Florence, Italy

Florence was an absolute dream, as Italy always is. It was a little chilly but nice and sunny. We ate so much good food and saw so much beauty while we were there. This was my Christmas present from Austin and it was a great time!

Day 1

We arrived in Florence in the evening and headed to check into our beautiful Airbnb. It had such a nice view over the city.

Trattoria Sant’Agostino

After we checked into our Airbnb we went to a nearby restaurant for dinner. Austin got a ragu and I got gnudi, which is like a softer version of gnocchi made with ricotta instead of potato.

Day 2

Duomo

The next morning we woke up early to climb the Duomo, which is the beautiful Cathedral that Florence is known for. It’s recommended to go early to climb it as it gets hot and crowded in the inside during the day. There are a ton of stairs up and then some beautiful paintings inside the top of the dome. The view from the top is also amazing! The city is surrounded by beautiful rolling hills and the buildings are lovely.

The cathedral even from the ground is so beautiful!!

BEN Caffè

After the duomo we went in search of breakfast. This cafe seems to be one of the few that has oat milk which is always a welcome find abroad. I didn’t take any photos but we had a nice simple breakfast here.

After we ate we explored the city a bit and did some sightseeing. There is so much beautiful art around the city!

Uffizi Gallery

We decided to do the Uffizi gallery this same day. It’s a beautiful art museum. Unfortunately I thought this was where the statue of David was located and I spent the whole time looking for it and not appropriately enjoy the rest of the museum. Google things beforehand! Don’t make my mistakes!

Gustapizza

After the gallery and all of our wandering we found ourselves starving. We headed over to join the line for Gustapizza. It moved pretty fast and we got seated outside. The pizza was AMAZING! We enjoyed it so much. Unfortunately we were seated next to a group of American university students studying abroad and they were SO INCREDIBLY LOUD 😬

After lunch we went to enjoy the gorgeous sunset view from our Airbnb. It was a little too cold to sit on our patio but it was so beautiful.

On our evening walk for gelato we also caught some beautiful views of Ponto Final.

Sbrino - Gelatificio Contadino

We finished off the night with some gelato! They even had vegan options for me.

Day 3

Ditta Artigianale Riva d’Arno

We started off day 3 with breakfast at this cute little cafe. It was really too cold to sit outside but that was the only option. They did have a nice scrambled eggs with toast and also had oat milk!

Boboli Gardens

After breakfast we had some time to kill and decided to go wander the Boboli Gardens. We had paid for a joint ticket with the Uffizi gallery that gave us access to the gardens as well, but it turned out to be the day of the month it was free for everyone! It was a nice walk regardless.

Pasta class

The biggest part of this day was that we took a pasta making class! It was taught by a mildly aggressive Italian woman who was constantly frustrated with all of us for not knowing how to fold pasta. It was a hilarious and interesting experience. At the end we all got to eat the pasta!

Enoteca Obsequium Wine Shop

We fell in love with this place and came back several times. It was very quiet & cozy with lots of interesting wines to try. We did a flight and tried one that tasted like butter! It was wild.

Schiaccia Passera

After our pasta class we were not particularly hungry for a big heavy dinner. We ended up with these amazing sandwiches and they were the perfect end to the night. One was mortadella and one was salami and they were both amazing.

Day 4

Mercato Centrale

To start off day 4 we headed over to Mercato Centrale for an early lunch. We had some coffee and some arancini and also bought some lovely olive oil as a souvenir.

Field of Miracles - Pisa

We took a quick train (less than an hour) to Pisa. We had heard it could be overrated and touristy but wanted to check out the tower.

The tower is set in an area called the “Field of Miracles” with several other monuments. You can buy a pass to everything or just the monuments you want to see. We opted for the cathedral and the camposanto.

The cathedral was beautiful as always.

The camposanto is a cemetary that used to have beautiful frescoes (paintings) all over the walls from the 1300s. These were unfortunately destroyed in WWII but they are working on restoring them and the building was very beautiful.

The other monuments we only saw from the outside.

Po’stò Cafè Pisa

After exploring Pisa we needed a snack and found this cute little spot nearby with slices of pizza to take a little break.

Osteria Cinghiale Bianco

This place is super popular because of Stanley Tucci. It was hard to get into but we went in one night in person and made a reservation for the next night. We started with some pasta and then had wild boar with polenta and some cake for dessert. It was amazing and we left absolutely stuffed.

Day 5

Accademia Gallery

After I realized the statue of David wasn’t at the Uffizi gallery we booked tickets to the museum where it actually is!

It was a really nice museum overall, lots of interesting art!

All’antico Vinaio

After the museum we made our way over to this super famous viral sandwich shop. It has a super long line all the time (we were there on a mid day weekday) but there are actually 3 locations right next to each other so I think that helps. The line moved pretty quick and we took our sandwiches down the street to eat on some steps in the sun.

The sandwiches were pretty delicious! We got salami and mortadella similar to the other sandwich shop. Honestly I think this place was about equal to the other one, and the other one had no wait at all :)

After lunch we headed back to our Airbnb to relax and enjoy our beautiful view.

Babae

One of the things we read about Florence ahead of time was these little wine windows all over the city. They were used during the 1600s during an epidemic to sell wine, and then became popular again during COVID. There’s a little bell that you ring and order your wine, then they hand it to you through the window!

Alla Vecchia Bettola

For our last meal in Florence we went to this restaurant that I found on Google that supposedly lots of locals go to. We couldn’t get through to make a reservation so we went right at opening time to get in line. Luckily we were there early enough to get in!

They seat everyone at long tables next to each other which was fun. You also order wine and for €5 each they just put the WHOLE BOTTLE on your table so you can pour as much as you want? It was wild!

I got the pasta alla vodka and Austin got some kind of ragu. They were both amazing, the best meal we ate in Florence for sure!

Gelateria Santa Trinita

To wrap up the night we tried another gelato spot where I got dark chocolate and coconut flavors. It was excellent as always!!

Overall Florence is one of my favorite cities in Italy so far. It was so beautiful with so much good food, art, wine and more.