Price tier: $$$
Our Take on Il
· Wine + dining Il Santo Bevitore is the senior restaurant of the Marin family's Oltrarno empire, opened in 2003 on Via di Santo Spirito and built around a cellar that takes the full Tuscan canon — Chianti Classico, Brunello, Bolgheri, Carmignano — and quietly extends it into Etna, Piedmont and the Loire. The bar seats inside the front room allow a drinker to commit to the wine without ordering a full meal, and the by-the-glass programme includes the genuinely rare opening of older Brunello vintages by the Coravin.
Service is formal in a way the city has largely abandoned. Ranks fourth because the format is more restaurant than bar but the cellar discipline is unimpeachable.
For the full ranking, see our editorial round-up of the 10 best wine bars in Florence, the broader Florence wine bars guide, and our category index of wine bars worldwide.