What to do in Florence on a Monday (the Uffizi is closed)

If you are in Florence on a Monday, you have probably just discovered the bad news: the Uffizi and the Accademia are both closed. So is Palazzo Pitti. The two things most people book a trip to Florence for are shut on the same day of the week, every week.

This catches out an enormous number of visitors, and it is worth knowing that it is not a scheduling accident: Monday is the standard closing day for Italy’s state museums. The good news is that Florence is a city, not a museum, and a great deal of it carries on as normal.

What is actually open on a Monday

The whole Duomo complex. The cathedral, Brunelleschi’s dome, the baptistery, Giotto’s bell tower and the Opera del Duomo museum all run on Mondays. If you were going to do the dome climb at some point in your trip, Monday is the day to do it: you are competing with fewer people than usual, because half the city’s visitors are queuing for the two things that are open across the river.

Palazzo Vecchio. The city’s own museum, not a state one, which is exactly why it stays open. The Salone dei Cinquecento and the tower are both worth the ticket, and the tower gives you the Duomo view that everybody photographs from Piazzale Michelangelo, only closer.

Santa Croce. Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli are buried here, along with a Giotto fresco cycle and one of the more peaceful cloisters in the centre.

The Brancacci Chapel, in the Oltrarno. Masaccio’s frescoes are one of the genuine turning points in Western painting, and the chapel is closed on Tuesdays rather than Mondays, so it is precisely the thing to do on the day the big galleries are shut. Book ahead; it admits small numbers at a time.

San Miniato al Monte and Piazzale Michelangelo. The climb up is free, open every day, and the best hour in Florence is still the one before sunset from up there.

The markets, the workshops and the food. Mercato Centrale runs on Mondays. The Sant’Ambrogio market runs Monday to Saturday. The artisan workshops of the Oltrarno (leather, gilding, bookbinding, marbled paper) are working on a Monday precisely because it is a working day.

One thing to check: the Boboli Gardens close on the first and last Monday of the month, and Palazzo Pitti is closed every Monday. Museum hours in Florence change more often than they should, so confirm on the day before you build an afternoon around any single site.

The better way to think about a Monday

Stop trying to replace the Uffizi. You will not, and an afternoon spent hunting for a substitute masterpiece is an afternoon spent slightly disappointed.

A Monday is better used as the day you do the parts of Florence that are not queueing-and-looking: the dome climb, the walk up to San Miniato, the Oltrarno on foot, a long lunch that does not end at a fixed time. Then book the Uffizi for Tuesday morning, first slot, and go in rested.

Or cook, which is what we do on Mondays

We teach our pasta class seven days a week, Monday included, at 10:00, 14:30 and 18:00. That is not the norm here: most cooking schools in Florence take Monday off, and several of the bigger ones quietly require a minimum number of guests before a quiet weekday class runs at all.

Practically, that makes Monday one of the easiest days of the week to get a seat at a small table. Three hours in the Oltrarno, four shapes of fresh pasta, sauces you make yourself, then everyone sits down and eats it with two Tuscan wines included. Max eight people. If you are travelling with children, the family class runs the same days from age six.

It also solves the other Monday problem, which is lunch: you have booked nothing, half your list is closed, and you are standing in a piazza at one o’clock deciding where to eat. That decision is already made.

Things to do in Florence on a Monday: an itinerary that works

• Morning: the Duomo complex, dome climb first while your legs are fresh.
• Midday: cross to the Oltrarno. Brancacci Chapel, then wander San Frediano and Via Maggio for the workshops.
• Afternoon: a pasta class at 14:30, which doubles as a very long lunch.
• Evening: walk up to Piazzale Michelangelo and San Miniato for sunset, then aperitivo in Piazza Santo Spirito.

Nothing on that list is closed on a Monday. And you have kept the Uffizi for a morning when it is open, quieter and you are not rushing it.

Travelling with children? The same logic — food and open space instead of galleries — is worked out in full in Florence with kids.