Where to stay in Florence: the best neighbourhoods and hotels

Everything in Florence orbits the Duomo, the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, whose red-tiled dome has towered over the city for nearly six centuries. Climb it, or Giotto's bell tower beside it, for the view, then circle the octagonal Baptistery and its gilded bronze doors.

Just north-west lies San Lorenzo, the Medici family's parish church, with their chapels and a sprawling street market of leather goods. Its covered Mercato Centrale is a temple to Tuscan food, with a buzzing food hall upstairs. Hotels here are mostly converted palazzi, some within sight of the dome, and the Accademia, home of the David, is a few minutes' walk. It's the most central base in the city, and the most crowded.

Piazza della Signoria is Florence's great open-air stage, overlooked by the fortress-like Palazzo Vecchio and an army of statues, including a copy of David where the original once stood. The Uffizi, home to Botticelli's Birth of Venus and a great deal more, runs from the square down to the Arno, and the jewellers of the Ponte Vecchio are just beyond.

The streets between here and the Duomo are the medieval core of the city, and some hotels have the history to match: one, believed to be the oldest in Italy, has a 13th-century tower; another faces the Bargello, the sculpture museum in a former prison; another sits on the river a stone's throw from the Ponte Vecchio. Expect crowds by day and a surprisingly serene city after dark.

Via de' Tornabuoni is where Florence goes shopping in earnest: a straight, stately street of Renaissance palazzi now filled with the great Italian fashion houses, running down to the Arno at the Santa Trinita bridge. Ferragamo's headquarters, in the medieval Palazzo Spini Feroni, even has its own shoe museum.

A few streets east, Piazza della Repubblica, with its triumphal arch and old-fashioned carousel, is the city's café-society square, and the grand Palazzo Strozzi stages some of Italy's best exhibitions. Hotels here are some of the most glamorous in town, from the Savoy on the piazza and the Helvetia & Bristol facing Palazzo Strozzi to five-stars with panoramic views over the river.

Most visitors arrive at Santa Maria Novella station, and the streets around it make the most practical base in Florence. The basilica that gives the area its name has a striped marble façade and, inside, Masaccio's ground-breaking fresco of the Trinity, and the square in front of it is lined with cafés and design-led hotels, one of them themed on Dante's Divine Comedy.

Right by the station the streets can feel scrappy, so pick your block: the quieter lanes towards the river around the church of Ognissanti hide some of the city's grandest hotels, and the Duomo is about ten minutes away on foot. Trains to Pisa, Lucca and Siena, and the tram to the airport, are on your doorstep.

The Basilica of Santa Croce is Florence's hall of fame, holding the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli, and the broad piazza in front of it is one of the city's great gathering places. The streets around it are livelier and more local than the centre, packed with wine bars and aperitivo spots, with the excellent Sant'Ambrogio market a few blocks away.

Stay here for evenings out and a neighbourhood feel, on quiet streets of old palazzi just a few minutes from the busy squares. Hotels range from an 18th-century palace to a riverside boutique with a terrace looking over the Arno, and the Uffizi and the Duomo are both within about ten minutes' walk.

Oltrarno, literally ‘beyond the Arno’, is the Florence many visitors fall hardest for. Over the Ponte Vecchio, the vast Pitti Palace and the terraced Boboli Gardens climb the hill, while the streets of Santo Spirito and San Frediano are full of furniture restorers, goldsmiths and bookbinders, working much as they always have.

Piazza Santo Spirito, in front of Brunelleschi's plain-faced church, is the area's bohemian living room, busy with bars and terraces late into the evening. Climb to Piazzale Michelangelo or San Miniato al Monte at sunset for the classic panorama of the city. Hotels range from a riverside address moments from the Ponte Vecchio to grand villas in hillside gardens overlooking the Boboli and the Arno valley.

When the summer heat and crowds get too much, do what Florence's grand families always did and head for the hills. Fiesole, a hilltop town older than Florence itself, has Etruscan walls, a Roman theatre and sweeping views down over the dome. Around it, and along the Arno upstream, former monasteries and Renaissance villas have become some of the finest hotels in Tuscany.

Expect gardens, olive groves and swimming pools, which are rare in the city centre, plus shuttles or a short taxi ride down into town. To the south, the hills around Impruneta, long famous for its terracotta, hide villa hotels among the vines. You will need to plan your trips into the centre, but the evenings are bliss.