Things to Do/See in Florence, Italy in November

Hi Laura -
The good news? There is almost nothing boring in Florence.
The bad news? Trying to see ALL of the good stuff

Many of the besties are on this page:
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/florence/planning-your-time

You don't have to follow the itinerary: just use it as a starting list of attractions. Two of the museums - Accademia and Uffizi - tend to have very long ticket lines so it's best to order tickets in advance:

https://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/en/index.php

Or you might be interested in the 3-day Firenze Card if you want to see enough of what if offers to break even. This allows you to skip ticket lines at the Uffizi, Accademia and other attractions:

http://www.firenzecard.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4&Itemid=105&lang=en

Florence is the capital city of Tuscany, BTW.

A guidebook will be really, really helpful: go to the bookstore and get one before you go.
Your cousin should also have a handle on the besties.

Pisa is very easy from Florence by rail (a little over an hour), and you can be in Rome in 90 minutes by fastest trains. Use the Trenitalia website to browse schedules:

http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en
The main station in Florence is Firenze S.M. (Santa Maria) Novella
Pisa: Pisa Centrale
Rome: Roma Termini

Lucca is also a very nice trip from Florence: about 80 minutes by train.

Shopping/eating for a foodie:
https://www.mercatocentrale.it/en/mercato-centrale-firenze/

There is a market outside the Mercato with stalls selling all sort of stuff: leather goods; scarves; toys; shoes; clothing… Just be sure not to buy any knockoff purses and whatnot being sold from roaming vendors; that's illegal.

" I would love to visit Rome, but I don't know that I'll make there."

With 8 days, you have plenty of time. Consider taking the train down to Rome & stay there for 2 of your nights. Your cousin should also be able to give some travel advise.

Have a great trip!

There are lots of day trips from Firenze. I love Siena, Arezzo, Sansepolcro, Pistoia, Lucca (can be done with Pisa in one day).

Firenze is the capital of Toscana, the region which contains all of these cities. You will have more than enough to do in eight days. A short trip is to Fiesole, just above the city of Firenze.

You could also take a fast train for a daytrip to Bologna for some fantastic food.

Florentine souvenirs? Any type of leather (make sure it's made locally), beautiful paper, gold.

http://www.visitflorence.com/what-to-see-in-florence/

There are so few chain restaurants in Florence that you can count them on one hand's fingers (and most aren't even in the city center), so locally owned establishments will be the norm.

Tuscany is a large region (the size of Massachusetts+Rhode Island combined) and Florence (the regional capital city) is probably the best base to visit it using public transportation. Of course some parts of Tuscany are too far to be visited on a day trip, but many famous destinations are within reach, such as: Siena, Pisa, Lucca, Arezzo, Pistoia, San Gimignano, Volterra, Cortona, Fiesole, and many many others.

Since Florence will take about 3 days to visit, you probably have time for some day trips. Rome and Venice are each 200 miles away, but thanks to the high speed trains, you can actually take a taste of both from Florence. Venice is 2h05min to the north and Rome is only 90 min to the south of Florence. If you start very early you can take a glimpse of either (or both) on separate day trips.

Florence is famous for leather artifacts and other things. There are plenty at the San Lorenzo Market on via dell'Ariento. The carts on that market are legal and you can buy from there. There will be also people, especially Africans and Middle Eastern migrants who will try to sell you knock off products (fake designer purses, fake Rolex watches, selfie sticks, etc.). As mentioned above purchasing knock off designer goods carries a fine of over 1,000 euro and there are lots of plain clothes policemen around, so don't buy them, no matter how much those vendors insist you do. Most of them don't even work and are defective anyhow.

The taxi rates from the airport to the city center are City imposed flat rates:
€20 during the day Mon-Sat
€22 on Sundays/Holidays
€23.30 at night (10pm-6am)
There is also a €1 surcharge for each piece of luggage loaded in the trunk.

You won't need taxis much once you are in the city center. The historical center of Florence is just over one square mile, so you can walk everywhere. There are also electric buses that travel the narrow streets of the city center.

Consider the highlights of Rome and Venice as day trips if you think you may not return to Italy for some time.

Day 1 - Florence sights #1
Day 2 - Pisa by train
Day 3 - Possible (long) day trip to Rome by high speed train
Day 4 - Florence sights #2
Day 5 - Siena by bus
Day 6 - Possible (long) day trip to Venice by high speed train
Day 7 - Florence sights #3
Day 8 - Lucca by train

We just returned from Florence. Good news - the Duomo Museum reopened on Nov. 29. This was my first trip to Italy so I have no comparison but the new museum is wonderful. Other good news, nothing was crowded. The Uffizi has moved things around so you will have to be creative using Rick's audio guide. The temporary location of popular works of art (Botticelli, da Vinci) are well marked.

We didn't find any bad food. Particularly good meals were at Mama Gina. Start with drinks on the top floor open terrace at the Pitti Palace hotel for wonderful views. Both are on Borgo S. Jacopo just over the S side of Ponte Vecchio. We had wonderful weather but take a collapsable umbrella.

Your cousin will undoubtedly give you insider recommendations.

Have a great trip.

While Florence is such a great hub for visiting other Italian cities within reach--from Venice to Rome--I would hesitate from doing too much. The absolute best thing to do in Florence is not doing much at all.

We rented an apartment near the train station on Piazza Santa Maria Novella in March for five nights. We had planned possible daytrips to Fiesole, Pisa, Siena, maybe even Venice, but were soaking in the Firenze vibe so much, at a time of year when there are not that many visitors, but more students than tourists, that we did none of it. A pity in one sense, but we got so much more.

We relished a daily routine of this: I'd wake up early, walk across the piazza to a coffee bar while my wife was still asleep, had an espresso or two while practicing my fractured Italian with the owner--he got to know me after a couple days. Early morning Firenze is ethereal--quiet, echo-filled, the faint sound of street sweepers and the smell of coffee. Late in the morning, we'd walk to the Mercato Centrale and shop for fruit, prosciutto & salami, cheese, bread and the best Tuscan honey imaginable. We'd find hidden gems--the Sassetti Chapel near the Santa Trinita bridge, or the charming Oltrarno area south of the Arno--little nooks and crannies of this magic town. Near dusk, we'd open up our apartment windows to the square, and feel the late winter sun as guitarists & accordion players' music wafted up to us on the second floor. At night--dinner here is relatively late, no earlier than 7:30 or 8:00--we'd find a cozy trattoria for a leisurely dinner , then seemed to always find our way past the now-deserted but spotlighted Duomo, where we could reach up, feel, and take close-up pictures of the amazing detail of the façade. Wondrous stuff. Then we'd finish with a small gelato across from the coffee bar where I had started my day.

Next time to Florence we'll take some daytrips, but we got a lot out of this one, too!

No Jay, I don't think you will do any day trips next time. You will do exactly the same as you did this time.
Sounds magical. You lucky man.