What to do in Florence on a rainy day

Florence's centre is compact, so a wet day is mostly about choosing two or three indoor stops within a 15-minute walk of each other and booking the timed ones before you leave the hotel. The list below is ordered for a first wet day: one major gallery in the morning, a smaller museum or church after lunch, and something warm and covered for the late afternoon.

Prices, hours and closures below are the pattern most visitors meet, but they change by season and by year: treat every figure as a 2026 estimate to confirm on the official site for the day you go. Many state museums in Florence close one weekday, commonly Monday, so a Monday rain plan should lean on churches, markets and the covered parts of the Duomo complex.

Florence's big two, the Uffizi and the Accademia, sell timed tickets online and the booking fee is worth paying on a wet day: the walk-up line is partly outdoors and moves slowly in rain. Smaller museums such as the Bargello, the Medici Chapels and the Museo Galileo rarely need a reservation, but their hours are shorter and some close one weekday, so check the day before.

Churches are the cheapest wet-day shelter and the cathedral interior is free to enter, though the dome, baptistery and campanile are ticketed and involve outdoor queuing. A combined Duomo pass covers several of them; decide whether you actually want the dome on a wet day, because the view is the point and the climb is not.

If you plan three or more state museums, ask at the ticket desk whether a cumulative pass works out cheaper for your dates. The saving is real only if you would have paid for each one separately.

Almost everything on this list sits inside the historic centre, within a 20-minute walk of the Duomo, so rain mainly means an umbrella and dry shoes rather than transport planning. The Uffizi, Palazzo Vecchio and the Arno museums are on the south-east side; the Accademia, San Lorenzo and the Medici Chapels are on the north side; the Brancacci Chapel is across the river in Oltrarno.

Florence's buses run across the centre and are useful if you are staying outside the old town or the rain turns heavy; buy tickets before boarding from a tabaccheria or a machine, and validate them. Taxis wait at the main station and at a few stands in the centre, and are the quick option for the far side of the Arno. The city's historic centre is a restricted-traffic zone, so driving in and parking is not a wet-day plan.

Florence's main station, Santa Maria Novella, sits on the north-west edge of the centre, a short walk from the Duomo, and is the arrival point for high-speed trains from Rome, Bologna and Venice, which makes a rainy day trip from those cities possible if you start early (check current timetables and journey times).

Rain in Florence usually arrives as heavy showers rather than all-day drizzle, so build in a dry window: check the radar in the morning, put the outdoor stops (Ponte Vecchio, Piazza della Signoria, the Oltrarno lanes) into the clearest hour, and keep the museums for the worst of it.

Cobblestones and stone steps get slippery, and the centre can flood in short bursts after heavy rain, so waterproof shoes matter more than a coat. Many churches ask for covered shoulders, which a rain jacket already solves. Cafés and bars fill fast when it pours; use them as a break rather than a plan.

If you are travelling with children, the Museo Galileo and the science-friendly displays hold attention better than a two-hour gallery, and the covered market halls give them room to move. For a wet evening, Florence's food and bar scene is indoor by nature.

Florence's wettest stretch is generally reported as October and November, with a second wetter spell in spring around March and April; summer is hotter and drier but crowded, and winter is cold and quieter with shorter museum hours. Treat the pattern as a guide and check a forecast for your dates (check). For a trip built around indoor sights, late autumn and early spring are the practical choice: fewer people in the galleries and lower hotel rates than in May or September (check).

Whatever the season, mornings are the calmest time in the Uffizi and Accademia, and the first timed slots sell out first. If your only free day is a Monday, plan around the closures rather than against them.