We took a day trip here from Rome. We went by train which only took about 1.5 hours and we bought our tickets online. There are several train companies to choose from so just go with the best deal. We left around 8am and arrived around 9:30am. Since this was only a day trip, I’ll break down what we did in order.

Transportation:

Besides the train to get to Florence, we walked everywhere once there.

From the train station we walked to the Central Market (mercato centrale) which is a two-level indoor food market. Bottom floor is older mom and pop shops selling food and the top floor is more modern Looks newly built.

You have to eat a Tripe Sandwich or two at Nerbone. Get both the red and green sauces.  BOMB

 Right outside we found ourselves walking through the San Lorenzo markets which is a bunch of small shops selling leather goods… A LOT OF LEATHER GOODS. We made our way towards the Piazza del Duomo and were blown away by the size of the Florence Cathedral. 

We bought tickets for access to the Dome (Duomo) which included access to the Dome and cathedral tower. CAUTION there are a lot of steps for each of these but, we decided to climb both.

Duomo View

Tower View

Next we decided to make our way toward Ponte Vecchio and ended up passing through Piazza della Signoria.

We also ran into the “Famous Bronze Boar” which is a statue of a boar who’s snout you rub, put a coin in his mouth as you try to get the coin to drop where the water is draining. The idea is that if you do this, you will return to Florence again. 

We finally made it to Ponte Vecchio bridge and walked across and took a look at all the shops.

In order to get a picture of the bridge we just explored the area and eventually made it to the “other bridge” 

At this point we had seen all the major sights that we wanted to see so we went street to street to see what we could get into.

Late lunch was at La Prosciutteria (https://www.yelp.com/biz/la-prosciutteria-firenze) which is know for an assortment of meats, cheeses and breads.

We found a Chocolate fair!  One day was enough for us but, if you have a couple days and are into Museums, they have a few popular ones there (Accademia Gallery, Uffizi Gallery). We chose to explore more of the city instead of visiting one of these.