Florence is a charming city filled with art and history, and of course delicious food.  While there are plenty of beautiful and interesting things to see in Florence, it also makes a great home base for visiting other parts of Tuscany.

After settling into our hotel, we visited the Accademia to see David.  Even on a Sunday evening in March the line to enter the museum was long, so we were glad we had booked tickets in advance.  Every time I see David I am in awe of the intricacy and detail of the carving on such a grand scale.

 

After wandering the historic streets of the city center, we capped off our first afternoon with a sunset drink at our hotel’s rooftop bar.

 

The next day was a Monday, the day of the week that the major museums in Florence are closed.  So we took a Vespa wine tasting tour.  Don’t worry, the wine tasting is done after you’re done riding the Vespa!  This was probably my favorite day of the trip.  We rode Vespas in the hills around the city, and finished with wine tasting at a 15th century villa.  It wasn’t hard to learn to ride the Vespa and I felt like a local zipping along the roads (yes, with some cars honking and passing me).  We enjoyed chatting with the other travelers in the group while tasting the house made wines after our ride.

 

The following day we hired a driver and took a day trip to Cinque Terre.  On the way there, we made a stop at Pisa.  Yes, we took the obligatory “holding up the tower” photo which I’m sparing you here.  (But if you look closely you’ll see someone else doing it – the tower is surrounded by tourists in this pose.)

After our brief stop in Pisa, we drove to the five coastal villages that make up the Cinque Terre.  Being March, boat service between the villages was not running yet.  So we drove through Riomaggiore, hiked from Manarola to Corniglia, drove to Vernazza (where we ate lunch), and then took the train to Monterosso.  The villages were quiet because of the season, and we found each to be charming in their own way.

On the way back to Florence we stopped by Lucca, known for its intact Renaissance walls surrounding the city.  We rented bikes and did a loop around the city on the wall.  We didn’t spend a lot of time here, just a short visit on our way back to Florence.

The next day we did another day trip, this time heading south to Siena.  We started our tour of Siena with the stunning Duomo, a 13th century Gothic cathedral.

 

We climbed the 400 steps to the top of the City Tower and were rewarded with magnificent views of the city.  I would love to visit Siena in the summer when they host the famous horse race in the square.

 

After a few hours wandering Siena, we drove to a small family winery in the Tuscan countryside for lunch.  We had a delicious meal with some very good wines.

 

Our final stop for the day was San Gimignano, a town known for its medieval towers.  Video gamers will know it as the setting for Assassins Creed.  On a whim we checked out the Museum of Torture – very creepy and not for the faint of heart, but entertaining none the less.  It was rainy and quiet while we were there.  For the most part we just wandered the streets, stopping in to an occasional shop here and there.

 

Florence is known for its steak.  We were told by a local that a good bistecca alla florentina should be at least 3 fingers thick.  The best we had was at Del Fagioli, a restaurant recommended by one of our day trip drivers.  This was our favorite meal in Florence – a cozy neighborhood feel with excellent service and food.  They bring out a huge plate of meat and have the diner choose their steak before it is cooked.  (No, vegetarians would probably not enjoy this.)

 

 

The last day of our trip we spent in Florence, exploring the city.  We started with the Pitti Palace, which was a residence of the Medici family.

It was a nice sunny day so we wandered around the Pitti Palace gardens after we were finished in the Palace museums.

From there we walked across the Ponte Vecchio, but didn’t spend much time in the shops which we had been told are overpriced.

My husband really wanted to visit the Galileo Science Museum, something we hadn’t made it to in the past.  This was really interesting, with scientific tools and contraptions from 1000 to 1900 AD, like clocks, telescopes, maps, and scientific experiments.  The most memorable item for me was Galileo’s middle finger, supposedly giving a message to people who don’t appreciate science.

Next we visited the Duomo, Florence’s cathedral.  The cathedral’s dome was the first Renaissance dome and others were later modeled after it.  Inside the cathedral, the dome is ornately painted.

 

The bronze doors of the Baptistery, just across from the Duomo, are an iconic Florence sight.  Michelangelo said they were fit to be the gates of paradise.

 

Satisfied with our sightseeing for the day we spent the rest of our last afternoon in Florence wandering, shopping for leather goods, and of course stopping for gelato.

We really enjoyed our visit to Florence, both the time we spent in the city and our day trips in surrounding Tuscany.  It’s not a surprise the Florence is often voted traveler’s favorite city in Europe.