Firenze was one of the places I was most excited to see on our road trip across Italy. Leaving Bologna and getting back on the highway, we drove through hilly terrain with tunnels and tolls (tracked by the piece of paper in the first photo below). When we arrived in Florence, we parked in a covered garage pretty close to downtown.

Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore

Located in Piazza Duomo, Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore was built in the 1200s and is well known for Brunelleschi’s Dome and Giotto’s Bell Tower, the Campanile. The entire cathedral and tower are covered in green, white, and red marble, and it quite literally glistens in the sunshine. It was the most striking church we saw across Italy. The Cathedral is free to enter, and tickets can be bought (ideally in advance!) to the Dome (€20) and Campanile (€15).

Downtown Firenze is gorgeous to simply get lost in the winding streets. The blending of tourist shops with small, local businesses led us past piazza’s with sculptures, water fountains, and bustling crowds at the Palazzo Vecchio.

Our favorite part of any vacation, besides eatings and drinking the local fares, is walking around and getting lost in the streets of whatever city we’re in. The Manfriend prefers to not have a plan, and while I like to research to find out what there is to do so we don’t miss anything, we’ve found a pretty good balance at this point.

Ponte Vecchio

Walking across this medieval bridge, there were a ton of souvenir and jewelry shops, and gave a great view of the river.

Giardino di Boboli

The Boboli Gardens were at the end of a long, steady uphill climb up a cobbled sidewalk and had some great people watching. We bought a beer and a pretzel and, after walking around the gardens for a bit and taking in the view of Firenze, sat and listened to some live music on the steps leading up to the gardens.

We ended every day walking around late at night, eating gelato, and having exquisite dinners.