What to do in Florence with children
Florence is not an obvious city for children, and most visiting parents work that out by the first afternoon. It is also a city that has been looking after children for six hundred years, and a surprising amount of that is still visitable.
Florence was not laid out with children in mind, and nobody who has stood in Piazza del Duomo in July holding a hot four year old needs telling. The city’s great pleasures are the ones that reward standing still and reading a label, which is not what most children have come for.
What is less obvious is how much of Florence was built for children in the first place. The carousel in Piazza della Repubblica has been turning since the early twentieth century and still belongs to the family who restored it. There is a Medici hippopotamus, stuffed in the seventeenth century by craftsmen working from a description, and it shows.
The shape of a good day here. One thing with a ticket, in the morning while everybody is still fresh, and the rest of the day left open. Most family trips that go sideways in Florence go sideways because of the second museum.
Museums built for children
Three museums here do not ask a child to pretend. They are all small, which is the main thing, and none of them needs more than about ninety minutes.
Museo Galileo
Globes, telescopes, armillary spheres, early clocks and a great deal of brass. It is a collection rather than a hands-on science centre, but the objects are strange enough to hold attention by themselves, and the video guides explain what each one was for. Children who like knowing how things work do better here than anywhere else in the city.
La Specola
The zoological wing of the university’s natural history collection: room after room of animals the Medici gathered from around the world, including the hippopotamus that once lived in the Boboli gardens and was reassembled after its death by craftsmen who had only ever read about one.
The caveat is the eighteenth century wax anatomy collection at the far end, which is remarkable and not for every child, or every adult. It is signposted and easy to walk past.
Palazzo Vecchio, the secret passages
A guided route through the staircases and hidden rooms the Medici used to cross the building unseen. Narrow stairs and small spaces, so no pushchairs. For younger children the same palace runs storytelling sessions with costumed characters, a different booking and worth asking about when you buy tickets.
Given a choice between this and a gallery, the passages usually win. Walking through a wall in a Medici palace is the kind of thing a child repeats to people at home.
Where families here actually go
Boboli is a ticketed formal garden, which makes it a beautiful long walk with statues and a grotto and not a place where children can climb on things. For an afternoon off duty, these three are what local families use.
Giardino dell'Orticoltura
A public garden with a tall iron and glass greenhouse from 1880 at its centre, lawns, a playground near the entrance and a small lending library under the trees. A neighbourhood garden rather than a sight, which is exactly why it works.
Just above it, in the Orti del Parnaso, a long stone dragon winds down a staircase with the city spread out behind it. Climbable, free and photogenic, and it tends to buy back the goodwill a morning of churches has spent.
Piazza d'Azeglio
A large square of plane trees with a fenced playground in the middle, benches around it and a bar on the corner. Close enough to the centre to rescue a slow afternoon without becoming an expedition, which is why it is the one worth memorising.
Parco delle Cascine
The city’s largest park, a former Medici hunting estate now holding several playgrounds, a running track, bike paths, an outdoor pool and a Tuesday market. There is an old carousel near the middle that turns at weekends for a euro or two. This is half a day rather than a stop, and the easiest place in Florence to stop supervising for a while.
On the river
The Arno runs through the middle of Florence and hardly anybody uses it, which starts to seem strange once you have noticed. The stretch past the historic centre is flat, with no rapids, and it offers a view of the city that the crowd on Ponte Vecchio is standing directly above and cannot see.
Rafting and kayaking with Firenze Rafting
Firenze Rafting run rafting and kayaking trips starting from the small beach below the tower. Everyone sits in one boat with a guide doing the paddling, so nobody is separated, and by the way nobody needs to be competent. You float down the Arno looking at the historical centre and passing right under the arches of Ponte Vecchio. The guides adapt to the mood of the group: they can tell you more historical facts, or just let you chill and splash.
Trips run every day from March to November, and the times shift slightly through the season.
Children who would rather paddle themselves can take the kayaking version, one small inflatable boat each, which suits roughly eight and up. Younger children are almost always happier in the raft, though there is a double kayak that a parent and a child can share.
Small things that fill an hour
The carousel in Piazza della Repubblica has twenty hand painted horses, has been turning since the early 1900s and still belongs to the Florentine family who restored it. Adults can stand alongside. It costs very little and it has saved more afternoons than any museum on this page.
The LEGO Certified Store on Via dei Calzaiuoli is two minutes from Piazza della Signoria, which puts it on the route most families are walking anyway. There is a Pick a Brick wall where children fill a cup with loose bricks by hand, and a machine that photographs you and prints the instructions for building your own face in bricks.
Bartolucci, on a side street between Palazzo Vecchio and the Bargello, has been carving wooden toys since 1981, with the workshop visible at the back. It is a shop, and children treat it as an exhibition.
Gelato is not filler here either. Choosing well is a small skill, and children pick it up considerably faster than their parents do. We wrote the rules down in how to tell real gelato from the tourist stuff.
Ending the day by the water
Two things sit next to each other on the Lungarno, east of the centre, and between them they make a good last stop.
Tree Experience Lungarno
The first adventure park to open in the centre of Florence rather than out in the hills. Rope courses and ziplines for older children and adults, suspended net rooms and jumping pillows for the small ones. Shaded, green and directly on the water.
Habana 500
A few minutes further along the same stretch, a Cuban bar with loungers facing the Arno, a volleyball court and salsa later in the evening. Nobody minds if you arrive with tired children, order something cold and simply watch the river for an hour at the end of a long day of walking.
Quick answers
Is Florence a good city to bring children to?
Yes, with a lighter plan than you would make for yourself. It is small enough to walk, Italians are relaxed about children in restaurants at any hour, and there is more built for children here than the famous sights suggest. What it lacks is one big family attraction, so the days are made of smaller pieces.
What is the best museum in Florence for young children?
Museo Galileo for anyone who likes knowing how things work, and La Specola for anyone who likes animals. Both are small enough to finish in an hour, which matters more than the collection does.
How much can we realistically fit into a day?
One ticketed thing, usually in the morning, and the rest of the day loose. Two museums in one day is where most family trips to Florence come unstuck, and the second one is rarely the one anybody remembers.
Where do Florentine families go with their children?
Giardino dell'Orticoltura and the dragon staircase just above it, the fenced playground on Piazza d'Azeglio, and Parco delle Cascine at weekends. In summer they go to the open air pools, which almost no visitor knows about.
Can children go on the Arno?
Yes. The stretch through the centre is flat water with no rapids, and Firenze Rafting takes children from about four, with the family together in one boat. The season runs roughly March to November.
Is Boboli a good place to take children?
It is a ticketed formal garden rather than a park, and staff will stop children climbing on things. As a long shaded walk with statues and a strange grotto it is lovely. As an afternoon off it is not, and Cascine or Orticoltura will serve you better.
What about the Uffizi and the Accademia?
The Accademia is short and David is genuinely impressive at any age, so it survives a family visit. The Uffizi is long. If the adults want it properly, the usual solution is to split up and take turns rather than march everybody through together.