the "Viale dei Colli", the long and scenic walk from Ponte San Niccolò to Porta Romana, designed and built by Giuseppe Poggi as part of the plans for the expansion of Florence as the capital of Italy (1865). Conceived as a romantic promenade, with infinite care for all landscape, technical, water, recreational and botanical aspects, the Viale di Colli culminates in the beautiful panoramic terrace of the Piazzale, one of the most extraordinary spatial views of the city and the surrounding hills.
P.za Ferrucci - V.le Michelangelo - P.le Michelangelo - V.le Galilei - P.le Galileo - V.le Machiavelli - P.le di Porta Romana - V.le Machiavelli - P.le Galileo - V.le Galilei - Via delle Porte Sante - Via del Monte alle Croci - Via di S. Miniato al Monte - V.le Michelangelo - P.za Ferrucci
Between the old Parco delle Cascine and the new Parco dell'Argingrosso
Length KM 8,7
The route is entirely flat (there are only two changes in gradient, at the height of the bridges crossing the Arno) and is mostly within pedestrian areas, in the Cascine and Argingrosso parks on a regular road surface (beaten earth and, in places, asphalt).
Piazzaletto dell'Indiano - V.le dell'Aeronautica - Via del Galoppatoio dei Barberi - V.le del Pegaso - Prato del Quercione - P.le Kennedy - Via della Piramide - Via della Catena - V.le Stendhal - V.le degli Olmi - P.za Vittorio Veneto - V. le Lincoln - Ponte nuovo tramvia della Cascine - P.le Kennedy - Via della Piramide - Via della Catena - V.le Stendhal - V.le degli Olmi - P.za Vittorio Veneto - V. le Lincoln - Ponte nuovo tramvia della Cascine. le Lincoln - New tramway bridge - Via Baccio Bandinelli - L.no dei Pioppi - Via dell'Isolotto - Podere S. Leopoldo - Via Gubbio - Via dell'Argingrosso (raised embankment) - Via delle Isole - Via dell'Isolotto - Ponte all'Indiano (pedestrian crossing).
Towards Bellosguardo: the hill loved by artists and poets
Length KM 4.8
This route offers the possibility of crossing and getting to know one of the Oltrarno hills closest to the historical centre of the city. Through the typical narrow streets enclosed by walls that climb up the ridge, there are not only beautiful but also unusual views of Florence. Unusual because the type of orientation and exposure of the hill allows another point of view on buildings, monuments, architecture, systems of spatial relations in the city and between the city and its territory.
Via di San Carlo - Piazzetta di Bellosguardo - Via Piana - Via Santa Maria a Marignolle - Via dei Morelli - Via del Ferrone - Via di Soffiano
Castle: the splendour of the Renaissance among villas and gardens
Length KM 4,8
This itinerary presents aspects of absolute historical, artistic and landscape interest, in which the suburban villas of leisure and delight stand out for their beauty, importance and monumentality: the Medici villas of Castello and Petraia, with their marvellous Italian gardens, and those that once belonged to the Medici, such as Villa Corsini, but also Villa La Quiete alle Montalve where, from 1724, Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, electress Palatina, the last descendant of the family, resided. This area, partly clinging to the hill of Quarto, owes its name to the ancient village of Etruscan and Roman origin over which passed the aqueduct built by Senator Marcus Opelius Macrinus (164-218) and by which water was distributed to Florence.
Michele a Castello - Viuzzo del Gondo - Via Giovanni da San Giovanni - Via di Castello - Via degli Accademici della Crusca - Piazza delle Lingue d'Europa - Viottolone del Vivaio.
Between Ponte a Mensola and Settignano: the beauty of the agricultural landscape, the strength of stone and the genius of art
Length KM 5.2
Along the way are beautiful historic villas surrounded by monumental gardens (the Giardino della Villa di Gamberaia, one of the most beautiful parks in Italy, is extraordinary), ancient country houses, parish churches and oratories, the small village of Corbignano and then Settignano, which dominates the hillside. Areas of birth, residence or stay not only of great Italian artists, especially sculptors and architects of the Renaissance: Desiderio da Settignano, Bernardo and Antonio Rossellino, Luca Fancelli, Bartolomeo Ammannati, Michelangelo (the nearby pietra serena quarries of Maiano and Trassinaia are one of the main reasons for this), but also of Italian, English, American and other poets, writers and intellectuals (from Boccaccio to Gabriele D'Annunzio, from Niccolò Tommaseo to Leigh Hunt, Mark Twain, Charles Armitage Brown, Bernard Berenson - whose Villa - I Tatti, is today the seat of Harvard University, a prestigious centre for the history of the Italian Renaissance), attracted by the gentle, silent, beautiful landscape, special for otium, intellectual work and meditation.
Via Poggio Gherardo - Via S. Martino a Mensola - Via di Vincigliata - Via di Corbignano - Via Desiderio da Settignano - Via San Romano - Via della Capponcina - Via Madonna delle Grazie - minor road with footbridge over the Mensola - Via Madonna delle Grazie - Via Gabriele D'Annunzio.