FLORENCE FROM UMAMMA

Sixteen million people a year visit a historic centre you can cross on foot in twenty minutes. Florence is worth every minute of the crowd, but it is far better as a day than as a week, and much better still when the evening happens somewhere else. From Umamma it is 35 km, about 35 minutes by car.

THE ONE THING TO KNOW BEFORE YOU DRIVE IN

Florence's historic centre is a ZTL, a restricted traffic zone watched by cameras. Drive into it in a hire car and the fine finds you months later, forwarded by the rental company with an administration fee on top. It catches out a very large number of visitors every year.

The answer is simple: do not drive into the centre. Park in one of the ring garages just outside the zone and walk in. The centre is small enough that everything is within twenty minutes on foot of everything else. And on the day you would rather not think about it at all, there is a station at the bottom of our hill with direct trains into Santa Maria Novella in under half an hour.

A DAY THAT WORKS

Arrive early. The Uffizi and the Accademia both need tickets booked in advance, and both are transformed by being there before the tour groups consolidate. The Duomo, Santa Croce, the Bargello and the Palazzo Vecchio all sit inside the same short walk.

Cross the Arno after lunch. The Oltrarno is where Florence still works: leather workshops, gilders, frame makers, and the Boboli Gardens above them. Climb to Piazzale Michelangelo late in the afternoon for the view, then come down into Santo Spirito for a drink in a square that belongs to the city rather than to its visitors.

Drive back over the hills as the light goes. You will be in the pool before nine.

WHY NOT SIMPLY STAY IN FLORENCE

Because a comparable night in the centre costs more than this entire villa and gives you a room with a window onto a street. Here the same money buys 230 square metres that belong to nobody else that week, a heated indoor pool with no opening hours, and a view across the hills. You come back from the most visited city in Tuscany and close a door behind which there is nobody at all.

WHAT WE CAN ARRANGE

Museum tickets, a private guide, or a driver for the day if you would rather not drive at all. Ask when you book.