Florence, Italy

After the wedding in Tuscany, we drove for ~1 hour to Florence. Florence was the birthplace of the Renaissance, so much of the major sight-seeing is focused on Renaissance art and architecture. The historic center of Florence is quite small, so we found it very easy to walk around and explore the sights.

Activities

Free Walking Tour: As we always do when visiting cities, we booked a free walking tour. We learned that while Florence is relatively small in size (especially compared to the nearby city of Rome), it is home to 75 museums! On our tour we saw stunning architecture and iconic cultural landmarks such as Piazza di San Lorenzo and Cattedrale Di Santa Maria del Fiore in Piazza del Duomo Medici. We also went to Piazza della Signoria to see the 16th century fountain of Neptune, the replica of the Statue of David, and Palazzo Vecchio.

Ponte Vecchio: We enjoyed walking across this famous bridge. On our walking tour, we learned that butcher shops used to exist along the bridge and the butchers would throw the waste into the river. This proved to be very unsanitary and eventually a rule was put into place that only allowed jewelers to have shops on the bridge. To this day, that is still the case! On the “other side” of the Arno River across Ponte Vecchio is Oltrarno. There are lots of great restaurants and cute shops in Oltrarno.

Bargello National Museum: This museum was recommended by a friend-of-a-friend who lived in Florence. It is one of the oldest buildings in Florence that dates back to 1255 and is very sculpture focused and not the traditional tourist stop. Many museums (especially the more touristy ones) in the city are closed on Mondays, but this one is not.

Food

Trattoria Zà Zà: This Tuscan restaurant came highly recommended and did not disappoint! It is famous for its truffle fries and truffle pasta.

Osteria Cinghiale Bianco: This restaurant is known for its Florentine steak, which we can confirm is out-of-this-world and pairs well with their house Chianti.

Gelateria Santa Trinita: This is right around the corner from Osteria Cinghiale Bianco. We recommend getting either the mint or the fig and honey gelato.

Shopping

Fratelli Peruzzi: We stumbled across this Judaica store when walking across Ponte Vecchio to Oltrarno. It is the only Judaica store in Florence and a lot of their silver is displayed at the Synagogue of Florence. We bought a honey dipper with a beautiful silver Star of David to always remember our 2023 Rosh Hashanah spent in Italy!

Mercato Centrale: It is definitely touristy, but we enjoyed walking through and seeing products made by local vendors.

Leonardo Shoes: This is a local store that has handcrafted leather shoes and jackets.

Desii Vintage: This is a fun vintage store we enjoyed checking out.

Next Time

Next time we visit Florence, we want to visit many more of the museums, including the Uffizi Gallery and the Accademia Gallery to see the world-famous David of Michelangelo. And although we saw Cattedrale de Santa Maria dei Fiori, next time we want to actually climb either the Duomo or the Campanile (the bell tower next to the Duomo). The latter offers spectacular views of dome itself, while the former offers a fun experience of climbing up around the dome and seeing the interior frescoes up close.