Basilica of San Lorenzo

The Basilica di San Lorenzo stands on its own square a short walk north-west of the Duomo, and the Opera Medicea Laurenziana, the body that runs it, describes it as the oldest cathedral in Florence: the first building raised for worship in the city and the first seat of its bishops, consecrated in the presence of Saint Ambrose in 393 and dedicated to the deacon and martyr Lawrence. Nothing of that first church survives. A second one, rebuilt in 1059 under Pope Nicholas II, is known chiefly from documents.

One ticket covers six connected spaces, and the operator lists them plainly: the basilica itself, the Old Sacristy, the cloisters, the Treasury Museum, the crypt and the monumental undergrounds. The nave is the reason most people come, a grey stone and white plaster interior whose proportions Brunelleschi fixed and which later work in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries did not spoil. The Old Sacristy is the piece art historians single out: Brunelleschi built it between 1419 and 1428, Donatello added the sculptural decoration between 1428 and 1443, and it is the only building the architect saw through from start to finish.

Allow an hour and a quarter. The Opera Medicea Laurenziana publishes no suggested visit length, so seventy-five minutes is this guide's judgement rather than a figure read off the operator's page. It divides roughly into twenty-five minutes in the nave and side chapels, fifteen in the Old Sacristy, which repays standing still more than walking around, ten in the cloisters, and twenty below ground in the Treasury Museum and the undergrounds, where the Pontormo room and Cosimo the Elder's tomb are easy to walk past in a hurry.

Monday–Saturday 10:00–17:30; Sunday closed. Last admission is 16:30. Closed on 1 January, 6 January, and 10 August. Public visiting hours may change for special religious celebrations. The basilica is open to visitors Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 17:30, with access to the church from 10:00 and last entry at 16:30. Sunday is not a visiting day: the operator's published visiting hours run Monday to Saturday only, and Sunday belongs to the services, at 9:30, 11:00 and 18:00. Three fixed dates are closed outright, 1 January, 6 January and 10 August, the last of them the feast of Saint Lawrence, when Florence honours its co-patron and the church is given over to the celebration rather than to visits.

General admission is €9. The ticket covers the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Old Sacristy, cloisters, Treasury Museum, crypt, and monumental underground rooms. The Laurentian Library and Medici Chapels require separate tickets. Entry to the basilica complex costs 9 euro per person, and the ticket is bought at the basilica's own ticket office rather than online: the operator states plainly that the ticket is purchased directly at the biglietteria. That single ticket admits the holder to the basilica, the Old Sacristy, the cloisters, the Treasury Museum, the crypt and the monumental undergrounds. Free entry is granted to children up to twelve years old, to disabled visitors and their companions, and to tour guides and group leaders.

The basilica is at Piazza San Lorenzo 9. From Florence Airport, tram T2 serves the city centre, calls at Stazione S. M. N. , and terminates at Piazza dell’Unità; continue on foot from Unità to Piazza San Lorenzo. The address the operator publishes is Piazza San Lorenzo 9, 50132 Florence, with the telephone number +39 055 214042 for general enquiries and 055 216634 for anything to do with the services. The square sits inside the walking centre of Florence, a few minutes on foot from the Duomo in one direction and from Santa Maria Novella station in the other, and walking is how nearly every visitor arrives.

The operator guarantees access throughout the basilica complex for visitors with reduced mobility. A rather steep ramp on the basilica's left side connects Piazza San Lorenzo with the churchyard and cloister. The church has an accessible ramp at the right-side worship entrance. A stairlift provides wheelchair access to the Treasury Museum. Interior ramps connect the church's different levels. San Lorenzo is a working church before it is a monument, and the operator sets out what that means in a list of rules posted for visitors. Access is permitted only to people dressed appropriately, which in practice means covered shoulders and knees and is enforced at the door.

Photography is allowed inside the basilica, with conditions the operator states directly: pictures may be taken without disturbing other visitors, and flash, tripods and other professional equipment may not be used. Anyone who needs professional gear has to ask for specific permission in advance by writing to the Opera Medicea Laurenziana at its published address for such requests. That rules out the two things a photographer would most want in a dim interior, so the practical answer is a fast lens, a raised sensitivity setting and something solid to brace against, a pillar or the back of a pew rather than a monopod.