36 Hours in Florence
My pals at Eating Italy Tours have a brand new tour in Florence and they invited me up to try it out. I decided to make the most of our time and spend the night. Here is my latest itinerary for making the most of 36 hours in Florence.
If you would like to take this tour please visit Eating Italy's website.
9:30 - The fast (Frecciarossa) train from Rome to Florence takes just over an hour.
11:00 Coffee at Reale
Tucked around the corner from the tracks is an airy modern space to grab that first cup of coffee and fuel up for a Florentine day.
12:00 Art Ancient and Modern Piazza Signoria (After a quick detour at the Apple store Piazza Republic for a new power cord)
We took a look at the shiny giant brass turtle by Flemish artist Jan Fabre that is part of the Spiritual Guardians show and also said hello to old friends in the Loggia dei Lanzi and channeled our best Lucy Honeychurch of course.
1:00 Lunch at Trattoria Sostanza
I have been trying to have lunch at this Florentine institution for the better part of a decade. I have arrived too late and on the wrong day and without a booking on a busy winter evening, but this was my year. We ordered fennel-y finocchiona, the famous swirled tortino di carciofi, butter chicken, which comes sizzling in its pan, and a plate of tomato-y, garlicky beans. The cold Vernaccia di san Gimignano was the perfect one choice. My Instagram followers insisted that we not miss the famous house dessert. We asked for that and a slice of layers of cream and meringue surrounded by tiny wild strawberries arrived.
3:00 Coffee at Caffe Gilli
Time for another coffee break. This time at one of Florence’s grand cafes known for its formal service and colorful confectionary counter. We stood at the marble topped bar and snuck pictures of the grand chandeliers and polished wooden tables.
4:00 Scent Shopping Aqua Flor
I have been buying soaps and perfume from Officina Profumo - Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella since I was a teenager, but I am always happy to have another place to add to my shopping list. I could smell roses from Aqua Flor a half a block away. Inside a stunning palace, Sileno Cheloni creates fragrances that evoke the Tuscan seaside and soaps that look like candy.
5:00 Visit an Artist's Studio
I love street art and the French artist Clet Abraham is one of my favorites. His subversive and whimsical stickers on traffic signs all over Rome and Florence never fail to make me smile.
You can visit his studio on the Oltrarno side of the city and buy your own piece of art ranging from selections as small as a 1 euro sticker to a large commissioned kinetic sculpture.
6:00 Cocktails at Ditta Artiginale
The latest outpost of Florence’s New Wave growing coffee empire has a cocktail bar. We perched on gray velvet stools and chatted with Karim, Florence’s best mixologist, about what we liked. We chose from the extensive gin menu. I had a K-Mule made with lime tinged gin and my pal had a refreshingly dry Spritz with bruised basil leaves and sloe gin.
8:00 Light dinner at Le Volpi e L’Uve
We met up with friends old and new at Le Volpi e L’Uve where dinner was a slightly lighter affair than lunch. Boards of truffle sausage and melted cheese and N’dua crostini and mixed sliced meat and cheese plates were more than satisfying.
10:00 Late night Negroni in Piazza San Spirito
Seeing the newly restored fountain in Piazza San Spirito was the excuse for a nightcap. On weekends this piazza is filled with teenagers and study abroad students, but on a Tuesday night, it was lively enough for fun but not too lively to find a seat at Volume for a late night negroni.
12:00 Time for Bed at Palazzo Belfiori
This 14th-century palazzo in the Oltrarno neighborhood is a gem. Four floors of private apartments make up this perfect Florentine home away from home. Little details like a market trolly to bring home groceries and a special blend of tea exclusive to the Palazzo are in addition to comfortable beds and great water pressure. Your host, Federico, is like having a long lost Italian cousin making you feel at home from the moment you arrive.
10:00 the Other Side of Florence Food Tour with Eating Italy.
The real reason for the trip began on the Centro Storico side of the river with a quick history lesson about the river Arno and the Oltrarno neighborhood.
We got off to a sweet start with traditional Tuscan pastries and coffee, moving onto slices of fennel salami called sbriciolona, deep fried bread with gooey cheese melted inside. There were nine stops in total, each one of them delicious. Here are a few highlights.
11:00 Lampredotto
You can not visit Florence and not try a Lampredotto sandwich. Chopped up beef offal is layered with fresh salsa verde and spicy pepper sauce on a crusty roll. It sounds kind of scary. It’s not.
11:30 Make Biscotti
This historic family run bakery has been making cantucci (what you might know as biscotti) for decades. We were invited into the back were we watched Roberto mix and roll while he also explained surviving occupied Florence in World War II and the devastating flood of 1966.
12:00 Eat cheese and Drink wine
We sat for a spell and enjoyed glasses of Chianti and Nonna’s chicken liver crostini before we squeezed into an Alimentari for thin slivers of young pecorino and slices of salty Tuscan prosciutto.
1:00 Lunch with Calcio Storico Legends
After a quick stop in front of the home where Fillipo Lippi once lived our group filed into the cozy dining room of Trattoria I Raddi, a classic Tuscan trattoria run by an Outran family that includes some players of the famed Calico Storico. There was somehow still room to eat papa pomodoro and one of my most favorite Tuscan dishes, peposa. Peposa is a slow cooked peppery beef stew.
3:00 One Last Coffee Stop
We had time for one last coffee before our train. This time I tried the super trendy, very refreshing, iced cold brew with tonic water. I know it sounds weird but trust me and just try it.
If you would like to take this tour please visit Eating Italy's website.
9:30 - The fast (Frecciarossa) train from Rome to Florence takes just over an hour.
11:00 Coffee at Reale
Tucked around the corner from the tracks is an airy modern space to grab that first cup of coffee and fuel up for a Florentine day.
We took a look at the shiny giant brass turtle by Flemish artist Jan Fabre that is part of the Spiritual Guardians show and also said hello to old friends in the Loggia dei Lanzi and channeled our best Lucy Honeychurch of course.
1:00 Lunch at Trattoria Sostanza
I have been trying to have lunch at this Florentine institution for the better part of a decade. I have arrived too late and on the wrong day and without a booking on a busy winter evening, but this was my year. We ordered fennel-y finocchiona, the famous swirled tortino di carciofi, butter chicken, which comes sizzling in its pan, and a plate of tomato-y, garlicky beans. The cold Vernaccia di san Gimignano was the perfect one choice. My Instagram followers insisted that we not miss the famous house dessert. We asked for that and a slice of layers of cream and meringue surrounded by tiny wild strawberries arrived.
3:00 Coffee at Caffe Gilli
Time for another coffee break. This time at one of Florence’s grand cafes known for its formal service and colorful confectionary counter. We stood at the marble topped bar and snuck pictures of the grand chandeliers and polished wooden tables.
4:00 Scent Shopping Aqua Flor
I have been buying soaps and perfume from Officina Profumo - Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella since I was a teenager, but I am always happy to have another place to add to my shopping list. I could smell roses from Aqua Flor a half a block away. Inside a stunning palace, Sileno Cheloni creates fragrances that evoke the Tuscan seaside and soaps that look like candy.
5:00 Visit an Artist's Studio
I love street art and the French artist Clet Abraham is one of my favorites. His subversive and whimsical stickers on traffic signs all over Rome and Florence never fail to make me smile.
You can visit his studio on the Oltrarno side of the city and buy your own piece of art ranging from selections as small as a 1 euro sticker to a large commissioned kinetic sculpture.
The latest outpost of Florence’s New Wave growing coffee empire has a cocktail bar. We perched on gray velvet stools and chatted with Karim, Florence’s best mixologist, about what we liked. We chose from the extensive gin menu. I had a K-Mule made with lime tinged gin and my pal had a refreshingly dry Spritz with bruised basil leaves and sloe gin.
8:00 Light dinner at Le Volpi e L’Uve
We met up with friends old and new at Le Volpi e L’Uve where dinner was a slightly lighter affair than lunch. Boards of truffle sausage and melted cheese and N’dua crostini and mixed sliced meat and cheese plates were more than satisfying.
10:00 Late night Negroni in Piazza San Spirito
Seeing the newly restored fountain in Piazza San Spirito was the excuse for a nightcap. On weekends this piazza is filled with teenagers and study abroad students, but on a Tuesday night, it was lively enough for fun but not too lively to find a seat at Volume for a late night negroni.
12:00 Time for Bed at Palazzo Belfiori
This 14th-century palazzo in the Oltrarno neighborhood is a gem. Four floors of private apartments make up this perfect Florentine home away from home. Little details like a market trolly to bring home groceries and a special blend of tea exclusive to the Palazzo are in addition to comfortable beds and great water pressure. Your host, Federico, is like having a long lost Italian cousin making you feel at home from the moment you arrive.
10:00 the Other Side of Florence Food Tour with Eating Italy.
The real reason for the trip began on the Centro Storico side of the river with a quick history lesson about the river Arno and the Oltrarno neighborhood.
We got off to a sweet start with traditional Tuscan pastries and coffee, moving onto slices of fennel salami called sbriciolona, deep fried bread with gooey cheese melted inside. There were nine stops in total, each one of them delicious. Here are a few highlights.
11:00 Lampredotto
You can not visit Florence and not try a Lampredotto sandwich. Chopped up beef offal is layered with fresh salsa verde and spicy pepper sauce on a crusty roll. It sounds kind of scary. It’s not.
11:30 Make Biscotti
This historic family run bakery has been making cantucci (what you might know as biscotti) for decades. We were invited into the back were we watched Roberto mix and roll while he also explained surviving occupied Florence in World War II and the devastating flood of 1966.
12:00 Eat cheese and Drink wine
We sat for a spell and enjoyed glasses of Chianti and Nonna’s chicken liver crostini before we squeezed into an Alimentari for thin slivers of young pecorino and slices of salty Tuscan prosciutto.
1:00 Lunch with Calcio Storico Legends
After a quick stop in front of the home where Fillipo Lippi once lived our group filed into the cozy dining room of Trattoria I Raddi, a classic Tuscan trattoria run by an Outran family that includes some players of the famed Calico Storico. There was somehow still room to eat papa pomodoro and one of my most favorite Tuscan dishes, peposa. Peposa is a slow cooked peppery beef stew.
3:00 One Last Coffee Stop
We had time for one last coffee before our train. This time I tried the super trendy, very refreshing, iced cold brew with tonic water. I know it sounds weird but trust me and just try it.
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