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The Poggi Ramps

The elegant 19th-century ramps and waterfalls climbing to Piazzale Michelangelo: Florence's most scenic ascent.

Giuseppe Poggi • 1872 to 1876 • restored and re-lit in 2019

Walk the Ramps Get Early Access
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Below the Piazzale

Start at Porta San Niccolo on the river

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Free and Always Open

No ticket, no gate, no closing time

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Twenty Minutes Up

Steady climb, all of it paved

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Lit at Night

The 2019 restoration relit the whole run

🧭 Why This Experience

The elegant way up to Piazzale Michelangelo. Poggi's 19th-century ramps zigzag through grottoes, fountains, and gardens, turning the climb into a promenade. Restored and re-lit in 2019, they're the connoisseur's route to the sunset.

🏛️ The Backstory

Giuseppe Poggi built the ramps (1872 to 1876) as the scenic ascent of his grand viewpoint project while Florence played national capital. Engineering dressed as landscape, with cascading basins cooling the walk.

💡 Worth Knowing

The ramps' waterworks ran dry for decades until the 2019 restoration rewoke every fountain and grotto. Most tourists take the road or the stairs; the ramps carry a fraction of the traffic for twice the beauty. Florence's best free upgrade.

WHERE THE CLIMB STARTS

At the Foot of the Ramps

Porta San Niccolo stands alone at the bottom, the only Florence gate that kept its full height. The water arrives here last, into the basin at its foot, having come the whole way down the hill.

Porta San Niccolo from the foot of the ramps, its pointed arch open onto the street and the city beyond.
The gate you walk throughThe climb starts at Porta San Niccolo. Poggi laid the ramps between 1872 and 1876 to carry you from this gate up to the terrace he was building at the top of the hill.
Looking up into the vaulted passage of Porta San Niccolo, the far arch framing the street beyond.
Into the vaultStanding in the gateway and looking up before the climb begins.
Iron tethering rings and a wrought iron torch bracket set into the stone flank of Porta San Niccolo.
Rings and a bracketIron rings and a torch bracket are still set into the flank of the gate.
Water running from an arched opening in the rusticated wall into a long curved stone basin at the foot of the tower.
Where the water ends upThe water arrives here, at the foot of the tower. Since 2019 it has been well water, recirculated from a cistern of 27,000 litres, rather than city supply.
Water sheeting from a rusticated arch over cut stone into a curved basin, moss green along the joints.
The same basin, closeClose to, the water picks out every joint in the cut stone. It ran dry for about a century before the 2018 to 2019 restoration turned it back on.
THE FIRST RAMP

The Climb

The roadway turns back on itself against the buttressed wall. This is where the ramps stop being a route and start being a garden.

The ramp roadway climbing beside a buttressed retaining wall, a handrail running along the top of it.
The roadway turnsThe roadway climbs beside the retaining wall. The wall is the point. The first job here was to hold the hillside still, and the garden is what that engineering looks like when Poggi does it.
Porta San Niccolo from the ramps, a double flight of stairs across its flank and water falling under the arch below.
The flank of the gateThe side of the gate, seen from the first ramp. A double flight of stairs crosses its flank, and the water falls under the arch beneath.
A thin veil of water falling down a mossy recess set into pale cut ashlar in the retaining wall.
A veil in its nicheOne of the water veils on the way up. The whole system runs top to bottom, and every part of it is fed by the one above.
SPUGNA, PEBBLE AND FERN

The Five Grottoes

Rusticated arches faced in spugna, the porous stone that grows moss and holds water. Neo-Mannerist in style and Victorian in date, and the ferns inside them are part of the design.

An octagonal rusticated pier standing on the parapet of the ramps, carrying an iron bracket.
The octagonal pierAn octagonal rusticated pier stands on the parapet, carrying an iron bracket.
A grotto front of spugna encrustation and pebble panels, a corbelled cornice above and a steel guardrail across the top.
The middle of the fiveThe middle of the Five Grottoes. Spugna encrustation, pebble panels set between the rusticated courses, a corbelled cornice above, and a steel guardrail along the top that is ours and not Poggi.
A grotto arch encrusted with spugna, ferns hanging inside it and a thread of water falling to the pool.
One arch, at scaleOne of the grotto arches with the water running again. Over 1,200 aquatic and semi-aquatic plants went back in during the 2018 to 2019 work.
Inside the grotto, ferns and moss on wet encrusted rock with water running down the face.
Inside, and drippingInside, the rock is wet all the way up and the ferns hold wherever the water touches.
THE SHELL, AND THE WAY BACK DOWN

The Top of the Climb

The marble shell where the water is let out, the lily above it, and the first point on the walk where you can turn round and see how far you have come.

Looking down from the ramps over the roadway and the square below, the gate tower standing beyond.
Looking back downLooking back down over the roadway and the square, with the gate beyond.
Porta San Niccolo seen from the ramps above, the rooftops of the city and the hills behind it.
The gate from aboveFrom here the gate is below you and the hills are behind it.
A carved marble scallop shell set in a rustic wall with water falling from beneath it, a pebble mosaic Florentine lily above.
The shell and the lilyThe waterfall with the shell. A marble conchiglia sends the water down the rock face, and the Florentine lily is worked in pebble mosaic on the wall above it.

Live Prices & Availability

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  • Start the climb about an hour before sunset and you arrive at the terrace as the light turns.
  • Early morning is empty and the fountains are running. Almost nobody does this.
  • Coming down after dark is the better direction. The lighting was designed for it.

  • The cascades run again after the restoration. They had been dry for decades.
  • Look into the niches and grottoes on the way up. Most people walk straight past them.
  • If the ramps are closed for works, the stairs from Piazza Giuseppe Poggi do the same job less elegantly.

  • There is very little shade on the way up. In summer, go at either end of the day.
  • It is paved and gently graded, so a pushchair works. A wheelchair does not, quite.
  • Bus 12 or 13 will take you up if you would rather only walk down.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the Poggi ramps?
The monumental switchback ascent Giuseppe Poggi built between 1872 and 1876 to carry visitors up to Piazzale Michelangelo, with fountains, grottoes and planted terraces the whole way. It is engineering dressed as landscape.
Is it a hard climb?
No. It is about twenty minutes of steady, evenly graded, fully paved slope. It is markedly easier than the stairs and much more pleasant than the road.
When were they restored?
The waterworks had been dry for decades until a restoration completed in 2019 brought every fountain and grotto back and added lighting for the whole route.
Is it worth it over the bus?
If you have the twenty minutes, yes. The ramps are the best-designed walk in Florence and a fraction of the people using the road are on them.

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