We spent 9 days in Italy and every day was a storehouse of unique experiences and emotions. Florence was our next destination in Italy after Rome. Detailed itinerary of our 3 days in Rome can be found here.
Glimpse of Our Trip
- We visited in November and we had a fantastic trip. The tourist season is July-August but this is also the period of long queues, increased tariffs and lot of hustle and bustle. April-June & September-November is the time to beat the crowd and bag the best deals.
- While all tourist destinations were spectacular, for us the show-stealer were the Free Walking Tours. We have mentioned about this tours in our blog post here. These tours showed us the cities through the eyes of the locals. It was enriching and we highly highly highly recommend it!
- Our destinations included Rome (3 Days)> Florence (3 Days)> Venice (2 Days)
Re-living Experiences: Food, Vacationing, Photography & a Lot More
Day 1: Florence
We reached Florence at about 12 PM. We stayed in Plus Florence and it seemed to be pretty decent hotel. However, do note that the check-in time is 2:30 PM so you may have to leave your stuff in their locker until your room is available. Since we had some time before the Free Walking tour, we took the free guided tour of Santa Maria Novella Church and saw some of the most beautiful frescoes. The meeting point of the Free Walking Tour is at the entrance of the Church which faces the square. There are two daily tours: “Renaissance Tour” @11am and “Medici Tour” @2pm. Since we reached in afternoon we did the “Medici Tour” and it was amazing to know about the richness of Medici Family and their contribution to art in their museums. This takes about 2 hours.
We went to Uffizi after the tour ended. Our Uffizi guided tour started at 4:30 PM. If you love art and history, this spectacular museum cannot be missed. It houses some of the most important works of art from the Renaissance period (about 1500 A.D.), from Botticelli and Giotto to Michelangelo, Cimabue, Leonardo Da Vinci and Raffael. I also recommend you to do a guided tour so you can re-live the moments of Renaissance period.
There are many museums in Florence and it can be overwhelming. But here are the top 3 recommended museums: Uffizi, Accademia and Bargello. Again, please prebook the tickets so that you can save the time and energy to queue up.
Day 2: Pisa & Florence
We booked our tickets to Pisa for early morning so we could be in time for Accademia (museum where Michelangelo’s David is). The tickets for Pisa can be easily booked here. Once you deboard the train at Pisa De Centrale, it is about 10-15 mins walk to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
We returned at about 3 PM and were just in time to see Michelangelo’s David.
Day 3: Florence
We rented the bikes for 24 hours on the previous night to do a cycling tour. The average cost is about 25 Euros. We did a 40 Kms cycling trip to the vineyards and coffee gardens in Chianti region of Florence. In hindsight, we think it was too daring of us to do that considering it was our first cycling experience in 6 years! However, the adventure was absolutely worth it! If possible, do try cycling on the beautiful roads of Chianti and it will not disappoint you.
Two-third of our trip was over in Italy. It was hard to part ways with Florence but I was excited for the next part of our trip to Venice. Check out our adventures in Venice here.
Italy is a dream destination. There are so many cities and sites to explore. I have been to Italy once, but did not have the chance to explore Florence. I hope to visit again someday.
amazing and fun trip you sure had, nice pictures and they bring you close to the location too.
Wow Florence… Its one of the places I want to visit and see all that amazing artwork. I would love to see Pisa too but I suppose all the Tourists only want to see is the leaning tower and I’m sure there is so much more to it than that.
I am planning a trip like this one for years. I want to start from Milan and go to the south of Italy and visit all the cities that come my way.
Italy is such a beautiful country. I’m hoping to do a similar kind of trip to yours next year and travel around the different cities.
Your photos are so amazing, and I am so jealous!! I would love to take my hubby and leave the kids with grand parents!!
You are making me completely jealous here. i know that most people think Venice or Rome. But from all the people I have known to come back from Italy, they all said that I had to go to Florence. I know I would have loved that. I do hope to make it there sometime with all of the beauty and art that they have there.
How could you stay in such a beautiful place for only 3 days, I’d want at least a week there. That cycling tour must have been amazing.
That’s so interesting, i’ll get back to this post once i get to go to Florence, there’s so much to see 😄
If I ever visited Florence or Italy for instance it would be more for shopping purposes..lol jokes apart.. Leaning tower of Pisa looks shorter than I thought it would..🤔..Going to check out your Venice related blog post as well!!
Florence and Pisa. Love them! I was here 5 years ago and it was an amazing trip. I would return anytime.
Just like you we rented bikes in Florence and wandered the whole town for some hours. It was a great experience and a fun one because we were more 6 friends traveling.
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Oh how i wish i can visit this place. Looks so amazing and everything is so wonderful.
Oh wow! This place is awesome! Everything looks so wonderful! Oh how i wish i could visit here too someday.
Everything about this trip seems beautiful! I love all of the old style of architecture so much.
Stunning! We’ve love to visit Italy and definitely would struggle with an itinerary because everything is so beautiful.
Wow, it looks very beautiful and you managed to take some amazing photos! I would definitely like to visit myself. Well done you for the cycling!
I visited Italy many years ago and LOVED it! What a wonderful place to explore. Florence was one of my favorites, so many great museums and places to eat. The pizza and the gelato are so delicious, I still crave them from time to time!
Oooo lovely photos!!! Italy is definitely one country I’ve always wanted to visit! So much history there!
Looks like you had a great trip. All the pictures look really beautiful and the views look amazing!
I would love to visit Italy someday. I think the architecture and the history are so amazing. I would definitely want to visit Florence and Pisa while I was there. There is so much to see that it would take a good two weeks to see everything, and even that might not be enough time!
What an amazing sounding trip! This would be pretty awesome. I have never been to anywhere like this, but would LOVE to at some point!
I can remember the first time I went to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was one of the things in my bucket list and it was a dream come true. Italy, is such a rich country full of lovely history and beautiful art and architecture.
That’s really nice. I’ve always wanted to see Florence and Pisa and hopefully I can plan something in the next months. It’s really lovely out there and the museums and artworks… they’re all worth it.
Wow I officially scrolled through your pictures twice. It’s always been my dream to go to Florence! It’s all so pretty and filled with rich history!
I really want to go to both of these places as I love Italy. I am going to Rome and Venice later this year and I can not wait x
Loving your photos – and what a brilliant itinerary. I haven’t been to Italy much – just once when I was much younger but would love to visit all these places! x
Omg, I love travel guides like these! And actually, I recently wrote a blog post similar to these on my Boston trip if you want to check it out! I’ve never been to Italy, but I want to so bad!! http://www.clairebearblogs.com
I had a friend who also did Italy on a bike. He raved about how amazing it was so I definitely hope to give it a try one day.
What a jam packed itinerary! I would love to see the leaning tower of Pisa.
Beautiful!! My parents went to Italy and loved it! I’ve only been to England, France and Germany but Italy is definitely on the list.
Walking tours are the best! We haven’t done one in Florence yet, but that’s exactly my plan next time we visit. We were there last August and the previous July (while I was pregnant) and those are definitely crowded times to visit. The Fall sounds absolutely lovely! Glad you had a great trip!
My husband STILL raves about a trip he took there a mil years ago, but I can see why. Its stunning. And its on my bucket list to visit one day – especially Venice because I am curious about how the traffic/people really get around! So amazing…
Absolutely beautiful! Traveling to Italy is definitely on my bucket list!
Absolutely beautiful! Getting to Italy is definitely on my bucket list!
It looks like an awesome vacation! I can’t wait to read about the rest of it. I would love to go visit Italy. My husband is of Italian descent and really wants to go visit.
Sounds like an amazing trip. I have always wanted to go to Florence and I hope to get there myself someday!