A Florence city break by way of Pisa

Florence does not empty in winter the way the brochures imply — the Uffizi still charges a premium for advance booking in February, which is not what a museum does when it expects quiet months. What winter gives you is shorter queues, drier weather than you would guess, and the ability to walk up and pay the lower price.

The counter-intuitive weather

November is the wettest month of the five by a wide margin — 118mm across 10.4 rain days — while January, February and March are the driest, at 62–64mm and seven or eight rain days. Mild-sounding November is the soaking; cold January is comparatively dry.

Daytime highs never average below about 11°C, so this is chilly rather than harsh. January's average low of 2.1°C means routine overnight frost but not hard freezes.

Fly to Pisa

British Airways flies Heathrow to Florence and Vueling flies Gatwick, at about 2h 10m. But the fares tell a different story: London to Florence averaged about £152 return in January, against about £43 return to Pisa in February. Ryanair goes from Stansted, easyJet from Gatwick and Southend.

From Pisa airport, the PisaMover to Pisa Centrale is €6.50 and takes five minutes. Then Pisa Centrale to Firenze Santa Maria Novella is 49 minutes at its fastest, about an hour typically, with something like 55–60 trains a day and fares from roughly £8–10 one way.

One off-season catch: PisaMover runs a reduced single-shuttle timetable from 26 October to 13 December and from 11 January to 28 February — every 12 to 15 minutes rather than every 5 to 7. It covers most of the window.

If you do fly into Florence, the T2 tram reaches the centre in 20 minutes for €2.00, running on to Piazza San Marco since January 2025. A taxi is a fixed €28. That is a fourteenfold difference for a twenty-minute journey.

Note the tram fare: two of the city's own tourism pages still say €1.70. The operator says €2.00, and has done since 1 August 2026. When the tourist board and the operator disagree, believe the operator.

The tourist tax

Charged per person per night, capped at seven consecutive nights. By hotel rating: one star €3.50, two €4.50, three €6, four €7, five €8. A B&B, holiday flat or room rental is €6, a hostel €4, a historic residence €7.

The tax does not reward booking an apartment — a tourist letting is taxed at €6, the same as a three-star hotel. For a couple on three nights in a three-star that is €36 either way.

Under-12s are exempt. One caveat we will not dress up: the only table the city publishes is headed 2025, and we could not confirm whether 2026 rates differ.

The real off-season saving

You may read that the Uffizi and the Accademia have cheaper winter rates. They no longer do. What the Uffizi has instead is a €16 rate for entry after 16:00, introduced on 1 January 2026.

The genuine quiet-month saving is different and better: the Uffizi is €25 on the door against €29 booked ahead, so in months when you can simply walk up, you stop paying the €4 advance-booking premium. The Accademia is €20.

The Duomo complex runs on passes: Brunelleschi €30 including the dome, Giotto €20 for everything but the dome, Ghiberti €15 for the museum, baptistery and crypt. The cathedral nave itself is free — but closed on Sundays and holidays, which catches out anyone who planned a Sunday around it.

Two things under scaffolding: Giotto's Bell Tower has been under restoration since March 2026 and will be for about four years, though it stays open. And Casa Martelli is closed for all of 2026 — it is one of the six museums on the €38 Accademia pass, so that pass is worth one museum less than advertised.

Monday is the dead day

The Uffizi, the Accademia, the Bargello and the Medici Chapels all close on Mondays. The Museo dell'Opera del Duomo closes the first Tuesday of each month. Palazzo Vecchio has no weekly closing day — though it shuts at 14:00 on Thursdays — and the Museo Bardini opens on Mondays, so between them you have a Monday.

Free first Sundays are a crowd event, not a saving. In the window that means 1 November, 6 December, 3 January, 7 February and 7 March — the worst possible days to attempt the Uffizi.

And for 1 January, Easter, 8 December and Christmas, the city's own museum timetable says to "request the special timetable" — holiday hours are not published in advance. Do not assume normal opening on any of those dates.

Dates to avoid

Easter Sunday 2027 is 28 March, which puts the Scoppio del Carro — the cart of fireworks detonated in Piazza del Duomo on Easter morning — inside the off-season window, along with Good Friday on the 26th and Easter Monday on the 29th. The last ten days of March 2027 are not a cheap, quiet Florence.

Carnival Tuesday is 9 February 2027, though Tuscany's big carnival is at Viareggio rather than Florence.

Where to stay

Duomo and Piazza della Repubblica

Everything within ten minutes' walk, which matters most in winter when the daylight is short. The highest rates in the city and the highest tax band, since the stock skews four- and five-star.

Oltrarno and Santo Spirito

The working side of the river, better-value eating, genuinely lived-in. A real river crossing in bad weather, Santo Spirito is noisy late, and much of the stock is tourist lettings — the same €6 tax band as a three-star hotel with none of a hotel's wet-weather comforts.

San Marco

The T2 tram runs here from the airport, so it is a direct twenty-minute, €2 ride with no transfer. Next to the Accademia, quieter, more residential. Fifteen minutes' walk to the Duomo and thin on evening options.

Two to avoid

Immediately around Santa Maria Novella station — the cheapest rates in the centre, transient and poorly lit after dark. You do not need to be near a station: the tram reaches the airport from San Marco for €2.

And anywhere that boasts of being inside the ZTL without explaining it. The historic centre is a restricted traffic zone; driving in without authorisation generates fines that arrive months later. Hotels inside it can register your plate; tourist lettings frequently cannot.