Florence in 7 Days on a Budget (With Daily Costs)
Florence in 7 Days on a Budget
Seven days is the 6-day itinerary with one more genuinely free day added at the end, for a trip that never has to rush the two headline museums. A week in the city is also long enough to swap a day for Siena or Pisa if you want it; that side of the trip is covered in our Florence, Italy guide , not here. Daily spend still ranges from about EUR 25 to 30 on the cheapest days to EUR 90 on museum days.
Book these before you go
- Accademia Gallery ticket : smaller capacity than the Uffizi, book 3 to 8 weeks ahead depending on season.
- Uffizi Gallery ticket : the trip’s biggest single ticket cost; book at least a month ahead in peak season.
- Duomo dome climb : only the Brunelleschi Pass includes it, and the timed slot cannot be changed once booked.
| Day | Focus | Est. cost (no lodging) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Duomo complex, Piazza della Signoria, Ponte Vecchio | EUR 45 |
| 2 | Accademia, Uffizi, Oltrarno dinner | EUR 90 |
| 3 | Piazzale Michelangelo, San Miniato, San Lorenzo Market | EUR 40 |
| 4 | Santa Croce, Oltrarno artisan streets | EUR 55 |
| 5 | Bargello, San Marco, Medici Chapels, Mercato Centrale | EUR 50 |
| 6 | Slow day: Bardini Garden or a full rest day | EUR 25 |
| 7 | San Niccolò, a last free view, departure | EUR 30 |
Day 1: The Duomo on the cheap
Buy the Ghiberti Pass (EUR 15) rather than the Brunelleschi Pass (EUR 30) at tickets.duomo.firenze.it unless the dome climb is non-negotiable; it still covers the Baptistery, the crypt, and the Opera Museum, home to Ghiberti’s original Gates of Paradise panels. The cathedral nave is free on its own separate line. Lunch on a schiacciata (EUR 4 to 6), then walk to Piazza della Signoria, where the Loggia dei Lanzi’s statues and the replica David outside Palazzo Vecchio cost nothing. Cross the Ponte Vecchio before dinner, and eat a trattoria off the main piazza to skip the coperto and servizio a table on the square would add.
Day 2: The two museums that are worth the money
Book the Accademia for the morning via the official ticketing partner b-ticket.com . Lunch on a lampredotto sandwich (EUR 3.50 to 4) near Mercato Centrale. In the afternoon, book the Uffizi’s after-4pm slot, EUR 16 on-site or EUR 20 online through tickets.uffizi.it , cheaper than the standard EUR 25 daytime ticket. Dinner in the Oltrarno beats anything priced within sight of the Duomo.
Day 3: The free day
Walk up to Piazzale Michelangelo, or take bus 12 or 13 for a EUR 1.70 fare, and arrive 45 minutes before sunset. San Miniato al Monte, ten minutes further, is free, with Gregorian chant at Vespers most evenings. Spend the rest of the day browsing the San Lorenzo Market and the Mercato Centrale food hall. Close with an aperitivo standing at the bar and a gelato (EUR 3 to 5).
Day 4: Santa Croce and the Oltrarno’s workshops
Santa Croce runs EUR 9.50 to 10 and covers the basilica, the tombs of Michelangelo and Galileo, both cloisters, and the Pazzi Chapel. Spend the afternoon in the Oltrarno’s artisan streets around Via Santo Spirito, free to browse, where leatherworkers, gilders, and bookbinders still work at street level.
Day 5: The small museums nobody queues for
The Bargello (around EUR 12) holds Donatello’s two Davids and Michelangelo’s Bacchus with no meaningful line, ever. San Marco (around EUR 8) is the Dominican monastery where Fra Angelico painted a different fresco in nearly every cell. The Medici Chapels (roughly EUR 12 to 14) round out the day; since March 2026 a combined Accademia and Bargello ticket (EUR 26, valid 48 hours) can be worth it if you have not yet done the Accademia. Dinner at Mercato Centrale’s upstairs food hall, open daily until midnight, runs EUR 10 to 15 for a full meal.
Day 6: The slow, cheap day
Stop paying for tickets for a day. The Bardini Garden, next to the Boboli Gardens, has its own cheaper entry and the same sweeping view over the city without Piazzale Michelangelo’s crowds, if you want one more sightline. Otherwise, re-walk a favorite neighborhood, sit in a piazza with a EUR 1.50 espresso, and save the evening for a cooking class (roughly EUR 50 to 70 for a small group) if you have not spent that splurge elsewhere in the week.
Day 7: San Niccolò and the last free morning
Spend the final morning in San Niccolò, the quiet residential streets between Piazzale Michelangelo and the river, then walk the Lungarno back toward the center rather than paying for a taxi you do not need yet. If you missed the free Sunday window earlier in the week and your last day happens to land on one, this is the day to use it, arriving by 7:30am for the Uffizi or Accademia. For the airport, the T2 tram runs from Piazza dell’Unità to Peretola Aeroporto in about 20 minutes for a EUR 1.70 fare, dramatically cheaper than a taxi and running every 4 to 6 minutes at peak times.
A full week in Florence proves the same point a 3-day trip does, just with more room to breathe: the Uffizi and the Accademia are the two real expenses, and almost everything else on this list is either free or close to it.