Five Books for a Florence You Haven’t Seen

Florence, as everyone knows, has been written about by countless authors. Plenty of books catalog its art, its traditions, its curiosities. Most of those guides, though, walk the same well-worn routes. We at FUL want to point you toward five books that open a different perspective on the city, with off-the-map itineraries and a thoroughly modern approach. So whether you are a first-time visitor, a seasoned returnee, or a Florentine born and bred, here are five reads worth your time.

1. Firenze, by Ginevra Poli

First up is Ginevra Poli’s Firenze, from the Feltrinelli/Morellini series. The book sets out to give tourists and Florentines alike new reasons to look again. This is more than the usual heritage tour: the author, an art historian and journalist, maps out unexpected routes and lesser-known corners, revealing an intimate, authentic side of the city.

Readers will find tips on where to eat, where to sleep, and where to shop, along with events worth catching, sports and outdoor activities, bookshops, and things to do with kids. If Florence can seem frozen in time, this book reveals a city that is very much alive.

The guide also includes a glossary of local dialect, and rounds itself out with a lightweight PDF (included in the price and downloadable to phone or tablet), a Spotify playlist, extra audio on Loquis, and QR codes linking to videos and recordings. All of it adds up to a genuinely immersive, all-around experience.

2. Firenze 2054, by Luciano Artusi

For a more playful take on the usual city guide, look to the WhaiWhai series from Marsilio Editori. Each title turns the reader into a player, phone in hand. Through a string of messages built around riddles, you are led on a hunt across the city, shedding the tourist’s role to become an explorer fully immersed in the discovery.

The Florence installment was written by Luciano Artusi, a knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, president of the City of Florence’s toponymy commission, deputy vicar president of the Italian Federation of Historical Games, and a lifelong scholar and popularizer of Florentine history. In this inventive format, he unveils forty-five Florentine sites, weaving together Renaissance splendor and folk legend.

What follows is a real adventure through the city’s hidden streets and corners, its anecdotes, legends, and oddities. The mystery to be cracked, in true WhaiWhai fashion, involves UFOs and a secret they have supposedly hidden in Florence.

3. Raccontami Firenze, by Michela Micheli

First a column, then a book, Raccontami Firenze. Firenze raccontata dai suoi cittadini (“Tell Me About Florence: The City in the Words of Its Own People,” Udom) grew out of Michela Micheli’s refusal to let go of a city that had lodged itself in her heart while she was living in Rome. Her solution was to carry Florence with her by telling its story through the voices of the people who live it: artisans, artists, restaurateurs, booksellers, and writers she spent four years listening to.

The Raccontami Firenze series now runs to several volumes, each handing the microphone to the people who inhabit the city day in and day out, or who chose it, as the author did, out of love. What emerges is the city’s most authentic soul.

4. La Fiorentina, by Martina Olivia Bondi

Billed as a decidedly un-touristy guide to Florence, La Fiorentina. Fashion, style e luoghi cult di Firenze (“The Florentine Woman: Fashion, Style, and Cult Spots of Florence,” Mandragora) is a deep dive into fiorentinità itself. By tracking what the true-blue Florentine loves, where she eats, and how she dresses, the reader discovers artisan workshops, shops, restaurants, bookstores, places to spend a free afternoon, and where the locals do their grocery shopping.

It lays bare the art, culture, and craftsmanship of the most quintessential Florence. If you want to sink fully into the city’s atmosphere and feel like a genuine local, this is your book.

5. Guida di Firenze per veri fiorentini, by Sara Innocenti

Sara Innocenti, an influencer and licensed tour guide, has the same goal in Guida di Firenze per veri fiorentini (“A Guide to Florence for Real Florentines,” Newton Compton): to reveal a local Florence, describing the places only true Florentines know, alongside traditional festivals, tucked-away artisan workshops, and plenty of unusual routes in search of famous love stories or on the trail of the great figures who shaped the city’s history.

Useful facts, turns of phrase, and much more, as the book’s own description promises. The reader gets a living, contemporary Florence, alive not only through its traditions but also through its street art, its hidden symbols, and its picture-perfect photo spots. Through her Instagram page and her blog, Innocenti set out to be an “influencer for Florence,” turning a love of the city into a real calling. A book was the natural next step, a way of bringing us all in on her curiosity and enthusiasm.