We should have had 3 days in Florence, but Mere and I unfortunately could not quite hold to our plans due to a case of food poisoning (for Meredith, not me). I'm writing the condensed 2 day itinerary in Florence.
Tower of Pisa (canceled plan)
We had a train scheduled from La Spezia (a town south of Cinque Terre, accessible by the regional train) that was going to stop in Pisa so we could briefly see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. That had to be cut from our trip. If we had stopped in Pisa, the Tower is a 15 minute walk from the train station and it would have been 15 euros to climb the tower.
We continued onward to Florence and arrived in the afternoon. We were staying in Hostel Archi Rossi which was centrally located and pretty nice. Breakfast was included and there were 2 different walking tours. I went out on my own that night to walk around the city--it was a little smaller than I had anticipated so I covered a ton of ground. It was a relaxing evening for us.
This post should be called "Everything leads to the Duomo," because as you'll see in photos, it's very visible from anywhere in the city.
One other important thing to know--lots of mosquitoes in Florence during the summer. Mere ended up with more than 30 bites!
Day 1
7am--Accademia Fail
We attempted to go see the Accademia Museum (the site of the David statue), but the line was already SO long and was hardly moving. Pro tip--book tickets ahead of time. We did not. Guess we'll have to go back to Italy some day. So many people told me that I had to see the David statue in person, but we prioritized the Uffizi Gallery (another museum) for this trip. There is David statue replica in Palazzo Vecchio so that's about as close as we got to the man.
8am--Church of San Marco
Eager to start our tourism, we visited a church called San Marco. It was 4 euros to enter and not too thrilling. I'd skip that if I were doing this trip again. I would have saved that entrance money and gone to the Medici Chapel, probably, which was about 8 euros.
I had walked past a market the night before and Mere is quite the shopper, so we went to an outdoor stretch of vendor carts. The market runs from the Church of San Lorenzo to Via Nationale. You can haggle with the vendors (something I hate) and they'll typically knock a few euros off the sticker price. Here's a picture of Mere before I ruined a haggle of hers.
10:30am--Vecchio Tower
Here's a pro-tip. Climb the tallest tower in every city for a splendid view. It's possible to climb the Duomo in Florence, but the line is long, and Mere and I realized that if you climb the Duomo, it won't be in the photos at the top! We got tickets to the Vecchio Tower (both the palace and the climb), and you get to wind your way through the palace before climbing the final tower. The rooms were gorgeous and it was interesting to learn about the place. But let's be honest, we were there for the view at the top. It did not disappoint.
We grabbed lunch (I can't remember where), and walked around a bit. The main sights in Florence are the Duomo and Ponte Vecchio, the bridge across the river. When you walk across the bridge, there are tons of jewelry shops on either side. Kind of fun to window shop!
1:00pm--Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens
We walked after lunch over to the Pitti Palace. On the way, there were different art vendors and the work was really beautiful! At the Pitti Palace complex, you can get a combined ticket for several of the exhibits. Info here. We saw the Porcelain Museum, the Costume Gallery (that was SUPER cool, included some of the real clothing of the Medicis), and the Boboli Gardens. You could walk around the Gardens for a long time. Definitely hike up to the top for a beautiful view. We were exhausted after this, so we meandered to the Belvedere Fort, (not too, too much to see, but it's on the way back home), and we took a break at our hostel for a while. We did a LOT of walking.
I don't have many recommendations for gelato places since they're all amazing, but we did go to Festival del Gelato and it was really, really good! Kind of hard to miss this shop because it's neon!
After a bit of a break at our hostel, we set out again to find dinner and to hike up to Piazza del Michaelangelo. My college roommate had studied abroad in Florence and her top tip was to take dinner up to this area of the city to watch the sunset. We went to All'Antico Vinaio for sandwiches and this was hands-down the best sandwich I'd ever had. It's a bit of a tourist trap, hole-in-the-wall butcher shop and they kind of mess with you, but choose the meat that you want and let them do the rest. 5 euros for a HUGE sandwich. Mere and I would return twice more the next day, the sandwiches were THAT good. We had a tomato mozerella sandwich, a pork sandwich, and a salami sandwich. They added the spreads and toppings to best complement the main ingredient. Mere and I split the sandwiches since they were so big.
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| This guy was hilarious--when we asked for a mozzerella sandwich, he put the whole ball on ciabatta! |
It runs from the Church of San Lorenzo along Via Ariento all the way to
Via Nazionale. - See more at:
http://www.walkaboutflorence.com/articles/markets-florence#sthash.ifXBRlVz.dpuf
It runs from the Church of San Lorenzo along Via Ariento all the way to
Via Nazionale. - See more at:
http://www.walkaboutflorence.com/articles/markets-florence#sthash.ifXBRlVz.dpuf
It runs from the Church of San Lorenzo along Via Ariento all the way to
Via Nazionale. - See more at:
http://www.walkaboutflorence.com/articles/markets-florence#sthash.ifXBRlVz.dpuf
It runs from the Church of San Lorenzo along Via Ariento all the way to
Via Nazionale. - See more at:
http://www.walkaboutflorence.com/articles/markets-florence#sthash.ifXBRlVz.dpuf
It runs from the Church of San Lorenzo along Via Ariento all the way to
Via Nazionale. - See more at:
http://www.walkaboutflorence.com/articles/markets-florence#sthash.ifXBRlVz.dpu
9:00pm After watching the sunset, we meandered home. We probably covered more than 10 miles walking and we were tired! (And Mere was still recovering from food poisoning). Amazing day.
Day 2
9am--Church Santa Maria Novella
We walked over to see the front of the church--pretty beautiful. Didn't go in. It is a beautiful city to just walk around and take in the hustle and bustle. I expected the city to be a little more quaint, but the streets are crowded and motorcycles are everywhere! Also, lots of tourists in the summer.
10am--Hostel Tour
Our hostel ran a free tour, so we tagged along for about half of it. This spit us out by the Duomo (of course), so we decided to go in to see what all the hype is about. Make sure to have your scarf covering your knees! We walked in and out quickly and it was gorgeous, as most of these churches are.
11:30am--All'Antico Vinaio
We had an early lunch at our new favorite sandwich shop. We sat by one of the outdoor markets and people-watched as we ate.
1:00pm--Uffizi Gallery
The Uffizi Gallery was our main event of the day, a stunning museum of Renaissance artwork. Meredith loves art history so this was my graduation gift to her. I booked the tickets ahead of time which I highly recommend because the line is so long to get in. We did the museum stroll through the whole place. I loved the open windows because you also got some good views of the city while in the museum. It was huge so it took us a while to make our way through the place, but because it was hot outside, we didn't mind taking our time.
4:00pm--Santa Croce
One last church that I wanted to see was Santa Croce, the burial place for Galileo, Machiavelli and Michaelangelo. Pretty awesome! I just loved the style of the church--the pale pink and jade made for a really interesting color combo.
5:30pm--Dinner and a relaxing evening
Surprise, we had another sandwich from AAV and we wrapped up the night sitting in the patio of our hostel sipping wine. It's super cheap from grocery stores.
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