Filming locations in Florence

Florence has long been a gift to costume drama, and few films use it as feelingly as A Room with a View. James Ivory's 1985 adaptation sets its Edwardian heroine loose in the Renaissance city, and the pivotal moment arrives in Piazza della Signoria, the great civic square where a sudden, shocking incident throws her, and the whole story, into the arms of fate.

That square is the obvious place to start, and happily it costs nothing: open at the city's heart, ringed by the fortress-like Palazzo Vecchio and an open-air loggia crowded with sculpture, it is busy from morning to night. The Uffizi gallery opens off one corner, so the film's most charged setting doubles as the gateway to one of the world's great art collections.

A short walk away stands the basilica that the heroine explores earlier in the film, Santa Croce, the vast Franciscan church that holds the tombs of Michelangelo and Galileo. It is a working church and monument with paid entry and a modest dress code, though the lively square in front of it is free to enjoy and a fine place to pause.

The two locations sit within an easy stroll of each other in a famously compact centre, so there is no need for anything but good shoes. Base yourself anywhere within the historic core and the film's Florence, squares, churches, river and all, unfolds around you on foot.

Florence has lent its domes and bridges to costume romance and murder mystery alike, and the city absorbs the attention gracefully. Trace the Room with a View moments between a gelato and the next famous facade, and you will see exactly why filmmakers keep returning to this open-air Renaissance stage.