People watch the sunset from the steps of San Miniato al Monte over the city of Florence and the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore otherwise known as the Duomo.

© Julian Elliott Photography / Getty Images

Boboli & San Miniato al Monte

When museum and/or tourist overload strikes – a common occurrence in this culturally resplendent city – consider stretching your legs amid some urban greenery in this soul-soothing eastern neighbourhood on the Oltrarno (aka 'the other side of the river'). Fronted by the grandiose palace of Palazzo Pitti, jam-packed with museums, Boboli's magnificent tier of palaces, villas and gardens climbs uphill to San Miniato, a hilltop ’hood famously crowned by a copy of Michelangelo's David and one of the city’s oldest and most beautiful churches. Views, predictably, are sweeping and soul-soaring.

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Attractions

Must-see attractions

  • Florence, Italy - August 16, 2019: Tourists walking near the Palazzo Pitti or the Pitti Palace, is a vast Renaissance palace in Florence, Italy 1225390955 great treasure house, gallerie, uffizi gallery, porcelain museum

    Palazzo Pitti

    Boboli & San Miniato al Monte

    Commissioned by banker Luca Pitti in 1458, this Renaissance palace was later bought by the Medici family. Over the centuries, it was a residence of the…

  • Boboli Gardens in Florence 464490834 Giardini Di Boboli, Palazzo Pitti, Grotto, Renaissance, Nature, Florence - Italy, Tuscany, Italy, Front or Back Yard, Park, istockphoto, 2014, Dan Brown

    Giardino di Boboli

    Boboli & San Miniato al Monte

    Behind Palazzo Pitti, the fountain- and sculpture-adorned Boboli Gardens – slowly but surely being restored to their former pristine glory thanks to a €2…

  • Piazzale Michelangelo (Michelangelo Square) is a square with a panoramic view of Florence. It was designed by the architect Giuseppe Poggi and built in 1869 on a hill just south of the historic center

    Piazzale Michelangelo

    Boboli & San Miniato al Monte

    Turn your back on the bevy of ticky-tacky souvenir stalls flogging David statues and boxer shorts and take in the spectacular city panorama from this vast…

  • Panoramic view over River Arno and Florence from the Bardini Gardens, Florence (Firenze), Tuscany, Italy, Europe

    Villa e Giardino Bardini

    Boboli & San Miniato al Monte

    This 17th-century villa and garden was named after 19th-century antiquarian art collector Stefano Bardini (1836–1922), who bought it in 1913 and restored…

  • Clet

    Clet

    Boboli & San Miniato al Monte

    Should you notice something gone awry with street signs in Oltrarno – on a No Entry sign, a tiny black figure stealthily sneaking away with the white bar…

  • Italy, Florence, view across to San Miniato al Monte from Forte di Belvedere, with many cypress trees.

    Forte di Belvedere

    Boboli & San Miniato al Monte

    Forte di Belvedere is a rambling fort designed by Bernardo Buontalenti for Grand Duke Ferdinando I at the end of the 16th century. From the massive…

  • Basilica di San Miniato al Monte

    Basilica di San Miniato al Monte

    Boboli & San Miniato al Monte

    Five minutes' walk uphill from Piazzale Michelangelo is this wonderful Romanesque church, dedicated to St Minius, an early-Christian martyr in Florence…

  • Galleria Palatina

    Galleria Palatina

    Boboli & San Miniato al Monte

    Raphaels and Rubens vie for centre stage in the enviable collection of 16th- to 18th-century art amassed by the Medici and Lorraine dukes in Palazzo Pitti…

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