travel to Florence

A trip to Florence would be wonderful. Just prioritize what you want to see. If I had one day in Florence I would go to the Academia, Uffizi, walk over the Ponte Vecchio it is right near the Uffizi, than trek up the Piazza Michaelangelo. On the way down you can see walk to the Church of Santa Croce where Michaelangelo, Galileo, Michiavelli and others are buried. Have dinner and return to Rome. Busy day but doable. But get reservations for the Academia and Uffizi in advance. The Academia is pretty small and won't take time to get through. The Uffizi is large and know what rooms you want to see before you go to save time. In terms of dollar exchange. We have found airports to charge excessive fees. We always bring some over with us just to cover us for the first day or so. Your bank can exchange them for you. Once over there we use ATM's. Check you bank about the fees. We always bring two sets of cards with two differnt accoutns in cash we have trouble with one or we need to close one. A machine ate our card once and we closed the account and just used the other account.

Two years ago we did a day trip to Florence from Rome and we were glad we did but a couple of comments: 1)make sure you take the high-speed train from Rome otherwise you'll waste most of the day coming and going 2)get tickets ahead of time for the Uffizi 3)the Duomo and especially the Baptistry are worth seeing and are right in the vicinity

Very doable. There are high speed trains leaving Rome every 20 to 30 minutes starting at 6:15 am. Travel time is 91 minutes. Base price is Euro 43 (one way), however if you buy on line with sufficient advance (they sell out quickly), you can buy an Economy ticket for Euro 29 or a Supereconomy for Euro 19. If you later change your mind or schedule, you can change the ticket. Go to the trenitalia site for times/prices/booking: http://www.trenitalia.com/ Consider that the last high speed train leaves Florence a little after 9pm, so schedule your return accordingly.
Please note there are multiple stations both in Rome and Florence. Most trains depart from Roma Termini, but some from Roma Tiburtina, which is in the Pietralata district. For Florence you should the trains arriving at the central station FIRENZE Santa Maria Novella (SMN) since it's closest to the sites. Since you'll be pressed with time, remember that sit down lunch at a restaurant in Italy will take over 2 hours of your time. Consider lunch at one of the food outlets inside the Farmers' Market (Mercato Centrale of San Lorenzo), great for cheap and faster Florentine food ("Da Cerbone" is the most famous among the vendors inside). It's a short walk from both the station and the Duomo. For money do not get Euros at airports, especially US airports, which have exorbitant commissions. Use the ATM machines when you arrive. Note that US banks will charge you about $5 per withdrawal plus 3% commission. Therefore make few large withdrawals and use your credit card as much as you can. Credit cards give the best exchange rate deal, but all except for one (Capital One) also charge the 3% foreign transaction fee (like the ATM). Happy travel from a Florentine in California.

Thanks so much for your advice!!

Roberto's comment that if you change your mind you can change your ticket doesn't apply to the reserved seats on fast trains if you book online - you have to pay to change the ticket, often buying another full-price ticket is required. You may find a line outside the Duomo, but it moves pretty quickly so don't be discouraged by it. You'll need reservations for the Uffizi and Accademia (go upstairs to the Pinacoteca as well as stopping by to see David), but having an appointment time will mean very little time in line. Don't exchange money at the airport! ATMs (Bancomats) are all over the place. If you are flying into Rome, you can buy your Leonardo Express ticket to Termini station with your credit card and you won't need euro until you get to the taxi stand or bus station right outside Termini (there are Bancomats inside Termini, but it's a train station, so be careful - have one person use the ATM while the other keeps distractions at bay).

Florence for sure. Download Rick STeve's audio guides - there's one for the Academia and one for the Uffizi. I also enjoyed the ones for Rome. They are free on iTunes - not sure where else. I agree about not sitting down for lunch. Grab sandwiches to eat while standing in line - or just multiple servings of gelati - better in Florence than Rome.

To say, ".....US banks will charge you about $5 per withdrawal plus 3% commission." is a bit misleading. Some do, most don't. Card insurers are free to set any fee they want so there is a wide range of fees from 0 to the above which is near the max charged by anyone. So it is important to check with your card issuer for their fee structure and IF the debit card will work where you are traveling. If they are charging $5 and 3%, look around. There are much better deals everywhere. My credit union charges nothing. Many online banks have low or no fees.