Parco delle Cascine
Three kilometres of park along the north bank, once a Medici hunting estate, now the city's running track, playground and Tuesday market.
- Area
- Cascine
- Was
- A Medici hunting estate
- Market
- Tuesday morning, along the length of the park
- Inside
- Le Pavoniere pool, playgrounds, cycle paths
- Checked
- August 2026
- Go for
- Three kilometres of park along the river, big enough that children can be sent in a direction and left to it.
- Skip if
- You want a garden. This is a working city park, not a designed landscape.
What everybody agrees on
Read across public reviews on Google and TripAdvisor plus Italian city writing in September 2026.
- Most
Size is the point. It runs three kilometres along the Arno and absorbs runners, cyclists, families and concerts at once.
- Most
The Tuesday market is a genuine local event rather than a tourist one.
- Often
Le Pavoniere, the outdoor pool inside the park, is what Florentines use in July and almost no visitor knows about.
- Often
There are several playgrounds rather than one, and a carousel that runs at weekends.
- Some
It is a city park with the usual consequences. Florentines avoid it after dark and so should you.
What to order
Take the T1 tram in and walk back along the river towards the centre. It is about forty minutes and the light in the late afternoon is the reason to do it in that direction.
Before you go
- Getting there
- T1 tram from Santa Maria Novella station, or twenty minutes on foot west along the north bank.
- Market
- Tuesday morning.
- In summer
- Le Pavoniere pool is inside the park.
- After dark
- Not a place to walk at night.
Big enough to lose the city in, which is not true of anywhere else in Florence. Avenues of plane trees, grass, playgrounds, the pool at Le Pavoniere, and a large market on Tuesday mornings. Nobody comes here on a city break, so on a weekday it is Florentines walking dogs and students running. Reachable by tram.