Chalet Fontana
A literary cafe founded in 1896 on the hill road to Piazzale Michelangelo, with a garden, a vegetable plot and a restaurant behind it.
- Area
- Oltrarno
- Address
- Viale Galileo 7
- Founded
- 1896, by Tullio Fontana
- On site
- Its own vegetable garden and nursery
- Checked
- August 2026
- Price
- €€
- Go for
- Sitting under trees on the hill road with the city below, in a place that has been doing exactly this since 1896.
- Skip if
- You are judging it on the cooking alone. Opinions on the food are split, and the setting is what people come back for.
What everybody agrees on
Read across roughly 480 public reviews on TripAdvisor and Google in September 2026. Rated 4.0, which means genuinely divided rather than uniformly good.
- Nearly all
The setting does the work. Trees, quiet, and a hill road rather than a street, a few minutes below Piazzale Michelangelo.
- Most
It works as a cafe and an aperitivo stop more reliably than as a full dinner.
- Often
The history is real and visible. Opened in 1896 as a Florentine answer to the literary cafes of Paris, still in the same spot.
- Some
Kitchen quality varies by visit. Reviews swing between very good and ordinary, which is what a 4.0 across 480 reviews looks like.
- Some
Service can be slow when the terrace is full.
What to order
Come for a coffee or an aperitivo on the terrace rather than a long dinner. Whatever is out of their own orto is the thing to ask about.
Before you go
- Getting there
- Bus 12 from Porta Romana, or on foot as part of the Viale dei Colli walk.
- Best time
- Late afternoon, before the Piazzale fills up.
- Booking
- Worth it for dinner on a summer evening.
Tullio Fontana opened this in 1896 as a Florentine answer to the literary cafes of Paris: somewhere to meet, argue and stay a while. It is still on Viale Galileo, halfway up the Viale dei Colli, surrounded by trees and olives rather than streets.
Today it works as several things at once. A cafe and bistrot for a coffee or an aperitivo, and a restaurant with a menu that follows the seasons, partly out of its own orto and nursery on the property.
Bus 12 from Porta Romana, or on foot as part of the Viale dei Colli walk. A short way below Piazzale Michelangelo and far quieter than it.