What to do in Florence? Tips & Suggestions

Florence or "Firenze" is an amazing city filled with magnificent Gothic architecture and sculptures .  Firenze is home to the famous Michelangelo's David sculpture, famous designers like Prada, Gucci, Chanel, impressive Italian leather.  As you take a stroll through the streets of Firenze, you will find yourself surrounded with amazing work of art, beautiful massive architecture, sculptures, breathtaking cathedrals, grand churches, and of course, Chanel, Prada, and Gucci.  These shops and boutiques are located on Via de' Tornabuoni street, at the center of Firenze, there is no way for you to miss it, you will accidentally run into it once or twice on your stroll through Firenze.  If this is your second stop in your travel to Italy or first, Firenze is where I would suggest buying you gifts, replica sculptures, beautiful genuine leather bag or a shirt, apron or boxer of Michelangelo's David's magnificent part like the picture below, it will sure be the talk among your family or friends.

Suggestions & Tips
Comparing Firenze to Roma, Firenze is significantly smaller than Rome, yet just as impressive in its own right. Firenze is a city small enough that I would suggest spending at most 2 days but can easily be explore in 1 day.
Some things to do before arriving in Firenze, only if you must see the real David's sculpture otherwise, you can easily skip this suggestion below.
Make reservations in advance for the Galleria d'ell Accademia and the Uffizi Gallery, the cost is extra for reservation but will spare 2-3 hours of standing in line (the entrance cost is the same both the Accademia and the Uffizi, 6.50 euros if you stand in line and 10.5 euros if you call ahead). Your hotel conceirge can make these reservations for you and you can request certain time if you make book it in advance, however, if you go to Italy off-peak, between Nov-March, this will not be an issue.  The reservation line is good for both Accademia and the Uffizi:  055/294883; the reservationist speak English).
Personally, I did not find the Accademia and the Uffizi Gallery as impressive as the Vatican in Rome, they are both much smaller in scale, with less interesting art work, and ended up costing more.  I must say, I was quite impress with Michelangelo's David sculpture, knowing that Michelangelo sculpted David from one single block of marble as he imagine in his mind, is just amazing.
The famous sculpture of David is hosted at the Accademia however you can not take any pictures (not knowing this, I did get a picture of the actual David, standing 17 feet tall, impressive) of it and that is the main reason why people do go to the Accademia. The Accademia is about 8 small rooms or so with the main room/hallway with David, one room dedicated to sculptures, one smaller room of musical instruments, one small dedicate to Christianity's paintings, and a couple of smaller rooms of Biblical paintings.
David's replica is also available for picture and admiration at Piazza della Signoria in front of the Palazzo Vecchio (the town hall of Florence). So if you want to save your money, you can take plenty of pictures of David here, in addition, across from the Piazza della Signoria, there is Loggia dei Lanzi (also known as Loggia dei Signoria) with replica sculptures such as the Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus with the Head of Medusa, the Medici Lions, and many other famous sculptures. I thought the town hall was much more impressive than both the Uffizi and the Accademia. Firenze is one of those cities where you don't need to go museums to see impressive artwork, Firenze itself is a giant museum, out in the open, available to the public, completely for free.  Its a place you can really stroll along all day, stopping along the way for a scoop of gelato or a cup of latte.

A couple of attractions that I highly recommend paying for are:
Giotto's bell tower (Campanile di Giotto) with about 400+ steps to the top with a panaromic view of Florence, costing 6 euros.Its a great spot for you amateur photographers or those who just want to see the view of Florence.
Boboli Gardens (Giardini Boboli) 9 euros - its relaxing but you have to be willing to walk and explore. We spent about 2 hours walking through museums and then the gardens. **one suggestion - diagonal from the entrance is a little grocery store, we bought some cheeses, salami or salame picante (equivalent to our pepperoni as pepperoni is not known as that in Italy) and a bottle of  (Chianti - even for 3 or 4 euros, its great) wine to take in with us.**
Now if you are in Firenze longer than 1 day, I suggest taking the train to Siena for wine tasting or Pisa. Train tickets are about 7-11 euros or rent a car for the day 35-50 euros per day would have been a better way to go then do one of those tours. We booked this tour using those advertising pamphlets available in the hotel (there were about 5 or 6 different tour groups). There were tours for 1/2 day Pisa for 75 euros, full day for 150 euros, 1/2 day Siena/Chianti Wine tasting 55 euros, full day Siena/Chianti 75 euros. We wanted to do a Chianti wine tour, we booked a full day tour for 75 euros per person, meeting spot was about two blocks from our hotel. We did Siena, Chianti, and San Gimignano tour and looking back, we could have saved ourselves 150 euros and got a better experience by taking the train or renting a car.  The tour stated that we would go to Sant'Appiano for Wine tasting and snacks were included, so we expected at least a bottle of wine and a cheese and deli spread, nope, what we got was and I am not kidding you, a small plastic appetizer bowl with one thinly (i mean paper thin, see through) piece of proscuitto, a tiny piece of dried up italian bread (the side of a dollar ripped in half) and a drizzle of olive oil, 4 sips of chianti, not a shot, but rather think of a shot glass, half a shot of wine. I am including the picture below. My suggestion is rent a car for the day, book your Chianti wine tasting reservation online, it will much more reasonable than doing a tour.


If you are looking to shop for leather, Firenze is the place to bargain for a nice leather bag or briefcase. Whatever the price is, you can negotiate for 20-40 euros less, if the one shop will not negotiate, the one next door will, so keep that in mind when you shop.
As for food, find a restaurant that does not charge a cover fee, we got some suggestions from the hotel conceirge and we liked it so much that we went back there for two dinners and one lunch. I suggest getting a quart or pint of house wine, the house chianti never disappoints and so reasonable in price (3-9 euros, depending on the restaurant). I'll blog more about food in Italy shortly, food would be a big blog for me. I am a bit of a food snob, I love to eat but I only love to eat good food, not just anything. More to come on food.
Have a great time in Firenze, feel free to send me a comment, email or a twit if you want more details that I did not cover here.