Picteau anchors the Hotel Lungarno lobby on Borgo San Jacopo with a salotto-style room hung with Picasso and Cocteau pieces and a terrace pointed straight at Ponte Vecchio, where bartenders Marco Colonnelli and Vincenzo Civita run a cocktail programme paired with the Borgo San Jacopo kitchen.
Tip: The riverside terrace is the seat in summer; the indoor lounge with the Picasso fireplace works year-round. Cocktails run around 22 euros.
Address: Borgo San Jacopo 14, 50125 Firenze, Florence
Rasputin tucks Florence's first true speakeasy behind an unmarked Borgo Tegolaio door in the Oltrarno, with a 45-seat candle-lit room dressed in red velvet, an extensive whisky back bar and a cocktail list that runs Prohibition classics alongside unexpected ingredient pairings.
Tip: Ring the bell, then wait for the hatch to slide open. Reservation is required, no standing inside, and photography is banned. The location is deliberately misplaced on Google.
Locale Firenze occupies the thirteenth-century Palazzo delle Seggiole with a cocktail programme ranked fifteenth on the 2025 Top 500 Bars list, set across multiple basement levels of vaulted stone where the bar team pairs modern mixology with a restaurant kitchen.
Tip: Open every night to 02:00, with a dinner reservation easier to land than a bar-only seat on weekends. The vaulted lower rooms with original Renaissance stonework are the seat to ask for.
Rasputin tucks Florence's first true speakeasy behind an unmarked Borgo Tegolaio door in the Oltrarno, with a 45-seat candle-lit room dressed in red velvet, an extensive whisky back bar and a cocktail list that runs Prohibition classics alongside unexpected ingredient pairings.
Tip: Ring the bell, then wait for the hatch to slide open. Reservation is required, no standing inside, and photography is banned. The location is deliberately misplaced on Google.
Mayday Club hides on Via Dante Alighieri opposite Dante's house with a vintage-radio-themed room run by mixologist Marco Arduino, whose cocktail programme leans on organic Tuscan botanicals, essential oils and small-batch infusions paired with nightly live music slots.
Tip: Closed Mondays; the room is small and books up on weekends so reserve ahead. The bar runs cocktail classes for groups of one to four with Arduino on Tuesday afternoons.
Bitter Bar opened in 2017 on Via di Mezzo in the Sant'Ambrogio quarter as a Roaring Twenties cocktail room run by mixologist Cristian Guitti, with a ring-the-bell entry, low jazz, and a list weighted toward Negroni variations and South American agave spirits.
Tip: Reservations are required and easier to land midweek. The room is small and dimly lit; ask Guitti for an off-list build using pisco or mezcal.
Manifattura sits on the small Piazza di San Pancrazio off Via della Spada with a vintage-inspired dimly lit room dedicated entirely to Italian spirits and liqueurs, including a deep back bar of regional amari, vermouths, grappas and bitter aperitivi from across the country.
Tip: Ask the bartender to walk you through the amaro flight; the menu is a starting point. The Negroni built here references the cocktail's Florentine origin a few hundred metres away.
Crisco Club has run on Via Sant'Egidio behind Piazza Santissima Annunziata for more than two decades as Florence's main gay cruise and fetish room, with themed nights including Naked-Jockstrap, a dark room, a late dance floor and a programme that runs Monday through Saturday.
Tip: Closed Sundays; weekend programming pushes past 04:00 and the room peaks after 01:00. Tessera at the door, leather and fetish dress codes for themed nights.