Florence has two famous viewpoints and one secret one. Bellosguardo is the secret — the south-west hill where Henry James, the Brownings and a tenor came to look at the city in peace, and where almost no visitor goes today. The view is the best of the lot, and you'll have it to yourself.
About four kilometres, best on a clear afternoon. From Porta Romana, climb the lanes toward Via di Bellosguardo — olive terraces, high garden walls, the names of old villas on their gates. Past the Villa di Bellosguardo, where Caruso lived out his Florentine years, the lane reaches a small square at the top, walled and silent.
The reward is just below it: the overlook where the ground drops and the whole city appears at once, the scene Thomas Patch painted in the 1700s. No coaches, no railing of selfie sticks — only the view.
Then drop down through San Frediano, the working Oltrarno of workshops and wine windows, to the river at Ponte alla Carraia. Stop for a glass on the way down.
