Florence rewards the early riser — so we built four days that start before the city does.
By ten o’clock, Florence belongs to the crowds. Before nine, it belongs to you. This sketch turns that single fact into a rhythm: masterpieces at first light with an art historian at your side, then workshops, markets and hills while everyone else queues.
One riverside base, no packing and repacking, and afternoons left deliberately open — a city this dense should never be rushed. Evenings climb out of the valley for dinner, where the whole Renaissance fits in one window.
4
Nights on the Arno
7
Private doors opened
48h
To your first proposal
This is a sketch, not a package. Dates, pace, houses and tables all bend around who’s travelling — no two versions of this journey have ever left the studio the same.
02Day by day
Day 1 · Arrival
The river finds you.
A private car from the airport or Rome, keys to a townhouse suite over the Arno, and nothing scheduled but an evening walk across the Oltrarno — aperitivo in a piazza the tour groups never find, dinner booked two streets from your bed.
Golden-hour walk through the Oltrarno with your host
First dinner — Tuscan classics, zero ceremony
First evening, from the rooftops
Day 2 · Masters & makers
Uffizi at opening, workshops after.
First slot of the day at the Uffizi with an art historian — Botticelli before the room fills. Then the other Renaissance: a goldbeater hammering leaf the medieval way, a bookbinder, a silversmith. Hands, not headphones.
Uffizi, first entry — the Birth of Venus in quiet
Three ateliers across the Oltrarno, doors closed to the public
Lunch at the counter of a hundred-year-old bottega
The masters’ city, waking
Day 3 · The hills
Fiesole, a villa, the David at dusk.
A short climb to Fiesole for Roman ruins and the best view of the valley, then a long lunch at a private villa among olive trees. Back down in time for the Accademia’s final hour — the David with the day’s last visitors drifting out around you.
Villa lunch under a pergola, olive oil from the trees around you
The David at closing — the gallery emptying, him staying
Sunset from San Miniato, monks singing vespers
The valley, from Fiesole
Day 4 · Market to stove
Cook it, then keep it.
Sant’Ambrogio market with a chef — tasting, arguing, filling a basket — then a morning at the stove turning it into lunch. The afternoon is deliberately yours: the Bargello, a last espresso, one more walk over the bridge. Departure the next morning, reluctantly.
Market morning at Sant’Ambrogio, basket in hand
A recipe you’ll actually repeat — pasta, pressed and cut
Farewell table on a terrace over the rooftops
Sant’Ambrogio to stove
03Moments
The frames you’ll keep.
Travel sideways
AccademiaFive hundred years, holding his nerve.Sant’AmbrogioBasket in hand, arguing happily.RitualStanding room only, as it should be.The tableThe long lunch, honoured daily.
04Where you’ll sleep
One base, chosen carefully.
The classic · riverside
A townhouse over the Arno
Shuttered windows on the river, breakfast in a frescoed room, and the Uffizi four minutes on foot.
The alternative · the hills
A garden retreat above the city
For June and September: a pool among the olives, the Duomo in the distance, ten minutes by house car.
Houses are named in your proposal — we hold allocations at a handful of properties we know room by room.
05In good hands
Door to door
Private arrival and departure transfers, and a driver on call for the hills — the city itself is yours on foot.
Hosts, not guides
An art historian, a chef and three artisans — people we’d invite to dinner, never a script.
Tables & tickets
Every reservation, entrance and timed slot pre-arranged — you never stand in a line.
In-trip concierge
One WhatsApp thread, answered by a person in Rome, for anything — from a forgotten charger to a fourth seat at dinner.
One contact
A single itinerary designer from first sketch to the flight home — no handovers, no call centres.
Time, protected
First entries and final hours at the galleries, arranged season by season. Your mornings go to art, not queues.
06Make it yours
Start from this sketch.
Tell us who’s travelling and what you’d change. A first, itemized proposal comes back within 48 hours — built once, for you.
