Florence Italy Travel Guide

Our second stop of our Italian adventure was HIGHLY rated from others! I’m sharing how we traveled to Florence, where we stayed, our 24 hour itinerary, my unpopular opinion on the city, recommendations & more!

Logistics

After the nightmare of getting to Venice our travel experience to Florence was a breeze! We hopped on a mid morning train at the Venice train station {Stazione di Venezia Santa Lucia} & got to Florence {Firenze Santa Maria Novella} a little over 2 hours later. Luckily the train station was just minutes from our hotel, so we walked as opposed to grabbing a cab. The streets are cobblestone so this is another instance where we were so glad we were traveling with carryon sized suitcases.

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Where to Stay

We stayed at Hotel Botticelli {Via Taddea, 8, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy}, and like I mentioned above, it was logistically convenient to the train station. It was also within walking distance to all other activities we wanted to do. I mentioned this in my Venice post, but Tyler & I prefer to walk everywhere if our schedule allows, so we loved being able to walk everywhere from our hotel.

We were only going to be in Florence for one night, so I didn’t want to stay anywhere fancy. The hotel was clean, the staff was kind & we didn’t have any issues. My only complaint was that the bed was not comfortable, which made getting a good nights sleep a little rocky. But the air conditioning worked really well which wasn’t always the case during our trip so it was much appreciated. Especially by Tyler!

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Our 24 Hour Florence Itinerary

June 6::

We arrived right around noon on Thursday, and since we knew we only had 24 hours we wanted to hit the ground running. Disclaimer– I felt a little overwhelmed leading up to our time in Florence. Mainly because we only had 24 hours & it was the one city that came with the highest praise. It seemed like anyone and everyone we talked to raved about this city, so we were excited to hit the ground running.

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Since we got into town around lunch time our room wasn’t quite ready yet. We dropped our luggage off & headed straight out to lunch. Trattoria Zà Zà { Piazza del Mercato Centrale, 26r, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy } was recommended to us several times, and just so happened to be on the same block as our hotel! We walked over to grab a quick bite & glass or two of wine. The wine here was just as good as the wine we had in Venice btw! We wanted something a little light to eat that day, so we just opted for salads, but they hit the spot.

Like I mentioned before Tyler & I love just wandering around when we travel, and we really made little to no plans for our time in Florence so we did just that. After lunch we walked through the Mercato Centrale Firenze {Piazza del Mercato Centrale, Via dell’Ariento, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy} and checked out all of the local goods & eats.

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Afterwards we wandered over to the Piazza del Duomo to take in the sights. It is so beautiful y’all, but there are tourists galore! Which we obviously expected. Because we only had one day in Florence, we opted to not take any tours, we didn’t want anything to take up too much time out of our only full day. One thing we did do, that was super fun, and would recommend, is climb to the top of Giotto’s Bell Tower. We got our tickets same day, and spent the next hour or so climbing to the top & taking in the gorgeous views.

Walking up all of those stairs called for a little shopping. I had heard the Gucci Garden is a must see, and I was on the hunt for an Italian souvenier so what better place to start?! Sadly I didn’t find it in Florence, but we did walk around & wander through the shops, around Galleria dell’Accademia (we didn’t go in) and the Piazza della Repubblica. I was dying to get on the merry-go round! HA.

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Lunch, shopping & sightseeing :: check! Now it was time for some wine! A friend of mine recommended this awesome rooftop bar, so we ventured down toward the Arno & had a glass or two at La Terrazza Continentale {Vicolo dell’Oro, 6, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy}. This little rooftop bar is so cute, has great views, but filled up quickly with people. We didn’t make reservations, but if you’re wanting to go around dinner I would definitely recommend making them! By this time it was getting close to dinner time, so we ventured back to the hotel to freshen up & have a little happy hour on our hotel’s terrace before heading to dinner.

After our self induced happy hour we ventured to my favorite part of our stay in Florence! Dinner! We settled on 4Leoni {Via de’ Vellutini, 1r, 50125 Firenze FI, Italy} for dinner. Side note:: it is so hard to decide where to eat when there are so many amazing recommendations. I made this reservation online, which I would strongly encourage you to do if you’re interested to eat here because if we didn’t have reservations we wouldn’t have been able to get a table.

Y’all this was my favorite meal of the trip. The menu was only in Italian, and we had terrible phone service so would could barely use google translate. The waiter was very helpful & super friendly throughout our dinner and suggested some incredible dishes. I had their pear & asparagus stuffed pasta & Tyler had a bolognese of sorts I believe. Whatever you do when you visit Florence, you MUST go to dinner at 4Leoni { Via de’ Vellutini, 1r, 50125 Firenze FI, Italy} and order this pasta. It was incredible, and maybe my favorite pasta dish of the whole trip! Their white wine selection was amazing too. I cannot recommend this restaurant enough. The only thing I would do differently is make a reservation to sit outside (as ours was inside), and maybe order another round of their pear & asparagus pasta..

After dinner we took our time walking back & grabbed some gelato at Venchi {Piazza del Mercato Nuovo, 6, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy}. There are several locations of this gelato shop btw. I was dying to try Perché no!, but it was already closed for the evening!

Day 5:: June 7

Since we had limited time in Florence we wanted to make the most of this morning before catching our 1pm train to Cortona. We got up early & started making the long walk to the top of the Piazzale Michelangelo {Piazzale Michelangelo, 50125 Firenze FI, Italy }. This was recommended to us by several different people, it’s known for its incredible views of the city. It took us quite some time to get there from our hotel, and we stopped for some espresso & breakfast sandwiches at Il Rifrullo {Via di S. Niccolò, 55r, 50125 Firenze FI, Italy} on the way which were delicious! Since we stopped for breakfast it took us about an hour to get there from our hotel (on our way back it was more like 30-40 minute walk). The views of the city were unlike anything we’d seen, they were incredible y’all.

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After our long haul to & from Piazzale Michelangelo we worked up quite the appetite! SO we were on the hunt for some yummy Italian sandwiches before catching our train. We took our time walking back & walked through some of the shops nestled in the Ponte Vecchio. This bridge is lined with jewelry & souvenir shops! Then we headed to All’antico vinaio {Via dei Neri, 76, 50122 Firenze FI, Italy} for some panini sandwiches that came highly recommended! These sandwiches were HUGE y’all, Tyler & I could have easily shared one sandwich, but when in Florence right?! I made my own with some of the best mozzarella I had of the trip. It was the perfect last pit stop before leaving Florence.

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My Thoughts

All in all (while we enjoyed Florence) we were a little underwhelmed by our overall experience. It just didn’t live up with high expectations we had set. It is a beautiful city, with so much history, but we just didn’t fall in love with this city like we did some other cities during out trip. I know this is an unpopular opinion, and that’s okay! I know so many people love Florence, which is why we were so sad to be underwhelmed.

Maybe we needed more time in Florence to fall in love with the city, and to explore more off the beaten path areas of town, but after our first day we were both ready to leave & head onto Cortona. All in all, I would go back to Florence and give it another chance, but I don’t know that I would devote more than a couple of days there.

Random Tidbits

• The city is known for their leather, and there are leather shops everywhere!
• Florence is famous for their bistecca alla Fiorentina. A steak preparation you can find on most menus. It is typically cooked medium rare.
• Drivers are wild. They will squeeze through groups of people, crowded streets, etc. Coming from Venice, it was so different!

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Other Recommendations*

• Pino’s Sandwiches
• Il Bottegone
• Perché no!
• Don Nino
• La Bussola
• Osteria del Proconsolo
• Il Procopio
• Buca dell’Orafo
• Osteria Cinghiale Bianco

*We received these recommendations from others, but could only fit in so much.

That’s a wrap y’all! Our time in Florence was short, but hopefully this guide is helpful! See my Venice Travel Guide here, and stay tuned for more Italy Travel Guides from Cortona, Rome & Positano!