The Best Performing Arts Venue in Florence, Italy

Background Illustration for Performing Arts

Florence has a lively classical music scene. The internationally famous annual Maggio Musicale lights up the musical calendar in early spring, and continues throughout most of the rest of the year. Fans of rock, pop, and hip-hop might be somewhat surprised by the absence of live acts that make it to town (for such offerings, traveling to Rome or Milan is often a necessity). What it lacks in contemporary music, however, it makes up for with its many theatrical offerings.

Giunti Odeon

Piazza della Repubblica Fodor's Choice

This magnificent Art Deco theater, opened in 1922, has been transformed into a versatile cultural space with a bookstore, movie theater, and restaurant–bar. More than 25,000 books (there's an English-language section) fill the marble entrance and expansive ground floor. The upper galleries, with plush velvet theater chairs, are good places to take a break from sightseeing during the day and to watch international films in their original languages at night. A hidden restaurant and bar to the right of the entrance stays open after midnight (when the movies finish) and is a cozy setting for brunch, lunch, dinner, and drinks; its attached Piazza degli Strozzi patio is a popular aperitivo spot.