The Perfect 2 Days in Florence Itinerary

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Are you thinking of spending 2 days in Florence on your upcoming trip to Italy? Two days is actually the perfect amount for a short trip to Florence that still does it justice. However, you must plan wisely if you visit in high season. Fret not, though, because that’s what this article is all about.

June through August is peak tourist season in Florence, with weekend days being the craziest. It also doesn’t help that it is really freaking hot this time of year! Picture a bunch of hot sweaty tourists all clustered in the same areas, bumping into each other. Yea – it’s not a pretty picture.

That does not mean it cannot be done though. I’m speaking from experience, having just been in Florence not only in the sweltering month of August, but on a weekend at that. My husband and I arrived into Florence around 2:00 p.m. on a Saturday, spent a full day on Sunday, and then left late Monday morning. Thanks to siestas and smart planning, I’m happy to say we made it through and can now help you plan your trip wisely!

Below are a couple useful tidbits to know before your trip. Or you can click here to skip ahead to the 2 days in Florence itinerary.

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Why Florence

Florence is a famous city that droves of people travel to each year. However, a city’s popularity shouldn’t be the only reason we travel. So why else?

When I was doing my research, I actually found a lot of opinions favoring Florence over Rome. I thought I would feel the same after my shaky London experience last year. Perhaps big cities just weren’t for me. To my surprise, I actually liked Rome better! I found Florence exceedingly filled with tourists, and it didn’t help that it was about 100 degrees throughout our 2 days.

That being said, Florence is still the birthplace of the renaissance, which means it is filled with beautiful architecture and artistic masterpieces that you won’t find anywhere else. Plus, I absolutely loved everything I ate in Florence, and think this is a fantastic food destination. If for no other reason, come for the Florentine steak and gelato.

Getting to Florence

Unless you are renting a car, the most common ways to get to Florence are via plane or train.

Plane

Your arrival airport into Florence will be Aeroporto di Firenze, Peretola (Firenze is how you say Florence in Italian). Since this is a bit on the outskirts of Florence, you’ll need a rental car or taxi to get to the city center. The other option is taking a 20 minute shuttle bus from the airport to Santa Maria Novella train station.

Train

If coming to Florence by train, you will arrive at Santa Maria Novella station. I recommend purchasing train tickets from Trenitalia.com for the best prices. From there, you can take a cab or walk to your lodging. Florence is actually a pretty manageable size compared to Rome, and is quite walkable. We were able to walk with our bags to our lodging near the Duomo since it was only 12 minutes away from the station.

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The Perfect 2 Days in Florence Itinerary

Now that we’ve got the boring (but necessary) practicalities out of the way, without further ado, here is how to spend an awesome 2 days in Florence!

2 Days in Florence: Day 1

Morning

Mornings in Florence should be started by visiting a local cafe for a cappuccino and cornetto (croissant in Italian). The best places will be far from the major tourist centers – an important lesson I learned the hard way. I bought a cappuccino a short ways down the street from the Duomo that basically tasted like warm milk. It didn’t help that I was also really spoiled, having now been in Italy for a week and drinking the best espresso of my life.

After some light Italian breakfast fare, begin your first day of sightseeing with a walking tour. I love doing walking tours in a new city to learn about it and get a lay of the land. We used Rick Steve’s Audio Europe app, since it was free, self-paced, and only about an hour long.

The “Florence – A Renaissance Walk” tour was full of Rick’s extremely cheesy humor, but covered the major highlights of the city, including the Duomo, Uffizi Gallery, and Ponte Vecchio. We also tried his Paris tour later in our trip, but the Florence one was my favorite of the two. I liked that it was a bit shorter and did not require you to enter any sights like out of commission Notre Dame.

Afternoon

Pay a visit to the Accademia to see the one and only sculpture of David by Michelangelo. You’ll undoubtedly see some copies around the city, but the one in the Accademia is the real deal. Besides David, you can peruse a few other Michelangelo sculptures in the museum in various stages of completion, as well as some renaissance period paintings. To be honest though, the museum is small and David is the major highlight. We were pretty satisfied after about 30 minutes here, but we also aren’t huge art people.

Evening

Do a food tour to get a taste of Florence’s amazing culinary scene. We did ours through Take Walks, and this is one of my favorite things we did during our entire 10 days in Italy.

A good tour will take you to the other side of the Arno river, which is by far the more authentic of the two. In fact, our tour guide informed us that 70% of the Duomo side is vacation rentals! Most residents of Florence can be found in this quieter area, along with many great eateries.

We started this tour by meeting in unassuming Piazza Santo Spirito. Per our guide, this is one of the few piazzas in Florence where you can still find native Florentines. We then started eating and drinking our way through several awesome spots:

• Aperitivo: We first went to the medieval cellar of a local wine shop, where we tasted a couple Italian wines with some light hors d’oeuvres.
• Antipasto: The next stop was La Prosciutteria, which ended up being one of our favorite food stops. Here we enjoyed a lovely spread of several meats and spreads with roasted vegetables. The quality of everything was top notch and so, so delicious. I couldn’t get enough prosciutto while I was in Italy!
• Primo e Secondo: Next we went to more of a real restaurant that served us a caraffa of very good red wine, which was surprisingly just their house wine. We had a first course of what was in essence ground up stale bread and sauce, but tasted more like saucy rice and was actually really good. For dinner, we had a more substantial meat dish, which is a typical main course for Italians.
• Dolce: For dessert we hit up Gelateria Della Passera for some artisan gelato. Very good gelato? Yes. My favorite gelato in Italy? No. Don’t get me wrong – it was great quality. However, it was sort of too fancy for me, and not that much better than my favorite places to justify smaller portions at higher prices. Or my palate just isn’t refined enough, in which case, artisan gelato is just wasted on me.

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2 Days in Florence: Day 2

Time for another full day of exploring this Renaissance city in between snack breaks. On your second morning, rise at the crack of dawn for the most unreal view of Florence that is totally worth the effort. Be sure to set your alarm early enough to make the trek over to Piazza Michelangelo in time for the sunrise.

Morning

We set out from over near the Duomo, and it ended up being about a half hour walk. I woke up a little after 5:00 a.m. in order to make this happen. Trust me when I say the sunrise views over the city were 100% worth it though.

Florence in the morning is also a dream. There are no crowds whatsoever, so you can finally really see the city without distracting tour groups and street hawkers. The soft morning light also makes Florence look especially beautiful. We crossed the Arno river over Ponte Vecchio, and made the remaining uphill climb to Piazza Michelangelo.

We were greeted by the most magnificent sunrise over the city. There were some others who got up early enough to photograph this amazing sight as well, but it was certainly not crowded in any way.

Afternoon

I recommend taking a siesta, especially if you are visiting in August like we did. That 100 degree heat got pretty intense for us. After a couple hours, head back out to visit the Uffizi Gallery for a fantastic collection of Renaissance art.

A small confession – I missed this on my trip. However, that doesn’t mean you should too! The only reason we skipped the Uffizi Gallery is because the one day we could go was a free entry day, which meant long waits and crowds. Unfortunately, you cannot reserve entry in advance online for free days. This makes them potentially more trouble than they’re worth and you may want to avoid them, especially if you only have 2 days in Florence.

Evening

Your last night in Florence is the perfect time to get some Florentine steak. These bad boys are large and meant to be shared. My husband and I didn’t get the biggest one, but we did get the second largest, which definitely wasn’t small! Florentine steaks do get pricey, so if you order a slightly smaller size, you will pay less and still leave feeling satisfied.

We ate ours at a place called Trattoria 4 Leoni. It was in the same square as where the artisan gelato was that we ate the previous evening. This is a quiet and small area that feels somewhat secluded, but still has great ambience for an evening out in Florence. I definitely recommend coming here for a memorable last night.

When you are done, you have to finish off with some more delicious gelato. You can never have too much gelato in Italy! Be choosy though. Florence is known for having amazing gelato, but you can still very easily find yourself in a tourist trap. Nothing worse than wasting both calories and money on inferior gelato! A very good place that you won’t be disappointed with is called Gelateria Perchè No. Besides the awesome gelato I ate in Vernazza, this was my favorite find.

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There you have it for how to have a memorable 2 days in Florence. The time will pass quickly, but it’ll only be because you were too busy getting lost in all the art, gorgeous architecture, and delicious foods. And don’t worry about any extra pounds you may have accumulated. If you don’t leave Florence feeling a little fluffier than you came, you didn’t do it right.