Your train arrives at 12pm and you have forty eight hours to explore the vast and beautiful city of Florence. What do you do? On the way to Venice, we stopped off in Florence for two nights. Working out what you want to see and how to see it can be a little confusing so today I’m sharing my experience of Florence! I’ll take you through a jam-packed forty eight hours and share a few tips and things I wish I’d done better.
First of all, I want to highlight how beneficial it can be to reduce the length of your trips when travelling. Not only does it save on accommodation, but it also motivates you to go and see more in a day that perhaps you usually would if staying for a week. Whilst you do have to prioritise and cut a few things from your list, it’s surprising how much you really can fit into a weekend in the city.
Day 1
My train (from Pisa) arrived at 12pm and after dropping bags at the hotel, my family and I decided to explore and walk in the direction of the city centre. We were about fifteen minutes from the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore and we ambled down Via Faenza.
Normally in Italy, you have to pay a cover charge and the nearer the centre, the greater this cost – we once got charged €4 each to sit down. Therefore, if looking for a place to eat, it’s definitely worth it to stop in one of the first cafes you see. We managed to find Caffe Sabatino on Via Faenza – they had very reasonable lunch prices!
After a spot of lunch, we walked straight through the city centre. With plans to return later, we headed for the river. Here we visited the Galileo Museum which I recommend to anyone interested in science. It’s home to many important instruments and the free museum app is a brilliant educational guide. After an hour or so in an air-conditioned museum, we headed towards the famous Ponte Vecchio. This medieval bridge is lined with jewellery shops and is certainly worth a visit!
We then continued over the Ponte Vecchio and with the aid of google maps, wandered through quieter areas to get our bearings. We decided to search for churches using google maps and see how many we could find in a circular route. You could choose anything from churches to art galleries, or even just public squares! On this walk we discovered a small square and accidentally walked onto a film set… oops!
By evening, it’s time to eat in one of the many restaurants. We decided to go to a pizza place but if you would rather save on the pennies, there is the “mercato centrale” food market which is basically a food court – but good food! There’s pizza, gnocchi, fresh handmade pasta, burgers, sushi and even a vegan restaurant! We actually ate here on our second night and wish we’d eaten there both nights. There are plenty of places to sit too!
After eating what better than to watch the sunset over the Ponte Vecchio? You could take a bus up onto the hill for panoramic views but just standing on a bridge further down the river gave a good enough view!
Day 2
For your second day you might want to prebook a museum, gallery or cathedral visit. We chose to book the Uffizi Gallery – the Uffizi is Italy’s largest art gallery. We headed straight to the gallery to pick up the tickets and avoid queues, then spent some time in the Piazza della Signoria adjacent, where you can find many statues including Michelangelo’s David.
If choosing the Uffizi, you can easily spend three to four hours viewing the artwork and still leave some things out! It’s a great way to spend the late morning and escape the midday sun. However, after being on your feet so long a rest back at the hotel is certainly due.
Finally, it’s always a good idea to spend you last evening wandering through the centre before sunset. You may even stumble across the odd opera singer! Besides it’s much cooler and quieter at this time and a lot of street artists are about too.
The next morning we had a few hours to kill before our train – you can get the tram from the station to a riverside park called Parco Delle Cascine. It only takes five minutes and is a lovely place to explore.
I hope you enjoyed this guide to spending forty eight hours in Florence! It’s a really beautiful city and it’s certainly possible to do it in a weekend!
P.S. Did you see the Venice Moments post? It’s worth a read!
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