What are the most worthwhile things to do in Florence on a first visit?

The Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore sells a Brunelleschi Pass covering the Baptistery, Giotto's Bell Tower, Brunelleschi's Dome, the Opera del Duomo Museum and Santa Reparata. It is valid for three calendar days counted from the date you choose for the dome, and within those three days the other monuments can be visited without time constraints. The dome is the exception: it requires a reserved date and start time that cannot be changed, with a five-minute grace period and nothing more.

The climb itself is the single most physical thing most visitors do in Florence. There are 463 steps and no elevator. The Opera strongly discourages the ascent for anyone who is pregnant or who has a cardiovascular or respiratory condition, vertigo or claustrophobia, and states that the dome is not wheelchair accessible and not recommended for people with reduced mobility. Names entered at purchase are checked against identification at the door, visitors under 18 must be accompanied by an adult, and a single order is capped at ten tickets.

The Uffizi works on different logic. Its own single ticket is 25.00 euros purchased on the day of entry, which makes it the most expensive single admission in the historic center and the one most worth giving a full, unhurried stretch of time rather than squeezing between two other bookings.

Florence Cathedral is faced in green and pink polychrome marble, and Brunelleschi's dome sits on top of it without external buttressing. From the lantern the whole inscribed center reads as a single terracotta plane broken only by towers — which is exactly what the 463 steps buy you, and why the climb is treated as an attraction rather than a shortcut.

Because the Brunelleschi Pass starts counting from the dome date, the dome slot effectively schedules the rest of the Duomo complex. Book a dome time on your last morning and you waste most of the three days of validity. Book it on your first morning and the Baptistery, the bell tower, the museum and Santa Reparata all stay open to you across the remainder of the trip with no further reservations.

• Day one — Dome slot early, then the Baptistery and the Opera del Duomo Museum on the same pass.
• Day two — A half-day at the Uffizi, entered at opening rather than after lunch.
• Day three — Giotto's Bell Tower and Santa Reparata, still covered by the pass, with the afternoon free.

The access restrictions on the dome are the real constraint, and they are not advisory in practice: identification is requested at the climb, and the staircase has no step-free alternative. On the gallery side, the Uffizi's closed Mondays and its 1 January and 25 December closures remove whole days from a short itinerary. And the US Department of State's Level 2 advisory for Italy, exercise increased caution, is worth checking against your insurer's wording before you travel.

See the Florence when-to-visit answer for the Monday closures that govern both great galleries, and the Florence food answer for what Tuscany's protected designations actually certify.