The uncrowded ‘other’ side of Florence I can’t stop returning to

Opinion

In this series, My Happy Place, our writers reflect on the holiday destinations in Australia and around the world that they cherish the most.

October 22, 2026 — 5:00am

I first visited Florence, capital of Italy’s Tuscany region, when I was 16. A girl from the mid-coast of Adelaide, I recall looking up wide-eyed and enchanted while walking along Via Roma, a door-to-door corridor of luxury brands, watching strangers dancing in the street to Sara perche ti amo, the sky above me a balmy combination of violet and strawberry as it faded to night.

Venturing further down the street, past the Porcellino Fountain and across the famed Ponte Vecchio and its jewellers, I felt a pull to the other side of Florence.

Oltrarno – translating to “Beyond the Arno” – is a district found on the southern bank of the river. The area is home to three of Florence’s zones: San Frediano, San Niccolo and Santo Spirito.

While many are likely to have ventured to Piazzalle Michelangelo on its eastern side, the central area, and particularly Santo Spirito, has an energetic-yet-authentic combination only a few are catching on to now. Don’t stop at Palazzo Pitti, for this is just the beginning.

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Every time I have returned to Florence, I have made myself at home in Oltrarno. Feeling truly at home is a rare feat in travel. Yet here, in this decidedly slower district of the birthplace of the Renaissance, one can truly be immersed in the local fare. It’s a gateway to the suburbs Florentines call home, one which maintains a remarkably village-like feel.

You find yourself with a soundtrack of yelps from the canine population (free to roam in streets not saturated with tour groups), chatter of school students on breaks in their nearby grounds and, of course, that heavenly clang of ceramic on ceramic when espressos are finished al banco. These are the everyday sounds that go unnoticed only a stone’s throw away in the bustle of the denser parts of the Centro Storico.

There is a beauty to traversing these streets that doesn’t age. Seemingly aimless walking becomes an integral part of your itinerary, particularly while making your way to sights like the rolling greenery of the Boboli Gardens.

I force myself to always look up, for you will see the authentic veins of the city from the laundry hanging from the windowsills or the choice to plant or not plant flowers in their boxes. You find your corners that speak to you. In my case, it is a particularly simple farmacia shopfront on Via Dei Serragli – with its heritage typeface in gold and mint green accents – that perpetually draws me in. There is a charm to honouring the years it has stood there in the face of the creep of modernity and gentrification. I stop in my tracks every time.

Then of course, there’s the food, so imbued with the tapestry of Italy, where each region produces its speciality, which it usually deems is the best in all the land. But it’s not simply the cuisine that is memorable; it’s the service and the personality with which you are served here.

At Hostaria da Fulvio on Via Sant’Agostino, you ask for a table for two with no reservation at peak hour, and Giulio the waiter finds that table while making you feel like you belong, and for this time, in this area, you do.

He brings you complementary sparkling while you wait – “I’m sure you do this for all your girls, Giulio” – as he regales you with the lore behind his leopard print cigarette lighter. The taglierino al limone might actually be the best in all the land, as may the tiramisu to finish.

I never leave Florence without something to remember each visit by, and on an afternoon swanning through the streets, I often find myself at Heart to Heart on Via Santo Spirito, my feet slippered in its speciality, the friulane shoes Italian women have adored for years as their go-to and which have been popularised by the High Street. Almost uncontrollably, a pair comes home with me.

Thus, a little part of the streets of Oltrarno is always in my steps, no matter how far away I may travel.

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