Florence for The Time Travellers: a Friday-to-Monday weekend

Stand on the site of the Roman forum, now framed by a nineteenth-century triumphal arch; the Column of Abundance marks the old crossroads.

The republic's town hall, still in use: the Hall of the Five Hundred, Cosimo I's apartments and the secret staircase to his study.

Shared tables, hanging hams and a bistecca fiorentina, in a trattoria that has fed the city's gossips for generations; arrive by 19:45.

Donatello's David and Michelangelo's drunk Bacchus in a thirteenth-century prison and palace, a calm start to the day before the Uffizi.

A two-hour small-group tour through Giotto, Botticelli and Leonardo, with a guide who knows the Medici gossip; closed Mondays, so Saturday it is.

Where the Futurists and the Lacerba poets plotted their manifestos over the cheap red; sit in the red-jacketed waiters' room and order a drink and supper.

The grand-ducal palace's picture gallery hung floor to ceiling, with Raphael's Madonna of the Chair, among the best rooms in the city; book the opening slot.

The Medici's formal garden climbs behind the palace in terraces and cypress avenues, with fountains and an Egyptian obelisk at the top.

A vaulted Oltrarno room for a Sunday supper of Tuscan classics; try the pappardelle with wild boar before a walk along the Arno.

Climb the double dome between its inner and outer shell, past the fresco of the Last Judgement; the engineering is as good as the view.

Masaccio's frescoes here taught the Renaissance to paint perspective and human weight; the church is open on Mondays when many museums are not.

A market-worker canteen since 1953 with shared tables and cash only; take the ribollita or the Florentine steak and be gone by 15:00.