Maybe those of you who have been can help me think through this. It is the 2nd leg of our trip. I’m trying to figure out how to do tours, etc. that the family would enjoy and not backtrack too much, as I’ve read it’s fairly small in the city center. The 3rd day is a full day of Tuscany so won’t be in town except fir dinner at night.
Day 1: arrival, probably noon.
Climb the Duomo, walk around, dinner
Day 2: my initial plans were a Walks of Italy tour at noon. We will see David, story of Babtiste doors and walk around city (piazza Repubblica, Della Signoria, Ponte Vechhio)…all with stories. My thoughts were this would allow the boys to sleep a little more in the morning and not push. This will only be our 3rd morning and we will have gotten up early the other 3. I want to be cognizant of not being Mom the Vacation General.
My worry is that we will be backtracking all these famous piazzas from the day before (without background stories of course). Where else can we go walk around that first afternoon that doesn’t go to those places? I was also a bit concerned the tour might spend too much time at David or Babtiste doors. 3 hours can be a long time.
There is another walking tour from a different company that sounds more fun, but it doesn’t include David, starts at 9:30. Then I have to figure out when to fit David in. I want to visit San Miniato by Piazzale Michaelangelo to hear the monks Chant at 5:30 and see the sunset. So, I imagine getting there and the climb, we’d need to leave at 4.
Maybe I fit David and the Duomo first day. Do the early walking tour 2nd day, rest in the afternoon or whatever everyone wants to do, then head to San Miniato.
The day of arrival is the only day the Duomo can be climbed I think.
Anyway, hopefully someone might tell me how they toured, thoughts, etc.
I’m not sure of the ages of your kids or the size of your family but our family of 5 (kids’ ages at the time were D-17, D-15, S-12) visited Italy last summer and had a wonderful time. We didn’t stay in Florence but took two day trips in from Lucca. I wanted to recommend taking a look at Freya’s Florence tour company. Our tour guide was Sally, who’s an American who moved to Florence to get her graduate degree in Art History then stayed. She was awesome and my whole family enjoyed the tour. The morning tour itinerary was much like what Walks of Italy offered except it was private and we stopped for gelato at an amazing shop. She gave us great recommendations for lunches and dinners too. We could go at our own pace and because of our family of 5, I think we saved money compared to Walks of Italy, which is priced per person and this was priced as a flat rate. We took a lunch break then met up with her for the Uffizi in the afternoon. If you plan to go to the Uffizi at all, I highly recommend a tour guide for that. She hit the highlights of the museum and gave great background information. We chose to do two in one day but you could do one or the other or on separate days. They have other tours as well, and I think you can customize by emailing them. Worth checking out.
I loved planning our trip that took us from Venice to Tuscany then south to Sorrento and back to Rome. I was able to find great private tour guides (some completely independent) in Venice, Volterra, Florence, and Pompeii, and the only group tours we did were in Rome at the Colosseum and then the Vatican with Walks of Italy. Our Colosseum group tour guide there was very energetic but it was an extremely hot, miserable day and we were all pretty miserable so it’s not a surprise that it was my family’s least favorite tour. Not really her fault. The Vatican experience was better. Most of the private guides I found charged around $60-65 euro an hour so for our family it really was a better way to go compared to some of the costs of the group tours. The personal interaction, stopping for chocolate or gelato, and personalizing to our interests and questions was well worth the small additional amount of money, if any.
You could pop in at the Palazzo Vecchio one afternoon. We enjoyed that and it didn’t take too long. You could add climbing the tower there if you wanted so that you could get a view of the Duomo. We didn’t do that but I saw it recommended one some blogs. We didn’t make it to Boboli Gardens or inside Pitti Palace but I’d like to visit those when I return someday.
You’ll have an amazing time! Because of our trip, especially to Florence, my daughter took a look at her college list when we returned and made some changes based on whether the schools offered Italian as a language. And she wants to study abroad in Italy now.
Oh! I forgot that we did do a short food tour in Venice that was with a group, and that was our very first night there. It was a good way to introduce ourselves to the city without having to think too much, especially because we were quite tired. You might take a look at something like that for your first afternoon in Florence.
*Edited to correct the pricing for the Freya’s Florence tour. It was a flat rate and a little higher by the hour than our other tours but still a better deal for our family of 5. If there are only 3 or 4 of you then it might not be as good of a deal but still worth checking out.
Depending on the length of the line (which can be 60-90 minutes, then you’ll spend an hour going up and walking around/taking pictures at the top), climbing the Duomo could fill a lot of the afternoon. My recollection is that we arrived at 11am and weren’t finished until at least 1.30pm (without going in the cathedral itself).
The dome climb is a separate entrance so doesn’t include a visit to the Cathedral itself, you just see it very briefly as you step inside before climbing the stairs, and then get another brief view as you walk around the inside of the dome.
I think there may be the possibility to book in advance for entrance to the cathedral to avoid a second line, so I would think about spending the whole afternoon at the cathedral, then maybe just plan to get a gelato between climbing the dome and going in the cathedral. IIRC the Duomo ticket includes the bell tower and the relics as well, though I don’t think climbing the bell tower adds much to a climb of the dome, it’s just another view of the dome and the city with a much shorter line.
Consider going to the other side of the Orno - the Oltrarno. Visit Boboli Gardens. You can pop into an Enoteca (wine bar) then have a nice dinner on that side which is a bit less touristy.
I can tell you what we did last October. I booked through a travel agent and I can’t find the actual tour company names. This was a trip to Rome and Florence with 3 nights at each.
We arrived in Florence at night and just walked around the various piazzas that first night (and got gelato - which we did every night).
The second morning we had a scheduled private tour (4 hours I believe). We strolled around the various local places first, which was good, learning things like this is where Dante lived and the stories of some of the outside art we had seen the night before. We then went to see David and toured the Academia with her. Note - with a tour guide you skip the line and get right in. After that we strolled some more and she explained lots of stuff about the Medicis passing through verious arcades and piazzas. We then did a specially scheduled library tour (a private library not open to the public that she had arranged for us). We are library people and this ended up being the highlight of our trip. We then strolled some more and she explained other things as we passed them - story of the duomo etc. She had wonderful anecdotes about the various artists. She left us at a great sandwich place where we had lunch (a place the locals go to). I think since it was a private tour it was probably expensive, however it could of been tailored to whatever our interests were (the library part would be replaced with something else).
That afternoon we walked around more, including across the bridge (our timing was off and the gardens were closed). You probably should do the gardens in the morning.
The next morning we did the duomo climb. We should have made reservations in advance (before we arrived) and didn’t, so we didn’t have much choice in the time. We were able to sleep in a little which was nice.
That afternoon we had a semiprivate 3 hour tour of the Uffizi. A couple on the tour had just had a 3 hour morning tour and were exhausted - don’t do two tours in a day. Again with a tour you skip the line and get right in. We learned tons from the tour guide that we would never have known if we had done the museum by ourselves. Also, we would never have spent 3 hours in a museum by ourselves.
Florence is small and you can walk to most places. You will pass through places multiple times during your visit and it won’t feel like you are repeating yourself. We walked 9 - 10 miles each day we were in Florence (and climbed 32 floors according to my phone the day we went up in the duomo).
Your posts are really helping! I’ll make sure to schedule the Duomo climb at a decent hour, alloting enough time. I’m not going, so I’ll figure out something else to do.
I also like the idea of wandering around on the other side of the river the first day.
We didn’t go on any scheduled/hired tours, but instead visited (too many) museums & sites at our own pace. I purchased a Firenze pass for each of us, and it provided ‘skip the line’ access to most museums. We still had to wait in line to visit the Duomo, and since the pass is only valid for 72 hours after activation, it could not be used for the climb, as those reservations sold out in advance of 72 hours.
This link lists the sites included with the pass, and identifies those with Fast Track access.
If you have teens/college students, they will want to eat at GustaPizza and Antico Vanaio (not sure of spelling, but it is the panini place with the well-deserved long lines). GustaPizza will also have lines, but we were able to snag a table without a long wait.
If you have time, stop into Scoula del Cuoio. It is a leather-making school with retail operations. A little tricky to find, as the entrance was behind a church. They will cut a belt to size for you while you wait, or add a gold leaf monogram to a wallet.
Another interesting place was a 600 year old perfume/cosmetic shop called Officinal Profumo Farmaceutica. The inside is beautiful even if you don’t want to buy anything, but even my boys bought some of the soaps.
We were in Florence on a Saturday, and caught a wedding at Palazzo Vecchio, the functioning town hall of Florence, and a parade including costumed men on horseback through the narrow streets of the city.
Climb up Piazzale Michangelo for a great view of the city. The Boboli Gardens at Palazzo Pitti were lovely. The Museo Galileo appealed to my science guy.
^^^ Yep, that’s the panini place, and there are multiple locations. When we were there in 2018, I heard someone ask, “Did Rick Steves put this in a book or something?” because the lines were so long. So good and so inexpensive but very little seating so it’s more a picnic kind of thing. We took ours to the Uffizi steps and people watched.
Hey, thanks for the Panini and Gelato places. I’ve started my restaurant list in each city. I really wish I didn’t have to wait for fall, I’m just too excited now. I’m getting ready to buy new walking sandals next week already. That’s actually a good idea, though. My size in good sandals can get bought up if I wait too long.
We really enjoyed the Venchi gelato (they have several locations in Florence and Rome and internationally). Are you going to be in Rome? We loved a restaurant called Brillo - one of the best meals I ever had anywhere.
@kiddie. Our first two hours in Florence we passed college kids with delicious food. Thankful I asked a group where to go, All’Antico Vinaio. It was awesome, sandwich to remember!
We wish we went to Boboli Gardens, next time!
One day was a bus to Tuscany, winery, Siena and San Gimangnano, loved everything. Great pizza in Siena, gelato every day.
We went to tour the David at Accademia, dinner at Buca Lapi.
Walking the Piazza del Signoria and the Ponte Vechhio. And our hotel on the Arno River, so pretty.
Our favorite gelato in Florence was a spot right by the Uffizi called Perche No! My brother had sone a college summer in Florence way back in the 80’s and still remembered it and made sure to take us there - it was so great! He also taught us the trick of finding a “real” gelato place vs. a tourist trap. He said to skip the places that have the gelato all mounded up ugh in the bins, that is just for show and usually means it is not made the correct way. I’ll try to remember some of the restaurants we tried. We stayed on the other side of the river so sometimes just ate over there though.
