San Marco is where you go to see how Florence prayed before it learned to show off. The convent at its heart holds the work of Fra Angelico, the monk who painted a fresco into nearly every cell so each brother had one scene to kneel in front of — and the whole point is that almost nobody walks up there, even with the David queue forming around the corner.
About two and a half kilometres, best first thing. Start in Piazza San Marco before the buses take it over, then into the Museo di San Marco: the cloister, the cells, the small bright Annunciation at the top of the stairs. Take the corridor slowly — the magic is the repetition, scene after quiet scene.
Then the contrast. The Galleria dell'Accademia is a minute south and a different world: book it for the David, or just admire the queue and keep walking. East into the university streets, where someone's usually practising at the Cherubini conservatory.
End in the Giardino dei Semplici, the old botanical garden, empty and shaded, and loop back to the piazza for the bus.
