If you’re staying in Florence, get the “Friends of the Uffizi” membership from the uffizi. It’s 40euro and with it you get unlimited free entrance to 90% of the museums and you CUT EVERY SINGLE LINE. You can also bring friends to the beginning of the line at most places, they just have to pay a little extra. WORTH EVERY CENT.
The Medici family donated everything to the city of Florence and so they’re really tried to preserve what it was like during the Renaissance. Every single aspect of Florence is centered around the Medici family.
Major train station is Stazione Santa Maria Novella (SMN). You can take trains to almost any other city in Italy, as well as to Rome to catch a flight.
Panini Places/ Lunch
I fell in love with grilled vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach) and would get them in any form possible, with or without spicy sauce or pesto and roasted red pepper flakes. Of course if that’s not your cup of tea, they have other options too, but those were my favorites and I got some combination of the above everywhere I went.
Antico Noe– First of all, the younger guy who works here is gorgeous in the most cliched foreign way. If life was a Mary-Kate and Ashley movie, you would fall in love (you had me at “brie with spicy sauce”) and he would take you on moped rides along the Duomo at night. But since life is not a MK&A movie, we will settle for him lovingly handcrafting the most delicious sandwiches in the entire world. Like I can never decide what to order because they all make me salivate. You can’t go wrong.
Oil Shoppe: Kind of Americanized sandwiches and salads. GLUTEN FREE BREAD! And if it’s too cold for the gf bread to rise, they give me free french fries which are delicioso. Once I got the spicy sauce and my mouth burned for 20 minutes and I touched my face and so the skin on my face burned too. It was the best.
Vino: on Via Degli Alfani. It’s across from the OK bar which is on the corner of degli Alfani and Servi (near the Duomo). Mostly vegetables and very authentic.
Neri– AMAZING. You can get almost any combination of veggies/meats/sauces.
Place near San Lorenzo next to Bellamia– The most ingredient options I’ve seen. Like I got pears and brie on my sandwich, which was amazing. They also have delicious, huge salads
I Fratellini: tiny stand, cheap, smaller sandwiches. Really good, warm rolls- don’t get the vegetables because they give meager portions. Spicy salame with goat cheese is a better option.
Love Life: right near Oil Shoppe, they have amazing smoothies and also they have rice, lettuce, couscous in containers and you can put toppings on them. They also have yogurt with fruit/granola toppings. I ate here constantly.
Veggy Bar: on Servi, the best salads we’ve ever had. We’re obsessed with the man, even though he once slammed my finger in a door(accidentally!!!). Get the tiny onions that he stores in a container in a brine in your salad, we’re OBSESSED with them. They also have smoothies and he gives out free samples a lot. He also would give me a taste of whatever anyone ordered while I was there since we were best friends. He gave us candy pacifiers for the flight home so we “wouldn’t cry” and you all must go and love him.
Gelato/Coffee
Ok here’s a fun helpful hint. The gelato places that have the huge domes of gelato with little garnishes on top? Not good gelato. Touristy and filled with preservatives. You want the good stuff. You’re looking for it in 2 forms: either in these metal tins that are covered, or not stacked up like a dome. You’ll learn how to get an eye for the good stuff, but here’s a list of places that serve it:
Bellamia: Gelato place near San Lorenzo. I think it’s one of the BEST. And they have gluten free cones! We really think this might be the best. I like the torrocino and marscapone con fichi.
Grom: Yes, they do have one in the city, but its still arguably the greatest gelato ever. And their hot chocolate (dark with gelato) is heaven in a cup. They also have one in Colombus Circle, for those of you who don’t want to leave the continent.
Gelateria di Cillo:
Gelato di Neri: On Neri. A million flavors, everyone loves the cookies and cream. My favorite is the rice flavor. They also have tiny baby cones, which is convenient for when you just crave a taste. Or two (double-fisting is recommended)
Perche No: Homemade on the premesis. Off of the main road that connects Piazza della Signoria to Piazza del Duomo
Festival de Gelato: A lot of flavors also off of the main road that connects Piazza della Signoria to Piazza del Duomo, one street over from Perche No. Not the GREATEST, but it’s good.
Carabe– Really good granite in addition to their gelato. Granite is like sicilian ices and amazing. I would get granite with gelato on top. Quality stuff
Cantina de Gelato: Best restaurant in Florence. Amazing flavors and they make these ice cream sandwhich type things with waffle pieces that you really ahve to try.
La Carraia: Amazing.
Place across from Tintori– REAL ICED COFFEE. Get cafe con latte con ice. It’s literally just coffee that they put on ice, and it’s the best iced coffee I’ve ever had in my entire life. So delicious. Here’s how to get there: go to Santa Croce and walk up to it so that you’re facing it and almost on the stairs. Make a right (Magliabecci or something). Walk ALL the way down until you get to Corso de Tintori. It’s the last coffee place on the right.
La Bottega de Gelato/Stick House- Omg AMAZING gelato on a stick. On the street towards the Ponte Vecchio, on the right when walking towards it.
Dinner/Restaurants.
The Diner: AMERICAN DINER FOOD. I’m talking hamburgers, pancakes, milkshakes (ya know…to bring all the boys to the yard), omelets, nom nom nom nom nom. Long wait sometimes, but totally worth it. Good for brunch
I’Grullo: On the same street as our apartment, this is literally one of my favorite places. Nico, the waiter/owner is our best friends and always willing to give us advice and tell us places we should go see (and give us free wine). Their vegetable soup and risotto with peas and rago sauce are amazing. It’s a tiny touristy-type place, but we grew emotionally attached to it even though Nico is kind of creepy at times, but he’s really interesting.
Le Botteghe di Donatello: Right in Piazza del Duomo, this is my favorite gluten free restaurant. Their gf pasta actually tastes like real pasta. And you can have romantic dinners with huge windows facing the Duomo. I had many, if you consider dinner’s with Steph to be romantic.
Il Toscano: Have gluten free options, on via de Guelfa.
La Giostra– Really good restaurant, adorable rustic decor. Owned by two descendants of the Habsburgs. Carbonero pasta, apple chicken, pear ravioli are my favs. They also give free prosecco and appetizers to the table. Good place to take parents.
ZaZas– Huge place near San Lorenzo. Typical food, good place to go in big groups. Soup sampler is really good. Also amazing eggplant parmesan.
Da Garibaldi: Next to ZaZas, has pumpkin ravioli in the winter which is the best thing you will ever eat in your entire life. Also has gluten free options.
4Leoni- small place, amazing pear ravioli and lamb. Very authentic, very good. All italian menu, so google it in advance to figure out what you want.
Osteria Santa Spirito: This is the place we chose to go for our last night. It’s INCREDIBLE. Probably the best place in the entire world.
Vini e Vecchi: According to tripadvisor it’s the best restaurant in Florence. Make a reservation and definitely go
Acqua al Due– Amazing place. Blueberry and balsamic steaks are the best. Pasta sampler is also amazing.
Il Profeta- John Travolta’s favorite meal! Really, really amazing. We got the steak with the balsamic and stuff and it was to die for
Gatto: another family style place, good for large groups.
Il Latini: They will bring you out a lot of delicious meat. Lots and lots of meat. And then many forms of drinks. It’s really good, I loved it. Others who didn’t like meat didn’t like it as much.
Dantes- unlimited wine, pretty good food
Targa: We discovered this place on a run once, it’s right on the Arno but farther down near the Ponte Giovanni da Verrazzano. It’s actually incredible. It’s different and trendy and their desserts are DIVINE.
Osteria De Benci: Get the drunken pasta and strawberry risotto. Also has gluten free options.
Pizza
Gusta Pizza: not to be confused with Gusta Panino, they have pretty good personal pizzas. I think it’s a bit overexaggerated.
Pizziuolo- The REAL best pizza in Florence. For everyone who tells you to go to Gusta, go to Pizziuolo instead. On Via de Macci, call to make a reservation, it gets PACKED with locals. So many amazing pizza combinations.
Pharmacies: Required by law to have gluten free foods, but the larger ones will have refrigerators which means larger/better selection.
Apertivo
This concept is going to change your life forever. You pay for a drink (wine or a mixed) and you get a FREE BUFFET. We would literally go back for third and forths. Probably not what it was intended for, but still it was amazing. They change the food every day.
Oibo– right near Santa Croce, this was the first we went to and honestly I thought it was one of the best. Good drink selection, good vibe, good spread.
Kitch: really really good.the BIGGEST spread I’ve seen.
Bars/Clubs
lso, if they give you a ticket when you go in with a free drink DO NOT LOSE IT. You will have to pay 50 euro or they will literally keep you.
The Clubs are:
Yab (Monday and Friday)
Space (Saturday)-
Twice (Tuesday)
TwentyOne (Wednesday)
Full-up (Thursday)
Bars:
Kikuya: get a dragoon. Its a beer with a HIGH alcohol content (probs like 3-4 shots)
Cafe Biggalo
Lions
Naima
Red Garter
Astor- Where they went on Jersey Shore. They also have good iced coffe.
Shot Cafe- great place to pregame!
Things to Do/ See
David: You know, the giant naked guy holding a slingshot. Fun facts: originally commissioned by Michelangelo to be one of many sculptures for the Duomo. It was instead placed in the Palazzo di Signoria and seen as a symbol of the defense of civil liberties in the Florentine Republic, which was “like a small man standing up to a giant”. You can see a replica in the place where it once stood, but the David is now kept at the Academia. His arm broke when a bench was defenestrated from the Palazzo Vecchio when the Medici family was expelled from Florence after Lorenzo de Medici’s death. It has since been reattached. In November 2010 they put a fiberglass copy of the David on the Duomo in the place it was meant to be displayed (you can see it in this pic. Its the tiny white thing kind of in the center of the picture, but a bit to the left.), but that’s down now.
Duomo: Duomo is the italian word for the main cathedral in any city (a cathedral is a church with a Bishop), the actual name for the Duomo in Florence is Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, but everyone calls it the Duomo. Famous for it’s dome, designed by Brunelleschi and was a HUGE architectural feat, engineered and built many years after the basilica itself was. Largest brick dome ever constructed. Check out the golden doors on the Baptistery of St. John (the octagonal building in front of the Duomo). These were designed by Ghiberti, who won a contest to design them.
Santa Croce– Basically everyone you’ve ever learned about is buried here. It used to be very simple and unadorned until a new facade was built that kind of looks like the Duomo. It also has a huge Jewish star on top, that’s because one of the architects was Jewish. There’s now a Leather School where the Franciscan Friars used to live in the back.
Ponte Vecchio: Means “old bridge”. Lots of jewelry shops. Only bridge not destroyed by the Nazis during their retreat because Hitler really valued art and culture (but not people). This allowed the Italians to cross over because there is a secret passage built above the Ponte Vecchio called the Vasari Corridor, designed by Vasari, that connects the Palazzo Pitti (Cosimo de Medici’s palace) with the Palazzo Vecchio (government building) through the Uffizi, which used to be governmental offices but is now a museum. Try to take a tour of the Vasari Corridor, if you can. It was built so that Cosimo de Medici wouldn’t have to walk in the streets when he went to work or church.
Palazzo Pitti: Old home of Cosimo de Medici. Has a couple of exhibits, most visited for the Boboli Gardens, which are GORGEOUS and huge. You can’t see all of it in a day but try to check out the Island Fountain if you can.
Uffizi: Museum. Used to be the offices when Cosimo Medici restructured the Florence government and he also held his extensive art collection. You’ve got your Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Botticelli. Big stuff here.
Piazza Michelangelo: In the Oltrarno, GORGEOUS views of the entire city. Go at sunset with wine, there are usually musicians. It’s really an amazing place.
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