Florence, the capital of Italy’s Tuscany region, is an incredible city brimming with interesting history, beautiful sights, delicious food, and fun attractions. Neither of us had visited before, so we were eager to explore the iconic spots during our five days here. On just a short visit, you really can’t cover all of the amazing things to see and do here. We definitely fit in as much as we could, but already want to come back to explore more of Tuscany. Here’s our five-day Florence itinerary!
Day #1:
After an amazing five days in Rome, we took the train to Florence. We arrived mid-day, dropped our bags at our hotel, then grabbed some lunch before venturing to see the sights.
Piazza del Duomo Monuments
Florence’s Piazza del Duomo is one of the most popular attractions in all of Italy, so it’s likely already on your Florence itinerary if you’ve started planning. The plaza itself is gorgeous with the huge cathedral adorned with intricate carvings and green and white stonework sitting at the center. Many people come to the plaza to see the monuments and enjoy the restaurants and shops around it, making this quite the bustling spot.
The Piazza del Duomo monument complex consists of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and its dome, Giotto’s Bell Tower, the Opera Museum, the Santa Reparata, and the baptistery.
Our first day in Florence, we visited the Santa Reparata, Opera Museum, baptistery, cathedral dome, and the bell tower. We enjoyed visiting these historic sites and learning about them. We were also up atop the dome and bell tower during golden hour, and the warm light over Florence was truly stunning!
Cost: Tickets to the monuments range from €15-30 for an adult ticket, depending on the pass you select. It’s free to visit the plaza and cathedral.
Reservation Required: A reservation/time slot selection is required if you buy a pass to visit the other monuments. One is not needed if you plan to just visit the cathedral.
For more details on visiting the monument complex, read our other post!
Day #2:
Piazza del Duomo – Cathedral
While we saw the inside of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore briefly the day before when we entered to climb the bell tower and go down to the Santa Reparata, we took the time on our second day to enter the main area. The line to get in was pretty long, even though we arrived before it opened. But it was worth a stop inside since we had the time that day.
Cost: Free
Reservation Required: No
Explore the City Center
We spent much of the rest of the day seeing the sights of Florence’s historic city center.
We walked around the Mercato Centrale, a covered market area that has a variety of food items, including prepared foods if you’re looking for a bite. The surrounding area has many stalls with leather goods, souvenirs, and other items.
There are many beautiful streets, buildings, statues, and more around the city, so we just wandered. Over the course of the afternoon, we also enjoyed cannoli, affogatos, and some other small bites along the way.
Cost: Free to wander, but have your cash and card if you want to shop or enjoy some food.
Basilica of Santa Maria Novella
We then made our way over to the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, another pretty white and green marble building. This basilica is an active place of worship that also contains a little museum. Inside, you’ll see a few chapels, cloisters, and various works of art.
In front of the basilica is a large square with various restaurants around it. It was a sunny, warm day, so we sat in the square for a little while and grabbed lunch nearby.
Cost: €7.50 per person for a standard adult ticket
Reservation Required: No, you can buy tickets upon arrival. However, you can also buy them online in advance if desired.
Photo Booth
We headed across the Arno River via Ponte alla Carraia. We had a short while before our cooking class, so we went in search of one of Florence’s street photo booths, or fotoautomaticas. There are several around the city that you can search on Google Maps. They can be color or black and white, depending on the booth. Make sure you have coins.
We went to the fotoautomatica on Via Santa Monaca, where we got a cute black and white photo strip. If you look at the Google reviews of the various photo booths around the city, you’ll see many people mentioning their photos not printing, the photos not turning out, the coins not registering when inserted, etc. We were glad ours worked without issue, but it might be a toss-up if you decide to give it a shot.
Cost: €2-4, depending on the booth. Coins only
Reservation Required: N/A
Cooking Class
Our day ended with our pasta making class. We had never made pasta from scratch before and had so much fun learning to do so!
The class we opted for was Pastamania provided through Experience in Florence. We booked through Viator, but you can also book directly through their official website. The whole experience lasted a few hours, where we made a couple different types of pastas and sauces, then enjoyed what we cooked around the table with some wine and dessert with our group. We chose a class time slot that would fall around dinner, and it was a great way to end our day!
Cost: The Pastamania class we took cost about €50 per person; however, there are a range of different cooking classes that vary in price.
Reservation Required: Yes. We’d recommend booking online in advance. You could also inquire in person upon arrival to see if any class slots are available.
Day #3:
Day Trip to Pisa
We headed out to the train station early in order to arrive in Pisa between 8 and 9am. We spent the first half of the day visiting Pisa’s various Piazza del Duomo monuments and climbing the iconic Leaning Tower.
Afterwards, we grabbed lunch and explored more of the historic city center. We wrote a more detailed post on what we got up to on our Pisa day trip – read more about it here!
Cost: €27 for the complete ticket + Leaning Tower, plus the cost of train tickets, food, souvenirs, other museums, and any additional activities.
Reservation Required: Yes, for some activities, such as climbing the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Explore the Area Around Where We Were Staying
We returned to Florence in the evening and decided to explore more of the area around where we were staying. Our hotel was a bit north of the historic city center in the Statuto neighborhood.
This area was much quieter than the city center, and we enjoyed just wandering down the various streets, strolling through the parks and plazas, and grabbing pizza. The area was definitely less touristy and we were the only people not speaking Italian at the pizza place – and the food was so delicious!
Day #4:
Uffizi Gallery
The first stop of our 4th day was the iconic Uffizi Gallery. If you enjoy art, we definitely recommend adding this museum to your itinerary. Exhibits consist of various sculptures and paintings set up in a gorgeous historic building. There are also some pretty views over the river and surrounding city from inside. We really enjoyed our morning in this museum.
In addition to the museum, we would have visited the Vasari Corridor; however, it was closed during our visit.
Cost: €29 for a standard Uffizi ticket booked online. €40 for a combo ticket that covers entrance to the Uffizi Gallery, Boboli Gardens, and Pitti Palace (this is what we opted for).
Reservation Required: No, if you’re buying a ticket just for Uffizi Gallery. However, we’d recommend booking in advance during peak season. If you buy the combo ticket, you must reserve a time slot for Uffizi Gallery.
For more details on visiting Uffizi Gallery, read our other post!
Walk Along the River
It was another gorgeous, sunny day, so we spent a while walking along the Arno River. Just near the Uffizi Gallery is Ponte Vecchio, which is perhaps Florence’s most famous bridge. It is the oldest stone bridge in Europe and the only one in the city to survive destruction during WWII. The various “houses” along the bridge currently hold shops, many of which sell jewelry and gold items.
We walked down Lungarno Corsini, taking in the views of the river and bustling streets as we went.
Piazzale Michelangelo
Next, we headed across the river towards Piazzale Michelangelo. Starting at Porta San Niccolò, we entered the park area below Piazzale Michelangelo and made our way up the hill.
At the top sits a beautiful plaza with a replica of Michelangelo’s David at the center. The views over Florence from here are amazing! It’s a popular spot throughout the day, but especially in the evening as people gather to watch the sunset over the city. There’s also a café and restaurant up there if you’d like to relax a while and grab a bite or drink.
We walked back down the hill via a different path and headed back across the river.
Cost: Free to access the park and viewpoint
Reservation Required: N/A
Basilica of Santa Croce
Basilica di Santa Croce is another iconic basilica in the city. It features the same white exterior and holds beautiful frescoes and sculptures as well as the tombs of Galileo, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, and other famous figures. At this point in our trip, we had already been in many churches, so we decided to skip entering this one and just admire its exterior.
Cost: €10 per adult to enter
Reservation Required: No, but you can book your tickets online in advance if desired.
Santa Croce Area
We strolled around the Santa Croce area to see more of it in addition to the basilica. This area has quite a few restaurants, shops, and pretty parks and plazas.
Our favorite highlight of the area was the Sant’Ambrogio Market, a covered market that sells a variety of meats, cheeses, veggies, and other food items, and the Pulci Market, a cluster of stalls that offer vintage and antique goods and some other household items. We saw pretty pottery, rugs, paintings and more there. If only we had a bigger suitcase!
Galleria Dell’Accademia di Firenze
Galleria Dell’Accademia is famous for holding Michelangelo’s David. But the museum also holds other works by Michelangelo, various other sculptures, many painted works, a musical instruments exhibit, and more.
To be honest, given the price of tickets, we thought the exhibits would be a bit more extensive. However, we understand that people come from all around the world to see the iconic David. And this sculpture truly is incredible, so, if you’re really into art and really want to see this amazing piece, it’s worth it. But if you just want to see some art and aren’t as passionate about seeing David, we’d choose Uffizi Gallery over the Galleria Dell’Accademia.
Cost: €20 per adult ticket booked online (it’s €16 to book upon arrival, but your entry isn’t guaranteed if tickets are sold out).
Reservation Required: No, but we recommend buying tickets online in advance, especially during peak season.
Day #5:
Boboli Gardens
Our last day in Florence began with a relaxing morning wandering through the Boboli Gardens. After the Medici family purchased Pitti Palace, they created the gardens next to it. The grounds are filled with a wide variety of plants, pretty paths, a lemon house, sculptures, fountains, and more.
Even though we were there in February, the gardens were still green and there were flowers blooming. We really enjoyed our morning here, as it felt like a little escape from the bustling city.
We left the gardens to get some lunch, then headed back to explore Pitti Palace.
Cost: €13 for an adult ticket purchased online. There are other combo tickets that grant access to Pitti Palace and Uffizi in addition to the gardens for an additional cost.
Reservation Required: No, but you may want to buy tickets online in advance during peak season.
Pitti Palace
In the afternoon, we visited Pitti Palace. This was once the residence of multiple powerful Italian figures, and walking through the palace provides an interesting look into Florence’s past. The various rooms are truly stunning with their lavish décor and wide variety of art.
Cost: €16 for an adult ticket purchased online. There are other combo tickets that grant access to the Boboli Gardens and Uffizi in addition to the palace for an additional cost.
Reservation Required: No, but you may want to buy tickets online in advance during peak season.
For more info on visiting both the palace and the gardens, visit our other post!
Piazza Santo Spirito
After our afternoon of absorbing all the beautiful details of Pitti Palace, we headed to the nearby Piazza Santo Spirito. This pretty plaza is lined by a beautiful church and various restaurants. Sometimes, there are vendor stalls set up as well. In late afternoon, it was bustling with people. We enjoyed the ambiance for a while before moving on.
Wine Window
For our last evening we enjoyed a very Tuscan experience – having a glass of wine from a wine window! These have existed for hundreds of years as a manner of selling wine from one’s home. These openings were first made in the wood doors of houses, but as selling wine from the home became more common, some future buildings were built with the opening in the stone walls.
The practice of selling and purchasing wine from these windows mostly ceased in the early 20th century. However, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a come-back of this tradition, and its popularity has increased since. There are a handful of wine window spots in Florence. We went to BABAE, which also has a sit-down restaurant inside. We enjoyed our glass standing in the streets with various others, just enjoying the city vibes.
Cost: €8-10 per glass
Reservation Required: No
After our glass of wine, we headed back towards the Piazza del Duomo to enjoy one last dinner in the city center before flying out early the next morning.
A cloudy last evening in Florence
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