Empoli Christmas Market

Empoli, on the Arno plain some thirty kilometres west of Florence, is a town of industry and glass more than a city of art, but it has made December its moment: “Empoli Città del Natale” fills piazza della Vittoria and piazza Farinata degli Uberti with chalets, a Ferris wheel, a carousel and a tree that the town council presents as the tallest in Tuscany. Empoli Christmas market had 70 wooden chalets in 2025, a figure that places it among the best-stocked markets in the region, and it is reached by regional train from Florence: an easy outing for anyone spending a December weekend in the Tuscan capital.

Empoli Christmas market: 70 chalets, a Ferris wheel, snow at set times

The 2026 dates have not yet been announced; the town council usually publishes its programme around mid-November. In 2025 the eleventh edition ran from 15 November to 11 January, with an opening on Saturday 15 November at 5.45pm on piazza della Vittoria, the lighting of a giant rocking Santa Claus, a horse-drawn carriage, then at 6.30pm the lighting of the tree on piazza Farinata degli Uberti. The 70 chalets stayed up until 24 December between the two squares.

New in 2025 was a Ferris wheel on piazza della Vittoria, open Monday to Friday from 3pm to 10pm, and at weekends and on public holidays from 10am to 1pm then from 3pm to midnight. On piazza Farinata degli Uberti, around the tree, a classic carousel turned for the children, and artificial snow fell at set times every Saturday, Sunday and public holiday, at 4.30pm, 5.30pm, 6.30pm and 7.30pm, from 18 November to 7 January. An ice rink with a reindeer ride occupied piazza Matteotti, a little Christmas train ran through the centre, and themed houses welcomed children’s favourite characters, superheroes, princesses and the Grinch. The XMas Show, with Empolino the donkey, the town’s mascot, and a dance school, was performed three times an afternoon at weekends.

Piazza Farinata degli Uberti and the Tuscan tree

Piazza Farinata degli Uberti is the old heart of Empoli, an arcaded square named after the Florentine Ghibelline leader who, at the Diet of Empoli in 1260, refused to let Florence be razed after the Battle of Montaperti. The collegiate church of Sant’Andrea, with its green and white marble façade, closes it on one side, and it is here that the Christmas tree is put up, opposite the fountain. The event is run by the Associazione Centro Storico, the association of town-centre traders, together with the town council, which gives the market its openly commercial side: people come here to buy presents as much as to drink a hot chocolate.

The rest of the programme is that of a town festival: concerts, street entertainment, workshops, a light trail between the squares. The 2025 edition featured large-scale light installations in the streets of the centre. Families from the area find here, without climbing into the Apennines, a Ferris wheel, snow and a Santa Claus on weekdays as well as Sundays.

Empoli glass, artichokes and hot chocolate

Empoli is the “city of glass”: green Empoli glass, blown for chianti flasks and carafes, made its reputation in the 20th century, and the glass museum tells its story, which also makes it a gift idea to bring back from the chalets. The local cooking is that of lowland Tuscany: the Empoli artichoke, a local variety, ribollita, chicken-liver crostini, schiacciata, and Sammontana ice cream, which was born here. At the chalets, panforte and ricciarelli from Siena, cantucci, chocolate and vin brulé, served hot with the usual spices.

The wine is Chianti, whose hills begin south of the town. If you want to know what a sangiovese mulled wine is like compared with the Alsatian or Tyrolean versions, it is all explained in mulled wine and its variations.

Practical information and getting there from France

Empoli is a railway junction: the Florence-Pisa line crosses the Siena line here, and regional trains from Florence Santa Maria Novella are frequent. The station is a few minutes’ walk from the market’s two squares, in a flat centre that is covered without effort. By car, the Fi-Pi-Li, the free Florence-Pisa-Livorno expressway, serves Empoli; the car parks are around the centre. The market takes two hours to see; with the Ferris wheel, the ice rink and the show, half a day.

The right format, from Florence, is the afternoon: regional train after lunch, chalets and tree in daylight, snowfall at 4.30pm or 5.30pm for the children, Ferris wheel as the centre lights up, and back to Florence for dinner. The chalets close on 24 December, but the Ferris wheel, the ice rink and the tree stay in place until January: between Christmas and Epiphany, Empoli therefore keeps its attractions when most Tuscan markets have packed up their stalls. 8 December and the Saturdays before Christmas are the busiest times.

• Where: piazza della Vittoria and piazza Farinata degli Uberti, in the centre of Empoli (metropolitan city of Florence).
• When: 2026 dates to be confirmed by the town council; in 2025, from 15 November to 11 January, chalets until 24 December, snow at set times at weekends until 7 January.
• How much: free entry; Ferris wheel, ice rink and little train charged, 2026 prices to be confirmed.
• Getting there: regional train from Florence (Florence-Pisa line) or Pisa, station a few minutes from the market; by car, Fi-Pi-Li exit Empoli.
• Nearby: Florence Christmas market, Arezzo Christmas market and its Tyrolean village, and Montepulciano Christmas market further south.

From France, Empoli is treated as a day trip from Florence. The TGV and Frecciarossa Paris-Turin-Milan trains have been running again via the Maurienne valley since spring 2025 (direct services suspended for works from 11 September to 9 October 2026, before the season); from Milan, a Frecciarossa takes you to Florence, then a regional train heads to Empoli. A long day from Paris, arriving in Florence in the evening. By car, the Mont Blanc or Fréjus tunnel (toll), the A1 to Florence then the Fi-Pi-Li; a long day from Lyon, more from Paris. By air, Florence and Pisa are the two nearest airports, both linked to Empoli by train.

Empoli, between Pontormo and Busoni

The town was the birthplace of two artists with nothing in common: the painter Pontormo, born in 1494 in the hamlet of Pontorme, a master of Florentine Mannerism, whose house can be visited, and the composer and pianist Ferruccio Busoni, born in Empoli in 1866. The collegiate church museum holds works by Masolino da Panicale and Francesco Botticini, and the Romanesque collegiate church of Sant’Andrea marks the main square with its two-tone façade.

Empoli is also a football town, with a club that regularly plays in Serie A for a municipality of 50,000 inhabitants, and a factory town, from glass to ice cream. Empoli Christmas market 2026 is aimed first of all at the Tuscans of the plain; for a visitor from France, it is the easy add-on to a stay in Florence, by regional train, with a Ferris wheel and snow thrown in.