Florence and Tuscany Travel Guide
Santa Maria del Fiore Catedral
When you picture the perfect Italian vacation, what do you picture? For me it’s a cappuccino at a quaint café, wandering the beautiful alleyways full of family owned restaurants and boutiques, museums, and long drawn out lunches and dinners with a spritz or gelato (okay, maybe both) for a little afternoon pick me up. Much of the entertainment in Italian cities is exactly that – eating and drinking. If that sounds right up your alley, Florence is going to be the perfect place for you.
In my opinion, Florence’s charm comes not only from its extensive historical and artistic sites, but also from its food scene. The restaurants will not disappoint you!
Florence and Tuscany were the last two major Italian destinations we had left on our list to visit aside from a few smaller/less well-known areas. We figured we had to make the trip this summer to round out our Italian travel before the world opens up a bit more and Florence is back with full fledge tourism! And with its close proximity to Tuscany, it made for the perfect fourth of July long weekend getaway. So, let’s get into it shall we?
In this blog I’m going to show you what to do, where to eat, and where to stay in both Florence and Tuscany areas.
Florence
Must do’s:
Ponte Vecchio
Uffizi
“The David” at Accademia
The view from Piazza Michelangelo
Galleria dell’Accademia – this is the art museum where the world-renown David is housed. You do need tickets for this.
Uffizi Gallery - famous for its paintings and sculptures from the middle ages all the way to modern times. Be sure to grab a ticket for this as well.
Piazza Michelangelo – the most beautiful view of the city.
Piazza Signoria
Ferragamo Museum - if you’re interested in fashion this museum is dedicated to Salvatore Ferragamo the Italian shoe designer.
Santa Maria del Fiore Catedral – the famous Duomo in the center of the city.
Ponte Vecchio – the iconic bridge
Giardino di Boboli – Florence’s large garden area
The last must do isn’t a site or museum, but rather an action! If you’re going to buy something in Florence, make it something leather. Florence is known for its high-quality leather bags, wallets, jackets, belts, and so much more!
Sprinkle these in amongst your lunch or dinner reservations, and don’t forget to get lost among the beautiful boutiques.
Where to Eat:
La Giostra
Osteria Cipolla Rossa
Ristorante il Paiolo
The part we’ve all been waiting for am I right? I highly recommend making a reservation if you’d like to visit any of these restaurants. We’ve eaten at all of these options (except the panini shop) and I highly recommend them all.
La Giostra – I’ve been here twice now and have loved it both times! The ambiance is to die for - think twinkle lights, low romantic lighting, and incredible pasta. Definitely order the pear pasta (all pastas are amazing, don’t pass one up!). Not to mention the owner is so kind.
All’Antico Vinaio - Famous for it’s paninis, you’ll know you’re there a good block or two away because of it’s long line! This is a perfect inexpensive option for a quick mid-day pick me up. We haven’t been here yet because we just couldn’t justify waiting in the line. But we’ve heard nothing but good things!
Il Santo Bevitore – This restaurant is on the local side of the bridge (opposite of the Duomo). It’s popular among the locals, and for good reason!
Osteria Cipolla Rossa – We stumbled upon this restaurant walking to the center of the city from out hotel and I am so glad we did.
Ristorante il Paiolo – Another beautiful and charming random restaurant find. I recommend the bruschetta and a pasta to share. The waiters are also so kind. Ours even complimented my Italian and gave us a complementary wine pour because of it! A little effort always goes a long way!
What to eat:
Florence is known for its steak florentine. If meat is a favorite of yours, you can’t miss out on one!
Cafes/Bars:
Scudieri - touristy because of its location but some fun and delicious coffee drinks + pastries with a view
Rasputin – perfect for after Il Santo Bevitore on the “local side” of the Ponte Vecchio bridge.
La Petite – our cocktail bar of choice.
The Irish Pub – if you’re here during soccer (or should I say football!) season, this is such a fun place to watch the game!
Where to stay in Florence:
We stayed at Hotel Albani Firenze. It was so easy if you’re driving or taking the train, just short walk but right next to the city center. About a 10 minute walk from the train station (also where we parked our car) and about 10-15 minute walk to the Duomo. The hotel itself isn’t necessarily anything special, but perfect for a stay you’re not really spending time in the room anyway! Just wait for my Tuscany recommendation for a beautiful hotel.
Some other hotels I’d looked at staying:
FuordArno Bed & Breakfast - my friend Hannah stayed here and raved about it.
Tuscany:
Something that surprised me about Tuscany is how large of an area it is. When someone says they’ve gone to Tuscany that can mean a fairly large portion of the western side of the country. Some of the most famous areas are Chianti, Siena, Montalcino, Montepulciano, Pisa, and Lucca.
We decided to stay in the Chianti area, about a 40 minute drive south from Florence, and about 30 minutes north of Siena. There are quite a few other hotels I saved for possibilities that I’m going to share with you that are situated in all different areas. You truly can’t go wrong. Just a reminder, we didn’t stay at any of my other suggestions, they were simply a few other options I thought looked nice that we were deciding between.
We ended up choosing Dievole Wine Resort and I could not recommend it more. We originally came across it while searching on luxuryboutiquehotels.com. When my sweet husband started perusing this website I said “wow, I love what you’re thinking, however $900 a night is not our vibe just yet my love.” That is until we stumbled upon Dievole! With an incredible price, it seemed too good to be true!
The stay includes a complimentary wine tasting at their winery on site. There are two pools with a stunning view of the rolling vineyard hills of Tuscany, beautiful clean rooms, and an amazing restaurant to top it all off. They even have a “fitness route” all along the perimeter of the vineyard with various stations like a pullup bar and step up area for any fitness enthusiasts. We did the route early in the morning and had a beautiful morning sun view of the entire area, able to see all the way to Siena.
I’ll let the photos of our stay speak for themselves. We would love to come back in the future we loved it so much. You know what else? We originally planned on visiting Siena for our last day, but decided to ditch that plan and stay at the pool all day instead we loved it that much!
The entrance to Dievole
Found along the “fitness route”
Other places to stay:
Castello di Bibbione - This is a great option for a lower price range – even with its own winery and pool as well.
I recommend staying somewhere with a winery since Tuscany is so large and spread out. Another great option would be to book a tour with a driver to see more wineries during your stay in Tuscany. You can find plenty on getyourguide.com, Airbnb, or tours by locals.
Where to go:
The view from the backyard at Borgo Stella with Siena in the distance.
These are just a few things I’d saved to possibly do on our trip that you might enjoy as well.
If you follow me on Instagram, you already know of the incredible experience we had at Stella Winery. For the full story, click here and tap through until you see all about our special Stella winery experience. For the short version, on our way to Dievole Wine Resort we drove past a sign that read “Stella Winery” just a few minutes away from our resort. After deciding to skip going to Siena we thought, hey, why not go visit another winery nearby? My Grandma and niece’s names are Stella, and we thought how cool to buy her a bottle of Stella chianti for her 21st birthday in the future? We wrote them a quick email asking if we could stop by to buy a bottle or two. The owner replied quickly mentioning that she had just returned to Florence, but give them a call and the “winery keeper” will be happy to help us. Long story short, the winery is a family home on the most stunning hillside overlooking Siena and the beautiful Tuscan hills. Arriving for what we thought would be a quick ten-minute purchase of a bottle or two of chianti turned into nearly 2 hours of a broken Italian and broken English conversation with the help of google translate, a tasting of his favorite varietals, three cases of chianti, and the most special experience we’ve had while living in Italy the past two years. We can’t wait to show our niece Stella the photo of us at this special winery with her aged bottle on her birthday. Not to mention come back for a visit with our families! We highly recommend a visit here, but definitely call in advance. It is very small, but well worth the authentic experience. They’ll set up a snack board for you to go along with a full tasting experience.
If you haven’t yet, you can read my Prosecco Road Travel Guide where I explain the difference in wine tasting between Italy and America. What makes it so special here is that authentic family run operation experience. The larger well-known ones are fun too, but you haven’t had a true Italian wine tasting experience until you have an experience like this one.
P.S. make sure your bottle of chianti has a rooster on the top to make sure it’s pure and authentic instead of a blend!
Some other places worth visiting in the area are:
Winding road – the famous Instagram road. It’s sort of off in the middle of nowhere, but if you’re in the area it would be a beautiful place to drive by near sunrise or sunset.
Town of Chianti. Perfect for a dinner on the town if you’re here for a few days.
And all of the wine region towns of course!
And that’s it folks. I hope you enjoyed yet another travel blog. As always, I actually have a“travel hacks” highlight where I explain how to use google maps to save places that you want to visit in the future, whether you have a trip planned or not! Click here to view that, go through these places and be sure to save your favorites! I’d love to hear which ones you end up going to! Never hesitate to DM me on Instagram or shoot me an email here, I love hearing from you!
Until next time, XO,
Di