Via Maggio is where the Oltrarno puts on its good coat — the broad, palace-lined street that has been Florence's home of antiquari (antique dealers) for generations, all gilt mirrors and old masters behind the glass. It's an afternoon walk about looking: at shop windows, at facades, at one wall in particular.
Two and a half kilometres. Start on Ponte Santa Trinita, Ammannati's bridge of shallow, perfect arches, and cross to the head of Via Maggio. Walk its length slowly, window-shopping the dealers — nobody minds — until you reach the Palazzo di Bianca Cappello, its plaster scratched with Buontalenti's sgraffito, a Grand Duke's scandalous marriage written onto the front of a house.
Pause at Piazza San Felice, where Elizabeth Barrett Browning once wrote at Casa Guidi, then cut east to Santa Felicita for Pontormo's weightless, acid-bright Deposition, usually yours alone. End a few steps on at Ponte Vecchio — a walk about beautiful expensive things, landing among the jewellers. Cross into the centre, or double back along the river.
