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Florence's bars and pubs are spread across a handful of neighbourhoods, and each one pulls in a different crowd.
For this relatively small city, Florence has something for everyone looking for a spot or two to plant themselves for a drink in the evening. Florence's drinking vibe is mostly informal rather than posh, though the locals do love any excuse to get dressed up. Florentines tend not to drink much compared to their English-speaking or European counterparts, and you will rarely see a drunk Florentine, but going out for a drink is a good excuse as any to socialise, to be seen and meet up with friends. Here's a quick guide on the areas and types of watering holes around town.
Ordering a birra
While the locals love cocktails and wine, there are more than a handful of pubs in the centre to satisfy the local expat community and visitors who like nothing more than a bit of elbow-bending with a cold beer. Try some of the great Italian beers on offer: Nastro Azzurro, Peroni and Moretti may be familiar to most, but Menabrea is difficult to find outside of the country and is a fantastic choice.
When asking for your birra take note that it usually comes in a small size, piccola, or medium, media, which corrsponds to a half pint and a pint, respectively. If you want it from the tap ask for birra alla spina as opposed to in bottiglia, a bottle. For a pale beer, ask for a birra bionda orchiara, a birra rossa will get you a red-amber brew, and a birra scura, a stout.
Florence's bars and pubs, area by area
You can find a string of pubs frequented by young locals and rowdy students in Santa Croce's Via dei Benci, while scattered throughout the centre, Irish pubs can be found in most of the main piazzas of Florence. For beer aficionados, there is one brewery in town, found at the Porta San Frediano in the local neighborhood quarter of the oltrarno.
San Niccolò and the negroni
For the more sophisticated crowd, head to the neighborhood of San Niccolò where you will find the fashionable locals sipping on cocktails. In the warm weather, these establishments tend to spill out onto the streets, where you can more easily see and be seen.
San Niccolò itself is small, little more than a couple of streets and the old Porta San Niccolò. The hill up to Piazzale Michelangelo rises right behind it. Watch the sunset from up there, then walk down for a drink.
Internationally-known cocktails are popular, so ordering a mojito, caprioska, or even a vodka tonic will need no translation, but if you want something more Italian, ask for a negroni (Campari, vermouth, gin), an americano (Campari, vermouth and soda) or anything with Campari, a bittersweet, ruby-red coloured alcohol made from herbs and highly reminiscent of cough-syrup. You will soon become addicted. For something a little lighter, ask for a prosecco, a sparkling wine. Expect to pay between 7-10 euro (and sometimes more) for one drink.
The addiction part isn't far off, and the negroni is the proof. It was invented here, in 1919, at Caffè Casoni on Via de' Tornabuoni. Count Camillo Negroni wanted his americano with more of a kick. So the barman, Fosco Scarselli, swapped the soda for gin. The other regulars started ordering an americano the Count's way, and before long it simply had his name. A year later a friend in London wrote to warn him: no more than twenty a day. In fairness, the glasses were smaller back then.
Santo Spirito and its steps
Artsy and alternative types will find themselves at home in Piazza Santo Spirito, where most of the rowd tend to buy a cheap beer from one of the little “minimarkets” nearby and sit out on the steps of the Renaissance church. In the summer, a small bar is set up in the middle of the piazza and there are often live concerts to add to the lively atmosphere. There are also several artsy bars in the piazza if you prefer a proper table and chair.
The church is Brunelleschi's, although its façade was never finished. That's why the wall behind all those beer bottles is so bare.
By day the streets around the piazza belong to framers, restorers and furniture-makers with workshops in the Oltrarno. Our article on a private Florence tour with artisan workshops shows what goes on behind those doors.
Wine by the glass
Wine is on the list at almost all of Florence's bars and pubs. Ask for un calice di rosso and you'll often get a Chianti, poured without fuss. The house wine, vino della casa, is often perfectly decent, especially in small, unfussy places. It also costs a good deal less than a cocktail in most bars. If the labels mean nothing to you, our piece on Chianti wine explained will help you read them.
A Vernaccia from San Gimignano is the local white to try. Florence also has proper wine bars, of course, and they deserve a guide of their own.
Keep an eye on the walls as you walk between bars. All over the centre you'll find buchette del vino. These are small arched hatches with a wooden door, set into the side of old palazzi. In 1559 Cosimo I de' Medici let noble families sell wine from their own estates straight from home. You knocked, handed in your flask and a servant passed it back full. Most were sealed up long ago. Babae, in Via Santo Spirito, has opened its own again. In the early evening it hands glasses of wine out to the street.
What is aperitivo?
Before any of this comes aperitivo, the early-evening drink with something to eat. Plenty of Florence's bars and pubs put out food with it. Sometimes it's just crisps and olives. Elsewhere you'll find crostini, cold cuts and a bowl of pasta salad. In some bars the food comes with the drink, in others you pay extra. You could make a meal of it in a few places. Still, Florentines treat it as a warm-up and then go on to dinner. At this hour you'll see plenty of Aperol spritz, which is really a habit from the Veneto. Florentines are just as likely to have a negroni or a glass of prosecco.
Watch where you stand, too. In many bars a drink costs more at a table than at the counter, and the difference can be double. Both prices are normally on the list near the till. Want to eat properly before heading out? The food hall upstairs at the Mercato Centrale has lots of choice under one roof, from pizza to fresh pasta.
Before you order
A few rules to keep in mind: The minimum drinking age in Italy is 18 years.
Tipping isn't expected at the bar, although nobody will mind the odd coin left on the counter. At a busy counter you may have to pay at the till first. Then you hand your receipt to the barman.
Salute!
