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Jazz Club
This is one of Florence's top jazz venues. The atmosphere is low-lit and the music is at a level that's meant to be enjoyed without necessarily impinging too much on the conversation - a good mix. At the weekend you should book a table if you're going in a group, and on Tuesdays, you can join in on the jam session.
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Jj Cathedral
Get here early if you want the balcony table overlooking the Baptistery - possibly the most coveted drinking spot in Florence. Otherwise make do with the narrow interior, cluttered with ripped wallpaper and fiddly bits of Irish paraphernalia. Usually filled with international students and local lads making moves.
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Joshua Tree
Scruffy and relaxed, this is a tavern where bullshit is barred and the only Irish 'themes' come by way of Murphy's stout, moody shades of green and conviviality by the keg. It gets a lot louder as the night goes on but then don't we all?
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Kikuya Pub
Unusually generous cocktails - although it's really not that kind of place - and a predominantly foreign crowd are found in this traditional-looking English bar, where there's occasional live music and a good selection of English beer. Local boys visit in twos to check on the number of foreign girls drinking here (and to see what state they're in).
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Klyk
In winter especially, this hole-in-the-wall club is appreciated by locals above all for its opening hours. For you can choose simply to sip your drinks at the tiny bar, or penetrate out the back to shake your thing around to a variety of sounds, depending on the evening. House nights alternate with mainstream pop, R 'n' B and hip-hop.
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La Dolce Vita
One of the most popular pre-club hang-outs, this place gets so packed with wealthy wannabes that you might never see the bar. An outdoor terrace helps you forget you're in a car park, although the self-consciously beautiful regulars don't quite make you feel like you're at home.
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La Rotonda
This cavernous place spreads over two floors. Part pub, part music bar (sometimes with live action), it offers simple grub and attracts a largely Italian crowd.
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Le Volpi e L'Uva
Florence's best wine bar is tucked away in a little piazza not far from Ponte Vecchio and offers terrific wines - that don't cost the earth - as well as a cosy outdoor terrace, delicious scatchatini (just sandwiches, but we like saying it) and friendly locals.
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Lion's Fountain
This pub tends to attract a young, rowdy and substantially English-speaking crowd which, as it spews out into the streets towards closing time, is highly reminiscent of closing in the UK.
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Lochness
Look for the green door. You'll need to pay a one-off membership fee of around €8 . Those with unlimited drinking capacity, but who are short on cash, could combine the Loonees happy hour, from to , with more of the same until at Lochness.
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Loonees
You wouldn't know this place existed if you hadn't been told. Walk into the building and the door is to the left of the staircase. It's a fairly small 'club' - basically just a bar with an expat bent and occasional live music of dubious taste. Still it's a personable enough spot for a pint.
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Mamma
On those warm summer nights half of Florence seems to be here (the other half is probably on holiday). Tables on the grass in the shadow of the illuminated city walls, a series of bars and even some Bedouin-style tent space attract hordes of tanned and showy locals.
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Mayday
This stylish lounge bar, often the scene of art exhibitions, is primarily a funky stage for an evening out, with great music and even the occasional live show. Much of the décor comes from bits and pieces donated by the mostly foreign punters at the end of their Florentine sojourns.
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Meccanò
Of the three sprawling dance spaces the main one is given over to a rhythmic crew of go-go dancers. Thursday is house night but any day is quite all right too. And you may well find a good sprinkling of locals in here alongside the inevitable foreign student brigade.
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Montecarla
Leopard skins, gaudy cushions, plush drapes, plastic flowers and moody corners abound if you don't mind the membership here. They say it was never a bordello but we're not convinced.
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Moyo
This trendy number has a mixed crowd of arty, grungy Florentines, as well as students and a sprinkling of the fashion set quaffing from its tumblers. For cocktail-sipping you can opt to perch on high stools, lounge out the back or sit on outdoor tables. Occasionally you'll strike live music and when the sounds are vinyl-based, the sounds are eclectic.
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Negroni
One of the city's hippest bars for sipping, well, a Negroni (a Campari and gin-based cocktail) and tucking into the Milan-style bar buffet at the generously long aperitivo hour. A DJ spins some not-too-intense club sounds out the back.
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Novabar
The waiters are in black, the walls are black, even the floor is black in parts. Red lights and loud DJ-spun tracks of a distinctly hippity hoppity nature all go towards attracting a predominantly foreign crowd into this watering hole, divided into two separate drinking spaces.
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Odeon Cinehall
This is the main location for seeing flicks in their versione originale (original language) with subtitles, screened on Mondays and Tuesdays. There are three or four sessions daily.
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Piccolo Café
Relaxed and unruffled, this bar has a cool metallic ceiling adorned with phallic light bulbs, and attracts a mixed crowd of gays and lesbians, young and old.
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Rex Caffè
Smooth cocktails, big beats, friendly staff and a cosy back room (perhaps in that order) combine to make this one of the best bars in Florence. The Gaudí-esque interior is an elegant, colourful mess, but the vibe is convivial and the tunes are guaranteed to make your bum wiggle.
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Rose's
A casual and smoke-free New York-style café, with salads and pastas available during the day, Rose's undergoes a metamorphosis after dark, when it turns into a hip and lively sushi bar (food on until ) and fills up with a trendy crowd.
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Salamanca
This pseudo-Spanish joint has an attractive horseshoe bar but you won't get near it at weekends when the place reverberates to flamenco rock and fills to the rafters with foreign girls and local boys. Dress to sweat and don't underestimate the cocktails.
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Sant'Ambrogio Caffè
A truly local bar, this place draws a congenial crew of smart 30-somethings and funkier arty types. Tables are set up outside in summer, and there are reasonable snacks during the day.
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Tabasco
Only boys get the nod at Italy's oldest gay disco, the perfect place if you're feeling frisky. There's a disco, cocktail bar and dark room in the most central location, just off Piazza della Signoria. Dress code is as loose as the behaviour.
