THE SECRET MUST- SEES OF FLORENCE

St Mark’s English Church, Via Maggio

Secreted inside a 15th-century palazzo, St Mark’s has been a home-from-home for English travellers since it was founded by the Reverend Charles Tooth in 1881. Decorated in Pre-Raphaelite style, it is a gathering point for ex-pats on Sunday mornings.

Villa La Pietra, Via Bolognese

The colossal Renaissance villa, perched on the hills above Florence, owned by Sir Harold Acton. Here he entertained Evelyn Waugh and Princess Margaret. He left it to New York University.

The Vasari Corridor, the Uffizi

The secret passageway that connects the Palazzo Vecchio with the Uffizi and the Palazzo Pitti. It sneaks its way across the Arno, beautifully concealed above Florence’s most famous bridge, the Ponte Vecchio.

The English Cemetery, Piazzale Donatello

The last resting place of a thousand aesthetes. An idyll, scattered with cypress trees, beyond Florence’s medieval walls. Among the English buried here is the poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in a tomb designed by Lord Leighton.

Palazzo Lanfredini, Lungarno Guicciardini

Acton’s town villa, now home to the Institute’s Harold Acton Library. For 20 euros, you can join the library for a month, read its books and papers, and luxuriate in one of the finest rooms in Europe.

Villa La Colombia, Via Di Santa Maria a Marignolle

Florence Nightingale’s birthplace, where she was born in 1820 – thus her first name. The 15th century villa is now a nunnery, for the Adorers of the Blood of Christ. On a hill above Florence, it has lovely views of the city.