The other side of the Arno has long been the real Florentines’ side – tiny workshops, Brunelleschi’s basilica peering over Piazza Santo Spirito, wine bars packed to their bottle-stacked shelves. The streets of San Frediano open each morning to goldsmiths, leather workers and bookbinders practising techniques largely unchanged since the Renaissance. Rather than jostling for space in the historic centre, this Autumn La Réserve Firenze is opening on Via Santo Spirito with six private apartments in a restored 15th-century palazzo – the group’s discreet Italian debut.
Hotel Palazzo Guadagni
This pensione has been taking in guests since 1912, when the Bandini sisters opened above the German Institute of Art History, making the loggia a long-standing gathering spot for the city’s writers and artists. Relaunched as a hotel in 2007 with restored frescoes, it remains the most characterful address on Piazza Santo Spirito – with antique furniture, rooftop Negronis and views of locals filling the square below. palazzoguadagni.com
Moleria Locchi
A glassware studio engraving and grinding crystal by hand since the 19th century. Now owned by Florentine fashion house Stefano Ricci, the workshop on Via Burchiello remains one of the last of its kind and the showroom feels like a private collection. locchi.com
Ditta Artigianale
Founded in 2013 by barista-master Francesco Sanapo, this was the café that dragged Florentine coffee culture into the third-wave speciality era. The Oltrarno outpost, a short walk from Palazzo Pitti, takes over a 1950s Giovanni Michelucci building – the same architect behind the Santa Maria Novella station – and runs from morning espressos through to an evening gin bar with over 100 labels. dittaartigianale.it
S Forno
From the team behind beloved restaurant Il Santo Bevitore, this is one of the few remaining bakeries in Florence with an original on-site oven. The menu rolls out on crinkly brown paper revealing simple plates of bread, butter and jam or yoghurt with cherries. When in season, order the schiacciata all’uva, a sticky grape-loaded thin-like focaccia that locals come in early to secure their slice of. ilsantobevitore.com
Wild Buns Bakery
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Estonian baker Robert Marrandi spent four years supplying his handmade Scandinavian pastries and dark Estonian rye – using a starter handed down from his grandmother – to the city’s best coffee bars, Ditta Artigianale among them, before opening this pared-back spot near Piazza Tasso. The open kitchen means you can watch the cardamom buns going in. wildbunsbakery.com
Dalla Lola
Matilde Pettini – great-granddaughter of the founder of the legendary Trattoria Cammillo – runs this jolly spot serving a handwritten daily menu of inventive, forgotten Tuscan cuts to a room of regulars. Order the trippa finta: strips of egg and Parmesan in tomato sauce, a Depression-era invention from when even tripe was too expensive – and one of the most interesting plates on any menu in Florence. dallalola.it