A great bar on a quiet corner of San Niccolò, this place gets a chirpy, suave crowd and is a wonderful spot to mingle with the locals, refuel on an impressive spread of aperitivi and slip into delicious cocktails. Hunker down inside, sit down on the pavement terrace or opt for shady spot in the back.

Cabiria, a popular cafe by day, converts into a busy nocturnal music bar that continues on way past your bedtime. In summer, the buzz extends onto Piazza Santo Spirito, which becomes a stage for an outdoor bar and regular free concerts.

Fashionable Capocaccia is an elegant cafe-bar with an alternative menu of snacks by day and one of the places to be seen at night, when cool Florentines snuggle up to other cool Florentines and the self-conscious bonhomie spills out onto the street. Throw in the occasional DJ and you'll see why it's almost impossible to get your motorino through the throng.

Zoe is popular with a sexy student crowd who come for the fruitylicous cocktails and the glowing red interior, bedecked with changing art exhibitions. The bar is so popular with young locals that they are known to spill out onto the street.

Caffè La Torre is a popular hangout near the Arno where you can eat and drink your fill without emptying your wallet. Live music goes on into the wee hours, with customers swaying and tapping along to jazz and blues or Latin rhythms.

Founded in 1912, this is the oldest children's clothing shop in Florence. The styles of their exquisite suits and dresses have changed little since - all the clothes are still made by hand and with the best fabrics.

Data prides itself on finding all sorts of obscure stuff in CD and vinyl which is quite a job considering the sheer volume of records stacked up in a seemingly arbitrary fashion. There's a big bargain section and some choice rarities out the back.

Follow your nose to this ancient Dominican apothecary, one of the world's oldest pharmacies. Housed in a 14th-century chapel, its ornately decorated and heavenly-scented rooms are stocked with a range of emollients, perfumes and herbal medicines designed to fix anything from tired eyes to cellulite.

No appointment is required. Doctors speak English, French and German.

The main Italian student and youth travel organisation.

A special branch of the police specifically for tourists.

Designed by Olga Polizzi in homage to Florentine designer Salvatore Ferragamo, this five-star splurge delivers up a supreme sense of well-being along with the knowledge that you are living, at least temporarily, among the uncompromisingly chic.

No expense was spared when the Rocco Forte group refurbished this grand old hotel in the late 1990s, and it is regularly rated as one of the world's most stylish - and best. Rooms have a lustrous serenity thanks to the warm palette, marble and wood furniture and super-refined fabrics. They are also highly wired, with two phone lines, wireless Internet, DVD players, and on-demand satellite television. Valuable contemporary art - most of it shoe-themed, per the Ferragamo connection - graces not just the common areas but the rooms themselves, many of which have balconies with views of the Piazza della Repubblica and, on the top floor, of the Duomo. If you aren't on your knees after a day of sightseeing, its fitness centre offers exercise - with yet more heart-stopping views from its windows.

Hidden at the end of a monumental and classically Florentine courtyard, you will find a tiny lift that takes you to this charming if unassuming guesthouse. The best quarters are those in the back that look out across a tranquil series of red-tiled roofs to the bright green of the Boboli Gardens - one of the most charming views in town.

Cobbled together out of a number of distinct apartments within a venerable, 16th-century Oltrarno palazzo, this place is a labyrinth of halls, stairs and rooms of varying sizes and shapes. If your room doesn't face the gardens, just head up to the series of rooftop decks for even more remarkable views. Some rooms and all of the bathrooms are small, and furnishings are homely but certainly not inspired. Still, beds are comfortable, and rooms facing the street have double glazed windows - a necessity on this busy street. Be careful when you step into the street, or you could be trampled by a tour group.

When it comes to Florentine beds, it's hard to get better value for your money than at this surprising little guesthouse. It is set in an imposing 19th-century building on a quiet street and is a welcome remove from the hubbub of central Florence.

Guests love the Johanna not just for its reasonable prices; it's the cosy rooms and thoughtful touches that win hearts and minds. Rooms and bathrooms are small, yes, but they are spotless and comfortably fitted out; there is even a fridge the size of a toaster that will keep a drink or two chilled. In the halls you will find pitchers of water as well as self-serve teapots, while continental breakfast is served in your room. Actually, it's just a tray with instant coffee and packaged buns, but they're very thoughtfully presented - and a pure bonus at these prices. The old apartment still has its high ceilings and beautiful wood floors, and while the halls get no sunlight they are carefully lit to create a sense of warmth at all hours. Note that you must check in by 19:00, but you will receive a key, so afterwards you can come and go at will.

It isn't pretty in this arcade but if you want to choose from almost 20 delicious, heaped and filling takeaway sandwiches from this Florentine institution, you'll have to run the gauntlet of the hobos. There's also reasonable food at the comfy cafe next door, where you can enjoy slow jazz and blues tunes with your meal.

This traditional Tuscan eatery is a good spot for bistecca alla fiorentina and The minestrone if you are not fussy about your surrounds. A no-nonsense approach dominates. Locals know the place as Il Troia - the (Male) Slut - because they say its 19th-century owner had the habit of touching up his guests. Don't worry, he's long gone.

A young team have created this fresh dining idea, a modern enoteca-cum-restaurant, in which the menu covers all sorts of regional dishes, often with an unexpected twist. The tagliolini neri al riccio di mare con pesto (black pasta with sea anenome and pesto) is a good example. Metallic chairs and glass-topped tables lend a crisp air to the place.

Recently moved into this historic building, the Arte dei Giudici e dei Notai, one of the city's most distinguished restaurants now has an address to match. Come for creative, light homemade pasta dishes and seafood mains (particularly in winter, when fish dishes rule here). A special emphasis is laid on the preparation of vegetables and side dishes.

One of the few restaurants to seriously cater to vegetarians, this is an unassuming locale with a great selection of fresh food, salads and mains. The menu changes regularly, partly dictated by the availability of fresh produce. Try the gazpacho (a cool Spanish, tomato broth) or risotto integrale con radicchio rosso (whole rice risotto with red lettuce).

The Romanesque Baptistery may have been built as early as the 5th century on the site of a Roman temple. It is one of the oldest buildings in Florence. The present facade dates from about the 11th century. It is said that the eighth side represents the (nonexistent) eighth day of the week, which symbolises birth, death and resurrection all in one.

Most striking are the three sets of bronze doors, conceived as a series of panels in which the story of humanity and the Redemption would be told. The earliest set of doors was completed by Andrea Pisano in 1336.

Lorenzo Ghiberti tied with Brunelleschi in a competition in 1401-2 to do the north doors. Brunelleschi was so disgusted that he flounced off to Rome, leaving Ghiberti to toil away for 20 years. Good as his late-Gothic effort was, Ghiberti returned almost immediately to his workshops to turn out the east doors. Made of gilded bronze, they took 28 years to complete. So extraordinary were his exertions that, many years later, Michelangelo stood before the doors and declared them fit to be the Porta del Paradiso (Gate of Paradise), which is how they remain known to this day.

Completed in 1385, this Gothic temple is as much the resting place of a Who's Who of Florentine greats as repository of stunning art. The magnificent facade is a neo-Gothic addition of the 19th century! Deceptive, huh? Michelangelo's tomb here was designed by Vasari. Galileo and the composer Rossini also rest in peace here.

The two chapels nearest the right side of the Cappella Maggiore, belonging to the Bardi and Peruzzi clans, are decorated with partly fragmented frescoes by Giotto. Brunelleschi designed the serene cloisters, dominated by his Cappella de' Pazzi.

Designed and built by Vasari in the second half of the 16th century at the request of Cosimo I de' Medici, the Palazzo degli Uffizi, originally housed the city's administrators, judiciary and guilds. It now houses the world's single greatest collection of Italian and Florentine art. Be warned, if you don't book ahead you could be queuing for literally hours.

Vasari designed the private corridor, Corridoio Vasariano, linking Palazzo Vecchio with Palazzo Pitti, through the Uffizi and across the Ponte Vecchio.

Cosimo I's successor, Francesco I, commissioned the architect Buontalenti to modify the upper floor of the Palazzo degli Uffizi to house the Medicis' growing art collection. Thus, indirectly, the first steps were taken to turn it into an art gallery. It was opened to selected public visits in 1591 - making it one of Europe's first functioning museums. Francesco also had a roof garden created - now a cafeteria.

Built by Orcagna in the late 14th century as a platform for public ceremonies, this elegant arcade now serves as an open-air sculpture gallery, with highlights such as Cellini's magnificent bronze Perseo (Perseus). Also known as the Loggia dei Lanzi, the arcade was named after Cosimo I's Swiss mercenaries, the Lances, who were once stationed here.

It seems odd that the Medici chapels, built to balance the Brunelleschi sacristy on the other side of the church, have for organisational purposes been hived off from the church itself. Visitors enter from another point behind the church rather than from inside and thus have difficulty picturing how the chapels fit in with the rest of the complex.

You first enter a crypt. The stairs from this take you up to the Cappella dei Principi (Princes' Chapel). The so-called chapel is actually the triumphalist mausoleum of some of the Medici rulers. It is sumptuously decorated with various kinds of marble, granite and other stone, and there are decorative tableaux made from painstakingly chosen and cut pietre dure (semiprecious stones). It was for the purpose of decorating the chapel that Ferdinando I ordered the creation of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure.

Statues of the grand men were supposed to be placed in the still-empty niches, but only the bronze of Ferdinando I and partly gilt bronze of Cosimo II were done. The chapel's unfinished state lends it a gloomy air. Had the remaining statues been created, the chapel would no doubt have all the grandeur of the great royal pantheons.

This is the holy centre of Florence and once the site of the town's Roman temple. As the city emerged to become the dominant power in medieval Tuscany, it lavished money and genius on this piazza, a place for Florence to beat its chest proudly and show the world its greatness.

You'll probably have already spotted Brunelleschi's sloping, red-tiled dome from afar, but when you first come upon the Duomo (cathedral) from the crowded streets around the Piazza, you will doubtless be taken aback by the ordered vivacity of its pink, white and green marble facade. Brunelleschi won a public competition to design the enormous dome, the first of its kind since antiquity. Although now severely cracked and under restoration, it remains a remarkable achievement of design.

The great temple's full name is Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore and it is the world's fourth-largest cathedral. It was begun in 1296 by Arnolfo di Cambio and took almost 150 years to complete. It is 153m (502ft) long and 38m (125ft) wide, except the transept, which extends to 90m (295ft). The cathedral it replaced, dedicated to Santa Reparata, fitted into an area extending less than halfway down from the entrance to the transept.

On the southern flank of Piazza del Carmine, this chapel is a treasure trove of paintings by Masolino da Panicale, Masaccio and Filippino Lippi. Above all, the frescoes by Masaccio are considered among his greatest works, representing a definitive break with Gothic art and a plunge into new worlds of expression in the early stages of the Renaissance.

His Cacciata dei Progenitori (Expulsion of Adam and Eve), on the left side of the chapel, is the bestknown work. His depiction of Eve's anguish in particular lends the image a human touch hitherto little seen in European painting. In times gone by, prudish church authorities had Adam and Eve's privates covered up.

Masaccio painted these frescoes in his early twenties and interrupted the task to go to Rome, where he died aged only 28. The cycle was completed 60 years later by Filippino Lippi. That you can even see these frescoes today is little short of miraculous. The 13th century church was nearly destroyed by a fire in the late 18th century. About the only thing the fire spared was the chapel.

When the Pitti, a wealthy merchant family, asked Brunelleschi to design their home, they did not have modesty in mind. Great rivals of the Medici, there is not a little irony in the fact that their grandiloquence would one day be sacrificed to the bank account.

In 1549 Eleonora de Toledo, wife of Cosimo I de' Medici, finding Palazzo Vecchio too claustrophobic, acquired the palace from a by-now rather skint Pitti family. She launched the extension work, which ended up crawling along until 1839! Throughout that time the original design was respected and today you would be hard-pressed to distinguish the various phases of construction.

After the demise of the Medici dynasty, the palace remained the residence of the city's rulers, the dukes of Lorraine and their Austrian and (briefly) Napoleonic successors. When Florence was made capital of the nascent Kingdom of Italy in 1865, it became a residence of the Savoy royal family, who graciously presented it to the state in 1919.

From Palazzo Pitti you can also access the Giardino di Boboli.