Open-Air Summer Cinemas in Florence
Where can you watch a film under the stars in Florence? From the squares of the historic center to hidden gardens, by way of parks, cloisters, former industrial spaces, and castles, every summer the city and its surrounding towns fill up with open-air screenings. It is one of the most reliable pleasures of a Florentine summer.
Some of these arenas are by now institutions; others come and go, or return after years away. Between free screenings, screens tucked into greenery, wireless headphones, talks with directors, and panoramic settings, here is a map of the open-air cinemas that come back season after season.
Historic center
Apriti Cinema: the big screen in Piazza Pitti
Every summer Piazza Pitti turns back into the great open-air arena of the Estate Fiorentina festival. Across dozens of evenings the public can watch films, documentaries, previews, and talks with guests drawn from the leading Italian and international festivals — all free of charge.
The event is organized by the association Quelli dell’Alfieri, with programming curated by Cinema La Compagnia (part of Fondazione Sistema Toscana) in collaboration with the Uffizi Galleries. The result is one of the most important open-air film series in Tuscany, bringing works from different cultures and cinematic languages into the historic center, alongside tributes to the great figures of film history and special evenings on the ties between cinema, art, and literature.
📍 Piazza Pitti
Cinema in Villa Bardini: films with a view over Florence
Probably one of the most beautiful arenas in Italy. From the panoramic terrace of Villa Bardini, cinema meets one of the finest views of the city. Each summer the program offers the best of the season just past — big hits, auteur films, and evenings for the whole family. It is an experience worth the ticket for the setting alone.
📍 Costa San Giorgio 2
Cinema in the Cloister of Sant’Orsola
Among the most evocative settings of the Estate Fiorentina is the Cinema in the Cloister of Sant’Orsola. Inside the former convent on Via Guelfa — now at the heart of a major cultural-regeneration project — Spazio Alfieri sets up a summer arena devoted to great auteur cinema.
The series leans toward auteur films, original-language screenings, debut features, and themed strands, including cinema from the Middle East, along with tributes to the masters of Italian film. It is a reliable stop for anyone who wants their summer viewing with an edge.
📍 Sant’Orsola, Via Guelfa
Oltrarno and the Cascine
Chiardiluna: the Florentine summer classic
For many Florentines, this is the summer cinema. Set in the San Frediano district, the Chiardiluna remains a landmark for anyone who loves watching films outdoors in a simple, authentic atmosphere. For decades it has kept the Oltrarno company through summer evenings with a program that alternates Italian and international cinema with the season’s big hits.
📍 Via Monte Oliveto, at the corner of Viale Aleardi
Cinema at Manifattura Tabacchi
One of the city’s most contemporary arenas is the one hosted by Manifattura Tabacchi. Within one of Florence’s major urban-regeneration projects, cinema becomes an occasion for meeting, reflection, and sharing inside a space in continual transformation.
The program, curated by Fondazione Stensen, mixes films, themed series, and special guests. Wireless headphones let you experience the screenings in an immersive, original way.
📍 Manifattura Tabacchi
Campo di Marte
Light: cinema and culture in the Campo di Marte garden
Between concerts, events, shows, and open-air activities, Light devotes one evening a week to the big screen with “Il Cinema di Marte.” It is a free appointment that brings cinema into the greenery of Campo di Marte and broadens the cultural offering of one of the city’s busiest summer venues.
📍 Viale Manfredo Fanti
Poggetto
Esterno Notte at the FLOG
Cinema, swimming pool, aperitivi, and culture come together on the Poggetto hill. The FLOG summer arena hosts “Esterno Notte,” the series curated by Fondazione Stensen, with films, talks, and special events all summer long.
The setting is the historic FLOG, in recent years once again one of the symbolic sites of Florentine summer social life. Among the space’s strengths are the large parking area, the bar open every evening, and the chance to spend a whole day moving between the pool and the cultural program.
📍 Via Michele Mercati
Florence North
Cinema Castello Summer Arena
One of the cinemas most loved by Florentines opens its summer season in the club’s open-air courtyard. The Cinema Castello continues a tradition that has accompanied evenings in the northern part of the city for years, offering recent releases, restored classics, and themed series.
📍 Via Reginaldo Giuliani 374
Beyond Florence
Cinema under the stars at the Roman Theater of Fiesole
Few places bring together history, landscape, and cinema like the Roman Theater of Fiesole. As part of the Estate Fiesolana festival, the ancient arena hosts a film series under the stars that turns one of Tuscany’s most striking archaeological sites into an open-air auditorium with a rare kind of charm.
The programming, curated by Fondazione Stensen, alternates contemporary Italian cinema, biopics, family films, and some of the most acclaimed titles of the latest season.
📍 Roman Theater of Fiesole
OpenCine at Castello dell’Acciaiolo
In the atmospheric orchard of the Parco dell’Acciaiolo, OpenCine — organized by the Amici del Cabiria — brings cinema together with cultural depth, screening films introduced by experts, scholars, and local associations. The screenings tackle themes such as sustainability, inclusion, work, rights, and historical memory.
📍 Parco dell’Acciaiolo, Scandicci
Arena Giardino Grotta: nearly ninety years of cinema under the stars
In Sesto Fiorentino stands one of the longest-running historic arenas in Italy. For close to ninety years the Giardino Grotta has shown open-air cinema in a space that seats around 400. A fifteen-meter screen, a Sony 4K projector, and the chance to dine in the garden before the screening make it one of the most beloved arenas in the metropolitan area.
📍 Sesto Fiorentino
CineGiardino Dentro le Mura in Lastra a Signa
Open-air summer cinema returns to the historic center of Lastra a Signa, where the Giardino delle Mura hosts an arena that gives the town back a space for meeting and social life in the heart of the old walls. The series, curated by the Teatro delle Arti di Lastra a Signa, offers auteur cinema, comedies, international films, and themed strands for a range of audiences.
📍 Giardino delle Mura, Lastra a Signa
Luci nella Notte in Montespertoli
Montespertoli, too, keeps up its appointment with the big screen under the stars through “Luci nella Notte,” the film series organized by the Casa del Popolo Montespertoli and the ARCI Allende club. The garden of the Niccolò Machiavelli primary school turns into an open-air arena where cinema is enjoyed in an informal, community atmosphere.
📍 Giardino della Scuola Primaria N. Machiavelli, Montespertoli
A drive-in in Loro Ciuffenna
Over in the Valdarno, Loro Ciuffenna has revived the charm of the drive-in, bringing back to Tuscany a way of watching films that shaped the collective imagination of the twentieth century. Under the summer sky, spectators can follow the screenings from their own cars or take seats set out in front of the big screen.
📍 Piazza Borro di Tonino, Loro Ciuffenna
Not only cinema: the spectacles of the sky at Arcetri
For those who want to look beyond the big screen, the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory runs its “Summer Nights at the Theater of the Sky.” It is a cycle of encounters that brings together astronomy, science outreach, music, and storytelling about the universe in one of the most captivating spots in Florence. Between stars, space missions, exoplanets, artificial intelligence, and the origins of life, the program carries the audience through humanity’s great questions: where we come from, who we are, and where we are going.
📍 Theater of the Sky — Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory
