Last minute trip to Florence…yikes!

We used a tour company to take day trips out of Florence. We loved WalkAboutFlorence. Check out their webpage - you can book there too. You can see photos and read reviews about them on TripAdvisor, but if you book - do so thru their website - NOT a third party like TripAdvisor/Viator.

We absolutely loved their BEST OF TUSCANY TOUR that goes to Siena and San Gimignano and a great lunch

We also loved their CHIANTI WINE AND FOOD SAFARI TOUR

If you do those tours with WalkAboutFlorence, you could just stay in Florence and not need to rent a car.

I suggest renting a car and staying at an agriturismo near Siena and doing day trips from there. I think the limiting factor will be what you can find now. I'd budget at least a day for Siena, a day to visit the small hill towns along the Chiantigiana, then a day to visit San Gimignano/Volterra.

I prefer booking.com to AirBnB for apartments in Italy.

We booked this lovely apartment in Siena for our spring visit, and found the owner very responsive and helpful. In the end we did not go on the trip, but I hope to visit there next spring and will book the same apartment.

https://www.booking.com/hotel/it/san-domenico-luxury.html?aid=1610724&label=slb5_-TUSt19IJv57AgnLK2KnBGAS541132408992%3Apl%3Ata%3Ap1%3Ap2%3Aac%3Aap%3Aneg%3Afi%3Atikwd-303200406148%3Alp1027744%3Ali%3Adec%3Adm%3Appccp%3DUmFuZG9tSVYkc2RlIyh9YfpWGnRw6lOG86ZrjetTYr4&sid=80d612ec6d40b0755038867a3d2d268e&all_sr_blocks=309528701_199828186_2_0_0;checkin=2022-08-23;checkout=2022-08-25;dest_id=-129709;dest_type=city;dist=0;group_adults=2;group_children=0;hapos=16;highlighted_blocks=309528701_199828186_2_0_0;hpos=16;map=1;matching_block_id=309528701_199828186_2_0_0;no_rooms=1;req_adults=2;req_children=0;room1=A%2CA;sb_price_type=total;sr_order=upsort_bh;sr_pri_blocks=309528701_199828186_2_0_0__28424;srepoch=1657662128;srpvid=f80a9892d6610147;type=total;ucfs=1&#map_opened-auto_open

I cannot say enough good things about Walks of Italy. We have used their services in Florence, Venice, Paris and New York. We have enjoyed each of them thoroughly. Their Florence in a Day walking tour included express access to see the David, Uffizi and the Duomo. Groups were small and the guides were engaging.

They are not an inexpensive tour operator but we have always felt that we got more than our money's worth.

Best,

JB

We flew into Pisa, and caught a train into Florence. Then we spent a long weekend.

We went by taxi from the train station 2 miles to Sansovino St. where there is a city office for Hertz. The rental agent pointed me in the right direction to get to the autobahn going south without getting near the ZTL's of the center city.

We stayed halfway between Certaldo and San Gimignano at a winery--about 5 miles from the large grocery stores in Poggibonsi. It was the perfect place to stay when doing day trips to Siena, Voltera, Certaldo and San Gimignano. It was especially nice to visit San Gimignano when the tour buses had left--and locals were in town.

The farms of Tuscany are very small, and they just about all have apartments and cabins as a secondary source of income. You can Google "agriturismos" or go on Booking.com to find them. I'm talking 100's and 100's of places to stay are in the area.

We did visit Siena, however it was very, very difficult finding parking in the city. It's actually easier visited by bus from Florence.

Upon leaving, we drove 90 minutes south on 4 lane highways and an autobahn toll road to the very nice hilltown, Orvieto. We dropped the rental car at the Hertz office across the parking lot from the train station and took a local train 70 minutes into Rome Termini.

If you do consider day trips from Florence instead of renting a car, here’s another recommendation for WalkAboutFlorence. We did a few of their day trips from Florence on our trips in 2014-2016 and loved them. Was nice to have them handle all the logistics (and driving), we just needed to get ourselves to the departure spots on time :-)

Where are you flying home from?
Will you spend any time in Rome?

Have you looked at rental car rates?

Thank everyone so much for taking your time to provide us information and advice!

After much consideration, we have decided to stay in Florence for our entire 10 day stay!

The tours mentioned from Walks of Italy and Walk about Florence sound like so much fun without the expense and time of renting a car and driving or taking a train.

We can enjoy Florence and the surrounding areas, have fun, then return to Florence.

Less hassle, more fun!!!!!

Now I need to look into airbnbs for a 10 day stay! Hopefully I can find a great place close to the Duomo or around there with air conditioning! Will also be looking for restaurants!

I really appreciate all your comments. They made us think about the type of Italian experience we want!

Wow! I thought it might be really quite difficult to find anything available in Florence on such short notice so I had to look on airbnb. My filters were AC, bathroom, Wi-Fi in an entire place and 4 lovely properties under $100/night came up. Hope you found success.
I sure would be pleased to stay in any of them.
Enjoy your last minute trip.

I just booked an apartment with Airbnb for our 10 day stay in Florence! It is between the train station and the Duomo area so we can walk everywhere. This definitely makes me feel better about this trip!

We still have to plan the day trips to tour Florence (as suggested) as well as ones to Tuscany with Walk About Florence. We are excited to just enjoy the ambiance of Florence this trip and let others do the driving and plan the logistics.

This also gives us the opportunity to relax, plan what restaurants to visit and enjoy great food, wine, bruschetta and cappuccinos.

Next trip would love to stay at an agriturismo as a base and travel to towns in Tuscany.

Thanks for all the suggestions! It’s exciting to see this trip come together in such a short timeframe…
Wow! I just realized that we leave a week from today…crazy!

It sounds like a great trip!

I also want to put in a plug for Walks of Italy. We've used them in both Florence and Rome and all the tours have been great. In Florence, we did the morning stroll that starts with a skip the line visit at the Accademia. That's followed by a visit to the Duomo, then the rest of the morning is a walking tour hitting the highlights. In the afternoon, we took the Uffizi tour. Marco was our guide. There were 12 people in the morning tour and only 6 of us for the Uffizi (it was December). The nice thing about the Uffizi tour was we took it on a day they stayed open late and we were free to stay and wander through the parts not on the tour.

Staying in one place and doing a deeper dive sounds heavenly. We've done it in London and you get a better feel for the city. When you plan, be sure to leave a day or two completely open. Once you arrive, you'll discover things you didn't know about that you want to explore. Having some unscheduled time will allow to take advantage of unexpected opportunities.

DougMac and All,
I really appreciate your suggestions! This trip is coming together with all your help!

The Walk of Italy Florence day tour sounds fabulous! Thanks for telling me about it! I need to book it!

I am looking into their Tuscany Tour as well and into the Walk about Florence Pizza and Gelato tour!
That may be enough…

Your advice on leaving open days and exploring is a good one…Sounds like so much fun!
I love sidewalk cafes even though it will be hot!

I am trying to make this trip special because it includes our wedding anniversary and my husband’s birthday!
Thanks!

We were just in Florence for 5 nights in May (having been there several times previously - I did a study abroad there for 6 months in college). We really enjoyed the following:

• Accademia to see David. This is one of my "must-dos" every time I'm in the city - definitely reserve ahead of time.
• Piazzale Michelangeo. Another of my must-dos. I like to bring a picnic up and watch the sunset. Sometimes I bring wine with me, sometimes I just buy a beer from the stand that's off to the side of the parking lot. I took the bus up and back, since it was convenient from our rental apartment in the Oltrarno, but if you're staying close to the Duomo, it's probably easiest to take a taxi. Or take a taxi up and walk back down.
• If you're looking for something a little different, we did a rafting tour down the Arno river with Firenze Rafting. It was fun to see the city from a different angle.
• Guided tour of Palazzo Vecchio. I'm here with my 5 year old, so we did one of the kid's tours (which was awesome!), but I'm dying to do their "Secret Passages" tour. On that tour, you can actually go up into see the ceiling of the Salone del Cinquecento (if you've seen the Dan Brown movie "Inferno", this is the ceiling where they run along the beams).

Restaurant recommendations: (most of these are in the Oltrarno, where we stayed, but they're not a far walk from the city center)

• Pino's Sandwiches (Santa Croce neighborhood)
• Il Francescano Tavern (around the corner from Santa Croce with shaded outdoor tables)
• La Sorbettiera Gelateria (Santo Spirito), this may have replaced my former standby La Carraia as favorite gelato place in Florence - they've got really unique flavors
• Sophia Loren restaurant (Piazza della Repubblica) this is more touristy and a little more expensive, but the food is very good. It's not Tuscan - Sophia is from Naples, so the food is more southern. I thought it was fun to have some Neapolitan cuisine without having to go there. Interior is very very pretty, or the tables outside are great for people watching. If sitting outside, watch your bags and don't leave your cell phone sitting out on the table where it can be swiped by passersby.
• Tamerò Pizzeria (Santo Spirito)
• Trattoria Sant'Agostino (Santo Spirito).
• Trattoria Giovanni (Santo Spirito).
• Signorvino (Oltrarno, right over the Ponte Vecchio). They have some tables overlooking the Arno and if you go early (before 6pm or so), you can have just drinks and snacks on the patio. Or I believe they also have a food menu, not sure how good it is though, we've only been for drinks.
• Art Bar (official name: Antico Caffe del Moro, Santa Maria Novella) Fun cocktails served with lots of fruit.
• Mercato Centrale, obviously. The upstairs is like a giant food court and you can get lots of different options; they have free wifi.
• La Rinascente for a drink and coffee. We had one day where we were just HOT and needed some AC, so we went up to their top-floor cafeteria and it wasn't cheap, but it was absolutely reasonable to have a place to sit down with wifi and AC :)

Florence is my favorite city in all of Italy. Have a great trip!!

Oh Erin! I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you spending the time and providing me so much fabulous info for our trip!!!!! I am so excited to look into all your suggestions! Thank you!!!!!

If you haven't been to Florence before, you will really enjoy its walkability and the train station is more conveniently located there than those in some cities.

I 100% encourage you to do the WalkAboutFlorence all day Tuscany tour, one of the options will be to have lunch at an organic winery with a tour of the grounds, one of the highlights of our last time in Florence.

No problem at all - we have family friends who are going at the beginning of September, so I actually had just sent them the same list! :)

Cheers!

Glad you're staying in Florence! So much to see and do there!

Did you already run across this Lesser Known Things in Florence topic for more ideas? https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/lesser-known-things-in-florence

Thank you SO much! So many fabulous ideas and places to see!
I am leaving us lots of free time so we can enjoy these “lesser known things”!
Looking at RS sites for restaurant advice too.
Also, planning on buying a leather purse (jacket?) and maybe a zip wallet…I have read that Lorenzo’s market by the Market Centrale is a mixed bag of quality but it will be fun to go to both places!
I really appreciate all your help!

Texas girl, if you're on the hunt for leather products, consider the Leather School (Scuola del Cuoio) behind Santa Croce. You can enter from inside Santa Croce (entrance fee for the church), or go around behind the church and enter the school/shop without paying/entering the church. We generally tour the church first, then go shopping :)

https://scuoladelcuoio.it/en/

My husband, mother, aunt, mother-in-law, and I have purchased a variety of products from there (a briefcase for my husband, Christmas ornaments, belts, wallets, purses, bookmarks) and have found the shopping atmosphere, selection, and quality of the items to be top-notch. It's attached to the Santa Croce church, so there's no one pressuring you to buy (you can read more about their history on the website). They're helpful without being oppressive, and they generally monogram things for no additional cost (or at least they did the most recent time we were there in 2019). They can even ship directly to your house, so you don't have to worry about toting your purchases for the rest of your trip.

My husband has a gorgeous leather briefcase he bought there in 2013, and I have a crossbody purse from 2017. Both are still in excellent condition.

During my last visit in Florence I booked a shopping tour rather than a wine tour. It was great fun and I got to see many special and out of the way places in Florence. Just Google [email protected]
Marie is a delightful person to spend the day with. She will ask you about your preferences etc. and tailor the tour to your needs.

Ditto the leather shop in Santa Croce. It's really a wonderful place.

I had no idea there was a shopping tour…will check it out!

I will add the Leather shop in Santa Croce on my “must visit” list for sure.

Since we are staying in Florence for this trip we will be able to see and visit so many sites, shops and restaurants! Thanks for all your help!

hey hey Texas Girl
many festivals will happen in "tuscany".
discovertuscany.com
tuscany events/ calendar and click august
enjoy and have a glass of wine for me
aloha

Just wanted to say THANKS and that you guys provide the best travel advice! Nothing beats experience!
We leave a WEEK from today and I appreciate everyone’s suggestions!
I have a list of restaurants to try and places to visit!!!! We are very excited!