r/florence

I have a two week trip coming up in Italy, starting in Florence and ending in Sicily. This will be my first time in Florence, Rome, Tuscany and Sicily (I have been to Venice and Trieste). I was hoping to get some feedback on the Florence leg of our trip and have laid out the Florence itinerary below.

We are huge foodies, love good wine (as well as sitting outside with a spritz) and try to visit the major museums when visiting cities. We also love designer clothes shopping, however we tend to look more for deals on designer items when shopping as our home city has most of the major designer stores.

As you may have guessed, I have spent a somewhat ridiculous amount of time researching restaurants, tours and experiences for us to try while we are there (although a lot of the time was spent on the restaurants). Any input about the below would be greatly appreciated such as:

• Are these days too full?
• Is there anything you would recommend cutting?
• Are there any must-dos that I missed (Restaurant or Tour/Experience)?
• Are there any restaurants mentioned below that you loved/hated? I am trying to focus on places that people thought where among the best that they tried

Our full trip will be Florence from the 6th to the 9th, Tuscany from the 9th to the 12th, Rome from the 12th to the 17th and Sicily (Ortigia and possibly Monaci delle Terre Nere) from the 17th to the 21st (flying out of Catania), although I haven't even started looking at the rest of the trip yet!

For anyone still reading, thank you in advance for any advice!

Day 1 Arrival in Italy/Florence (Tuesday October 6th)

• Taxi from airport (30 euro plus fees a year ago)
  • We will have lots of baggage, so I don't think the tram will be feasible
  • AirBnB is located right next to Palazzo Gucci
• Lunch: Osteria Buongustai, Trattoria del Fagioli or Sant'Ambrogio Food Market
  • I am thinking somewhere East of our AirBnB since most of our time will be spent to the West on later days
  • Sant'ambrogio  Food Market is open until 2:00 each day
  • Other Options:
    1. Trattoria Maga Mago
    2. Osteria Cancello dei Macci
    3. Trattoria Verdi
    4. La Buchetta
• After Lunch:
  • Basilica de Santa Croce
  • Optional: Palazzo Vecchio (right by airbnb, could save for another day)
  • Optional: Piazza del Signoria (right by airbnb, could save for another day)
  • Optional: Piazzale Michaelangelo for the Sunset (this is across the bridge and probably a bit of a hike that we might be too tired for)
• Dinner: Vini e Vecchi Sapori
  • Located right by our Airbnb, need to call for reservations
  • Heard fantastic things, normally we focus on super local spots for the first day but this could be worth the change in plans. Could do something like Osteria Buongustai for lunch to get the local fix in
  • Other options: 
    1. Osteria Cacio e Vino all'Antico Borgo
    2. Ristorante Il Profeta Firenze
    3. Ristorante Del Fagioli
    4. Cancello de Maci
    5. Trattoria Verdi
    6. La Buchetta
• Sidenote: 
  • My original plan was for us to walk across Ponte Vecchio into the Boboli Gardens and Pitti Palace, but I have heard the gardens are not great currently due to renovations and lack of blooms in October
  • I did not want to schedule anything other than dinner in case of travel delays

Day 2: Uffizi and Shopping (Wednesday October 7th)

• Breakfast: lighter sandwiches or pastries
  • La Schiacciata, I Girone de Ghiotti, Alimentari Uffizi
  • More research to be done on breakfast/sandwiches
• The Mall Firenze
  • Bus Tickets can be scheduled for 20 euro per person round trip, or it is a 70-euro taxi each way,
  • Multiple shuttles per day but I imagine we want to get there when they open at 10
  • About 40 minutes each way, 25-minute walk to bus station
  • Added this due to our love of the Vallee Village outside Paris
• Back to the city for Lunch
  • Trattoria Sostanza is on the same half of the city as the station,
    1. Butter chicken that we wanted to try
    2. Logistically could be difficult to combine with Uffizi since we probably want to stop first by the airbnb before the museum (especially if we bought things)
  • Other Options:
    1. Trattoria del Fagioli
    2. La Buchetta
    3. Trattoria Verdi
    4. Osteria Buongustai
    5. Degusteria Italiana (fancier)
    6. Vini e Vecci (if we don't go on first night)
• Uffizi in Afternoon
  • I downloaded the Rick Steves App, wanted to save money on this tour so we could focus on tours with private access like the Duomo tour on day 3
• Dinner: We are leaning towards a higher end dinner this night
  • First choice is one of the Vito Mollica locations (Salotto Portinari Bistrot di Vito Mollica or Atto di Vito Mollica if we want tasting menu)
    1. People on the fine dining subreddit were saying that the Atto di Vito was their favorite of the six Michelin starred places in Italy that they tried
    2. We tend to prefer a la carte over tasting, so may lean towards Bistrot di Vito Mollica
  • Nugolo
    1. This one looks to have very nice views and also very good looking food
  • Degusteria Italiana
  • John Travolta pasta at Ristorante il Profeta
• Sidenotes
  • We could also swap the Mall Firenze and Uffizi so we do Uffizi in the AM and mall in the afternoon
  • We could also cancel the mall entirely to focus on the fancy shopping streets in downtown Florence or just walking through the city but we do love designer outlets shopping

Day 3: Duomo and David (Thursday October 8th)

• Breakfast: lighter sandwiches or pastries
  • La Schiacciata, I Girone de Ghiotti, Alimentari Uffizi
  • More research to be done on breakfast/sandwiches
• Free time before tour for walking around 
• Duomo is scheduled for 12:00 - 2:30
  • I have a semi-private tour through Towns of Italy that will allow us access to the rooftop terraces of the Duomo and provides a better start point to climb the dome
  • This was a more expensive tour (about 120 per person), but I thought it was worth it for the exclusive access
• Lunch at Trattoria Sergio Gotti or Ristorante Brandolino if Trattoria Sergio Gotti is closed by the time we get there (since it closes at 3)
  • Both of these are located near the Duomo and David statue
• Galleria dell’Accademia in afternoon after lunch
• Optional: Magi Chapel
• Dinner at I’Tuscani at 8:30
  1. I wanted to find the best Florentine Steak for our final night, this one was very highly recommended on Google, Reddit and Beli
• Sidenote: We could try to do the Galleria dell’Accademia before Duomo which would give us the last afternoon to walk around, but online reservations are already booked up that morning. Firenzecard may allow us to do this in the morning when we book a timeslot via phone

Day 4: Leaving Florence for Tuscany

• I have a transfer wine tour booked through Cool Tours with Anna
  1. Pick us up on Florence, tour through Montalcino wineries and drop off in Tuscany for wedding
  2. I figured this tour would check the boxes for winery visits and our transfer to Tuscany

Overall Notes:

• I did not look into cafes, deserts and gelato at all yet, since these might be more spur of the moment decisions
  1. For Gelato, the only requirement I have is that it is stored in pozzetti
• I will definitely want to look into Wine Bars and Happy Hours as well near our AirBnB
• I am undecided if we want the Firenzecard or if we should just buy tickets to each museum.
  • If we do the mall on day 2, it might make more sense to do individual tickets
  • We cannot do Galleria dell’Accademia on Thursday morning without it
  • This also would allow us to walk into Palazzo Vecchio whenever we wanted which is right by the AirBnB

Thank you again for taking the time to read this novel.

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Im interested in Florence for its cultural landmarks and beautiful architecture. Since I’m half Sicilian I’d also love to connect more to my roots. Im not interested in traveling around Europe much, only to England to visit some family members and Switzerland to hike. I love nature and I’d prefer being outside instead of touristy spots, besides art museums.

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Thoughts?

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It ran across my path, through a gate and into a garden - I got my torch and shone it on it and it turned ; 100% a monkey. I believe a capuchin!

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I am going on a trip to Venice next week, and booked a day trip from Venice to Florence but made the oh so dumb mistake of booking the basic Italiarail fare and on a Monday.

I was hoping to visit the Uffizi and Accademic gallery but both will be closed. Is it worth calling a loss on the train ticket and book on a different day or will I still have a great time without these two museums?

Thank you!