Florence, verdict by verdict

Florence is the Renaissance kept walkable: the Duomo, the Uffizi, Michelangelo's David and the Ponte Vecchio all inside a centre you can cross in twenty minutes, with Tuscan wine country at the doorstep. The scale is the charm, heavyweight art and architecture without heavyweight distances, plus the food, wine bars and aperitivo culture to fill the evenings.

The price is that Florence lives almost entirely on tourism. The corridor between the Duomo and the Ponte Vecchio becomes a tourist canyon at peak hours, museum queues and booked-out time slots are the rule rather than the exception, and anyone after an undiscovered Italy, beaches or a wild nightlife scene is in the wrong city. July and August run hot, crowded and quiet on the local side.

Three days covers the Uffizi, the Accademia, the dome climb and Oltrarno across the river, with a fourth for Pisa, Chianti or Siena. The winning rhythm is early mornings: the Uffizi at opening, David on the first slot, evenings across the river for dinner, and shoulder season over midsummer; winter is cold but the museums are blissfully empty. Base in the historic centre or Santa Croce and walk everywhere.