Florence is a city you could spend weeks in and never experience everything. We only had a few days here so this travel guide will hit just a few of the highlights within the city.
WHAT TO DO:
See The David at the Accademia. I strongly suggest buying your tickets before for a viewing time. Arrive right before your scheduled time and you will only stand in line for a few minutes. In addition to this famous sculpture there are many more paintings and sculptures from the same era. I am more of a modern art lover so we did not spend much time here. We just quickly browsed the galleries. I will add that it is very hot with little A/C therefore going earlier in the day would be better. Accademia
Visit the Gucci Museum. Very interesting selection of art, Gucci products and other things. If you like fashion this would be something to add to your list. It takes about 30 minutes to go through the whole thing. Gucci Museum
Climb to the top of the Duomo to take in the view of the city . It is located at the top of the Florence Cathedral. Duomo
Visit the Mercato Centrale. It is comprised of an outdoor market with leather goods and an inside one with stores and a food court. Highly suggest spending a few hours here and looking around and sampling the food and drink. Mercato Centrale
WHAT TO EAT:
The gelato here is wonderful and you cannot go wrong with what flavor you select!
Our favorite restaurant we ate at was at Trattoria Camillo Cavour located just blocks from the Accademia Gallery. We were met when we walked in by the owner himself. He treated us like family the whole time. My favorite dining experience from the whole Italy trip was this lunch. The owner told us about the history of the neighborhood and made fabulous suggestions for food and drink. I had the penne alla vodka and we sampled a variety of bruschetta as a family. If you only go one place in Florence to eat make it this one! Trattoria Camillo Cavour
WHERE TO STAY:
We used http://www.homeaway.com again and stayed in Fiesole which should be known as the cutest town outside Florence. Our townhouse was on a hill overlooking the countryside in a true Italian village. We enjoyed having a glass of prosecco on the terrace in the evenings. It was easily accessible by the city bus and a short walk.
WHERE TO LEARN TO COOK ITALIAN:
We took an amazing half-day tour with Walkabout Florence. We met in Florence and were taken via private bus as a group to a gorgeous villa outside the city. As soon as we got there we were greeted with wine and beer plus appetizer. We were able to choose our ingredients ourselves fresh from their garden and admire the beautiful view. Then we went into the farmhouse kitchen to prepare the gelato flavor from scratch of our choosing in pairs. After preparing our gelato we went to the outdoor kitchen to learn how to make pizza from scratch. Our instructors showed us how to make the dough and top our pizzas. We each were able to make our own dough followed by toppings of our choice before they went into the wood fired oven. After our pizzas were cooked we dined with an amazing view of Florence. After we sampled all of the different gelato flavors we had prepared. We met so many other great people and had a wonderful time. This was one of my favorite things we did the whole time we were in Italy. I highly recommend this tour company and tour. Pizza and Gelato Cooking Class at a Farmhouse in Tuscany
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